It’s as if I wanted to go after him; he knew my name. How the hell did he know my name? I’d been so careful to make sure Olivia gave me a badge with a different name when I told her I didn’t want the customers knowing my real name. She laughed at the idea of it; she thought it was all part of some game. It seemed like a good idea at the time when I moved down here, but after trying to drum up every penny to even get the ID, I soon realized that maybe it wasn’t a good idea. I knew someone like Marco would check up on me.

He would only do that if he were interested, there would be no other reason for him to do it. Which meant my plan was working, yet he left without me serving him, and it bugs me why.

Does a man like him have a conscience?

I shake my head about maybe scaring Marco away with the way I was acting only yesterday.

Desperate.

Shocked by his revelation about knowing my name, I dismiss the idea of scaring him away for a split second, but then a wave of panic enters my mind as I drop a plate, “Crap!”

I look at the time. I heard the clock chime above the counter and he hasn’t come back today.

Where’s Marco?

He always comes in at two. He used to come in on Tuesday’s only. The same time. The same table, but lately he’s been coming in both Monday and Tuesday, always at the same time. He left the other day and hasn’t been back in since. He didn’t even wait for me to serve him. It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m worried that he’s not going to come back again this week. I don’t think that I can bear the idea of working here any longer and not going ahead with my plan.

Now, he’s not here. I don’t know if the last few weeks of serving him and giving him an extra slice of apple pie may have chased him away. I’ve been biding my time, but maybe he doesn’t like women talking to him. He only likes to take, but not receive anything from anyone including a blonde waitress in a diner.

“Leah you okay?” Olivia’s blue-eyes shine as she looks at me.

She’s worried about me, I know that she is, but I can’t help it. I’ve got too much on my mind, and it starts and ends with Marco Raco.

“Sure. I just thought I picked up the plate, and then the clock scared me…” I’m rambling as I talk to my roommate and explain my actions when what I should be doing is cleaning up the steak and fries that I just dropped on the floor. I stand frozen in time as I focus on the door wondering if he’s coming in or not?

Shoot!

The other day, he came in and walked out again, I should have done something to stop him. Anything, maybe give him an extra pie again. I should have diverted my attention to him the moment he walked through the door. That must have been it. One minute I was treating him as if he was my favorite client and the next as if he wasn’t important. I’d heard it so many times in the diner. The only way to get a man’s attention was to make sure that he thought he was important 24/7. Men whined about their lack of attention from their wives, and the women moaned about the men always wanting attention.

“Leah?”

I blink my eyes and see Olivia on the floor picking up the plate that I dropped, and she’s looking up as if she’s waiting for me to do something. But, I’m so confused. I put on more rouge than I usually do every single day that I work in the diner. Apart from the days that I know Marco will come in. He’s the reason I’m working here. I didn’t expect to make a friend. I knew it would cause a complication and blow my cover. Not only did I make a friend for the first time in forever. I’m treated like a second daughter by the owners. Who just happen to be Olivia’s parents. I just wanted to get close to him. He’s the reason I work every day, waiting for him to make his move.

Cheryl shouts from the counter, “Leah why not take a break?”

“No!”

I turn to face Cheryl, Olivia’s mom. Her expression turns from a smile to a frown.

“Well, get the brush and help me clean it up. I’ve got tables to serve,” Olivia says as if she’s losing patience with me.

I don’t blame her. I blink my eyes expecting the faces in the diner to change. They stay the same. Like a robot, I get the brush and start helping her clean the mess. I don’t even apologize to the customers near me. I just want to see him. I even spent a little more time than usual having a shower, and I bought an expensive perfume. Just to get noticed and I wonder if it was all in vain.

Why isn’t he here yet?

The diner has a seventies theme going on, Cheryl thought that by making her diner have a unique look that customers would flood in. There’s a lot of coffee shops and they all compete by selling different types of coffee. Cheryl didn’t want to do that; she’s been running the business before I was born and has stuck to the themes of the seventies.

“Sorry!”

I find myself speechless as I start cleaning up and trying to act normal. The friendly gal who always has a smile on her face.

