Waking Up Late p.3
A woman who wakes up at the same time every morning wakes up late | Part 3
Hey-o!
Hope you enjoyed parts 1 and 2!! Your support has been absolutely amazing, and I really appreciate it!
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If you weren’t here last week, Lynda has had the worst day with her painting business, and now it’s lunchtime. Let’s see what happens now…
By around 12:30, Lynda was scowling as she entered a nearby cafe for lunch. She frequented there, and most of the servers and other regulars were well acquainted with her. As she took a small table by the window, a server with curly brown hair and chocolate eyes approached with a warm smile. She’d never seen him before, and resented the idea of this being her first impression. She tried to school her face into a sort-of pleasant expression.
“Welcome to Deja Brew! My name is Scott, I’ll be looking after you today. Can I get you started with anything?”
“I’ll have my usual, please,” she said absentmindedly, turning to look outside the window. A murder of crows flew overhead, and she ruminated on how fitting they were for her current mood.
Scott’s smile turned apologetic. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know your usual. It’s my first week here, and I’d ask someone else but it’s just me here today. Does anything else sound good?”
Lynda huffed and skimmed the menu again, trying (and failing) to remember the exact order of her favorite lunch wrap and soup. Everyday she got the same thing, and was so used to simply asking for her regular that she had forgotten the specifics. Eventually, she gave up and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. On a day like this, comfort food was probably better anyway.
Scott was quick with her order at least. And not terrible to look at either; He had such a positive energy that radiated from him so brightly, it was practically visible. It was in the way he spoke to people, the way he smiled at everyone who came through the door and how he complemented a little boy’s drawing of an elephant.
Lynda wondered how he was able to maintain such a state of joy and love towards every customer, and then realized that she had spent half her lunch break looking at him, marveling at his ability to make so many people smile in just a handful of minutes. It made her realize that even though her day had lost its spark since the beginning, he seemed to be quite enjoying his. While he was brightening everyone’s faces, she had offended at least two students that day in her blunt analysis of their art, contrary to her routine kind and gentle redirection from a particularly odd painting. When all that was left on her plate was crumbs, she waved him over.
Welcome back. Like all things, stories do have to end. Don’t worry; the story continues next Wednesday!
Please give me some prompts for my next short story!!!!! Writers block is scaring me 😭
Playful and fun. I love diner scenes.