When it rains, it pours. Not that it was actually raining in rural Washington—which was a nice change for spring—but no, her date cancelling and her son being out of town left Paige feeling lonely and empty. It didn’t help that on top of both of those things, the Coffee Cup was also uncharacteristically dead.

It worried her more than it should have worried a waitress. But she’d spent enough time working there that it wasn’t exactly short-term gig while she looked for something better. It was her life’s work, like it or not. She had come to love this diner, and the people that came and went. The regulars. The out-of-towners. Alvin. Dale, the head waiter.

So, on top of worrying about Dylan, and being annoyed at her cancelled date, and not having anything to occupy her mind, she also had to worry about the future of the establishment that was her life and livelihood. All morning, they’d had only a handful of customers, and about the only thing that had saved Paige from descending into a total funk was idly chatting to Alvin. And luckily, Alvin, if he was at all worried about the lack of customers, didn’t show it.

Alvin had more reason that she did to feel invested in the future of the Coffee Cup—she couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t the cook there. It was comforting, Paige had always thought, to be able to rely on him being there. On everything being the same, even as everything else in the world seemed subject to change. And maybe the fact that he had worked there this long was comforting to him, too. Maybe it was why he seemed so even-keeled about the lack of customers—he’d been through enough dead days to know they didn’t last.

She felt a sense of kinship with him. She was doing what he had done—spending her life at a diner in a small town. On a day with so much uncertainty and unhappiness, that was a nice touchstone. So, when Alvin told her that what she really needed to do was get out of town, she felt insulted in a way that probably wasn’t justified.

“But I love Stockton! Why would I leave?”

Alvin shook his head.

“Stockton is full of old fogeys like me. And you know everyone here. How are you going to meet someone new when you’re stuck with the past all the time?”

Paige couldn’t help but feel defensive. She didn’t expect this today. Not from Alvin. He usually knew her better than to kick her when she was down.

“I mean, there’s the dating site. I’m on that. It’s not like I’m not trying, and when you try with these things, they supposedly work. You know, eventually…”

There were any number of things Alvin might have said about how well that had worked out for her so far, in light of the canceled date she’d told him about in one of their first bored conversations of the day. But to his credit, he didn’t. Maybe he’d seen how upset he’d already made her without meaning to and figured it was better to back off and let her come around to his opinion on her own. So, instead, he just looked at her knowingly until she brought it up herself.

“Okay, so it didn’t work out great so far. But that doesn’t mean it won’t,” she hedged.

Alvin shook his head.

“That’s not meeting people. You need to meet them in person. To let them get to know you like we do. That’s the only way your life is going to move forward.”

Okay, now she was insulted.

“And who says my life isn’t moving forward?”

Alvin put a liver-spotted hand on her shoulder.

“I’m not trying to insult you. I just hate to see you stay here like this when you could have so much more.”

Paige tried to stand down her offense. He meant well, she knew. It had just been a rough morning for her. She wasn’t exactly herself. She shouldn’t take it so personally. But still, she felt the need to defend herself.

“I like my life just fine. Dylan is amazing. And my parents are here. All the people I’ve known my whole life—they’re all here.”

“Except for all the young people. Don’t you ever wonder why that is?”

He said it gently, but he said it all the same. He cared. And he thought he knew best. But he was wrong.

“I don’t wonder why it is; I know why it is. It’s because they don’t see in Stockton what I see in Stockton. And they think they need to go out into the world to find something when they have everything they need right here. And that’s their mistake. But it isn’t mine.

“I love this place. I love the mountains, and I love how close we are to nature. I love the history I have with everything I see when I walk around downtown, or when I walk through the neighborhoods. I love that I can give some of that history to Dylan, too. And yes, he’ll grow up, and maybe he’ll decide that there’s something out there he needs, like you think I should. But for me, I’m happy. I mean…okay, yeah, I maybe wish there were a few more eligible men in town. But right now, I’m fine. I’m good here. It’s just a hard day, that’s all. Okay?”

Alvin fixed her with a wisdom-filled stare, but Paige stood her ground. If she weren’t so fired up from the frustrations and worries of the day, she probably would have been embarrassed about the way she’d gone off at him. But as it was, all she felt was the courage of her convictions running through her veins.

After a long moment, the older man smiled.

“You know, you’ve always been this way,” he said.

“What way?”

“Stubborn. Always think you know better, don’t you?”

Paige smiled, then shrugged.

“Oh, Alvin. Have you ever stopped to wonder if maybe it’s because I do?”

And with that, Alvin laughed, and the conversation turned as it always did to the well-meaning gossip of a small town, and mercifully away from any suggestion that Paige would ever leave it.