Olivia smiles back at me as we get back to our station.

“Cheryl, I didn’t mean to snap at you earlier.”

She fingers her peroxide hair with her chubby fingers. “Well, you have been working too many shifts lately. I even thought that maybe they doubled your rent or something?”

I shake my head. “No, it’s just that I want to send money back home. My mom’s sick.”

Crap, another lie. They seem to be flowing from my mouth like water these days. I came to the city three months ago on a personal mission. Cheryl and Olivia never featured in my plans. I never thought I’d make a friend who turned into my roommate and I never thought I’d end up working for her parents.

“Oh no. Olivia never told me.”

I sigh. “I haven’t even had the chance to tell her yet. I just found out last night, and she was on a date with Trevor.”

There’s an awkward silence, and I know what’s going to happen next. Cheryl’s going to ask me what’s wrong with Mom and I can’t answer. Too many lies. This is not in my nature. I’m upfront and tell people exactly what I’m feeling all the time. I’ve been here for three months, and it’s just been one lie after another all because of one man.

I hate him even more for making me lie to everyone that cares about me. Cheryl and Olivia have taken me in as if I’m a part of their family, but I know that one day I’ll have to leave. For now, I’m still working on my plan, and at times it feels as clear as day. At other times, it’s so foggy as if I’m way out of my comfort zone and there’s no turning back.

“Can I have another steak and chips for table seven? The one that I just dropped.”

She nods her head as if she’s been brought back from her sorrow. The thing that’s probably running through her mind, she wants to offer me money or even worse time off to visit my sick mom.

The lie I just told and regretted in a heartbeat.

“Sure!” She turns and tells Fred to stop what he’s doing and get the order ready again.

I make a quick dash to table seven and tell the widower who comes in every Friday. The same thing he used to do when his wife was alive, that I’ll be a little while longer with his order.

“It’s okay Leah, I saw you drop it. I know you work too hard. Maybe one Friday I’ll come in here, and you’ll have the day off.”

He smiles at me, and I want to tell him that I’ll never take the day off on a Friday especially seeing, as that’s one of the two days when Marco comes into the diner.

“Maybe?” I wink at him and then I start darting around the diner, trying to distract myself from the time and the fact that Marco still hasn’t turned up.

It’s not long before Cheryl calls me for my order and I put my notepad in my back pocket and get back to work.

I don’t know how long I’m cleaning tables or planting the smile on my face, but the day seems to drag on, and I give up wondering if giving Marco the extra slice of pie last week was a mistake? Maybe he thought that I was coming on to him and it made him want to steer clear of here. I need to leave the place that I’ve known as home and try and find another angle. A different way to get near to the man who ruined my family and my life. The one I need to see one way or another.

I take a deep breath as Olivia calls me to take a quick break with her. Then I hear the door chime, and as I turn, he walks in this time not in a suit, but black pants and matching shirt. He looks as hot as sin. I have to take a minute to catch my breath between when he walks in and when the door closes behind him.

“Leah you coming?”

I bite my lip as I start heading toward his table, and then I turn to her for a second. “No, I need to serve table six.”

Then I don’t hear what she says after I start making my way. I may not look the picture of perfection as I did earlier in the day. It’s tourist season, and even some of our regulars shy away from coming here during that time. They don’t want to come into the diner this time of year. That’s what Olivia told me when I noticed that some of them stopped coming.

I haven’t worked here longer than three months to assess any of the regulars—only one.

I walk up to him with all the confidence in the world and put on the biggest smile in the world. One that I know he won’t be able to turn down. “Good evening, how can I help you today?”

I’m not going to mention that he’s late or that I’ve even noticed he looks different to the way he normally does.

He seems more relaxed. Refined and he even has a new haircut too. It’s spiky at the top, not as long as he normally wears it. Even his musk has changed and seems a lot stronger than normal.

He takes off his sunglasses, looks up at me. “I wouldn’t mind another slice of that apple pie, like the one you served me on Monday.”

He was paying attention, and that means I’m getting to him. Just the same way he got to me, the moment I found out his name.