Chapter 5

Elle

When Elle arrived at the diner, Kelly was already waiting for her with a hot cup of coffee. There was only one customer there, an old man in overalls, and he was eating his breakfast at the counter.

“How did you sleep?” Kelly asked.

“I love that place, Kelly. It’s so cozy. It’s perfect. I even met Dennis this morning. He’s going to turn on the furnace so there’s hot water.”

“Oh my God, I totally forgot about that.”

“That’s okay. I managed.”

“Well, I suppose the first order of business is to introduce you to the cook. She also happens to be the boss.”

Elle followed Kelly behind the counter to the kitchen, where a rotund woman with rosy red cheeks and a kind face was frying bacon over the grill.

“Gracie, this is Elle, the newest addition to the family. Elle, this is Grace, the mother of the family.”

Elle found herself giving a little bow. “Thank you so much for the opportunity,” she said.

“I’m the one who’s thanking you, Elle,” Grace said. “If this works out, you’ll be really saving our necks. I don’t know how much longer Kelly and I could handle this place on our own.”

“I won’t let you down,” Elle said.

“I’m sure you won’t, child.”

And true to her word, Elle didn’t let Gracie or Kelly down for an instant. She took to the job with the ease and confidence of a seasoned pro. She poured coffee, took orders, ran food, bussed tables, and chatted up the customers like no one Gracie and Kelly had ever seen. Even when Stumpy, the town drunk came in, Elle managed to put him at ease, got him to eat, which he rarely did anymore, and he even left her a tip.

“I can’t believe he took to you so soon,” Grace said from the grill. “He usually hates new people.”

“What’s to hate?” Elle said with a smile.

Then she went back to the counter and refilled the coffee mugs of the row of mechanics, lumberjacks, laborers, and forestry workers who were devouring their food.

“She’s going to work out just fine,” Grace said to Kelly, and Elle smiled quietly to herself when she heard it.

There was something about the place, about the whole town, that was bringing out the best in her. She’d worked her share of diners, but nowhere before had the customers seemed to welcome her so open-heartedly, or had the boss been so willing to see the strengths she brought to the job. At heart, Elle was a people person. She could take a look at a mother coming in with a bunch of kids, or a laborer coming in after a hard day’s work, and know instantly what they needed. Not food necessarily, she didn’t know what they’d order, but she knew what they needed. Everyone who came into a restaurant needed something, and Elle knew it wasn’t only about having something to eat. People needed the company, the interaction, someone to give them a smile and bring a little cheer into their day.

“You going to stop pouring sugar into that cup before it gives you diabetes?” she said to a gruff looking park official who worked on the mountain.

He looked up at her in surprise but she was already gone, grabbing a basket of toast for another guy at the counter.

More than one customer asked Grace about the new girl, and they all had an approving tone in their voice when they did it.

“It seems you’re going to work out,” Kelly said, when the two girls had a brief moment’s rest between customers.

“Do you think?”

“I know it.” Kelly turned toward the grill. “Right, Gracie? She’s going to work out?”

“If she keeps working like this, and doesn’t bring any drama into the place.”

Elle shook her head. “No drama, Grace, I swear it.”

“I don’t know,” Grace said, kindly. “Girls your age, how old are you?”

“Twenty three,” Elle said.

“Same as me,” Kelly said with a grin.

“Girls your age attract drama. Romantic drama. Believe me. I know.”

“Grace was a bit of a femme fatale in her day, weren’t you, Gracie?”

“Those days are long gone now.”

“Oh, it’s never too late, Gracie. Love might be right around the corner.”

Grace laughed, “You two look after yourselves. When I was your age I had my hands full, I can tell you that much. You both have some catching up to do.”

As if on cue, the door opened and a group of guys in their twenties came in. There were four of them, accompanied by a cold gust of mountain wind.

“Oh, boy,” Kelly said. “Here comes trouble.”

Elle watched the boys come in. They were a a few years older than she and Kelly but still under thirty. Their clothes bore the logos of various local sports teams. They wore ball caps and sneakers, despite the fact that it was below freezing outside.

“Shit, Kelly,” one of the boys said, “four coffees, and make that shit fast.”

Elle was surprised at how quickly Kelly jumped at the boy’s demand.

“He can wait like anyone else,” Elle said.

“I don’t want them to cause a fuss,” Kelly answered as she hurried over to the table with the coffee.

Elle stayed put at the counter, sipping her own coffee. She wanted to know what was up with the boys. They weren’t exactly her type, a little scrawny looking, mangy beards, stained shirts. They wouldn’t be winning any fashion contests anytime soon, but she knew more than to judge people by their appearance. It could well be that they would turn out to be good guys, despite their rude entrance.

“This shit’s cold,” one of the boys said, sliding his coffee mug across the table.

Elle didn’t think he’d meant for it to fall off the other side of the table, but when no one stopped it, it slid off the edge and smashed on the ground. For a second, all four boys, and Kelly, looked at it in surprise, as if there was something surprising about a sliding mug falling to the ground, and then the boys, simultaneously, started laughing.

“I guess you’ll have to bend over and clean that up,” one of them said.

“Good thing you’re wearing a skirt.”

“Shame it isn’t a little shorter.”

Elle turned to Grace. Gracie looked back and sighed. “I can’t turn them away. I need the business.”

“Are they always like this?”

“Ever since Kelly broke up with the tall one there, Phil, the ring leader, a little while back.”

“He’s being awful to her,” Elle said.

“They’re a bunch of spoiled little shits,” Gracie said. “That one on the end, his father’s the mayor, the one who broke the mug, Phil, is the son of the sheriff, the other two’s dads are bigwigs too. The county judge, and the district attorney.”

Elle nodded. “I see,” she said, and grabbed a mop and broom to help Kelly.

When the boys saw her approach, they didn’t hold back. They threw everything they had at her.

“Oh, Kelly, baby, who’s your new friend?”

“Your new lover,” another added.

“You two a couple of lesbians?”

“Dykes,” another corrected.

“Wouldn’t stop me from stuffing them,” the first added.

Elle tried not to let her temper get the better of her. Grace had said she needed their business, even if they were abusive pricks, and Elle had no intention of letting Grace down. Not on her first day on the job.

As she bent over to pick up the pieces of broken glass, she felt a cold hand on her ass. She swung around to face the culprit.

“What the fuck?” she demanded.

The boy held up his hands in mock apology. “Whoa there, we’ve got a live one here, fellas.”

Elle wanted to slap him in the face but she restrained herself. She swallowed her anger and helped Kelly finish the cleanup, then she went back to the counter to help get rollups and menus. It was Kelly’s table but she wasn’t going to abandon her new friend to them. If she helped Kelly, the job would be done twice as fast, with less opportunity for humiliating either of them. Kelly noticed, and touched Elle on the shoulder when they brought the order back to Grace.

“Thanks, Elle.”

Elle looked her in the eye. “You’ve got my back, I’ve got yours.”