chapter 1

It was a drizzling, gloomy September morning that Marie peered out into as she busied herself cleaning the large plate glass windows at the front of the diner. Fall had officially arrived and the weather had started to turn a bit chilly meaning that customers at this hour had dwindled significantly over the past week or so. Still, it gave Marie a chance to catch up on her revision in between dusting the curtains and polishing the napkin dispensers.

There barely seemed to be anyone out on the roads at all save the occasional pair of headlights that passed by. There was no doubt that this was officially “quiet time” and it made perfect sense that the owner Frank had only scheduled Marie as the sole waitress for the graveyard shift. Not that she got to do much waitressing she mused as she continued on with her list of chores, topping up the condiments back in the kitchen.

She was roused from the mundanity of her task by the sound of the bell ringing above the front door as it was pushed open.

“I’ll be right out” she shouted in a friendly tone as she struggled to screw the top back onto the catering sized bottle of ketchup she had been wrestling with.

“You take your time miss, there’s no rush” came the voice of the patron that had taken a stool at the counter.

Marie checked the CCTV monitor to scope out her first customer in hours. There sat an African- American gent, she guessed to be in his late forties/early fifties, happily perusing yesterday’s newspaper. What made Marie’s eyes sparkle however was this man’s physique. Slouched over the counter as he leafed through his read, she noted how his robust rear hung over each side of the stool that was performing a herculean effort to withstand his weight. She could see how broad his shoulders were even from the grainy footage being beamed from the very next room.

Marie elicited a little “oh” as she checked out her customer, her mind already whirring at the possibilities that this interaction could bring. It was possibilities like these that made taking this job worth it.

“Well, tonight just got interesting” she said to herself as she straightened her long blonde ponytail and fixed her lipstick before emerging from the kitchen.

“Good morning! The name’s Marie, what can I do for ya?” she asked in the perkiest tone possible for 4AM.

“Good morning to you to Marie” replied the customer, “I was just looking to get a burger if that’s not too much trouble?”

“No trouble at all, everything on it?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Cheese and bacon too?” asked Marie hopefully. The gent toyed with the idea momentarily before agreeing.

“Fries and onion rings as well?” the pause was a little longer this time, as if the man was wrestling with his conscience. His eyes drifted down to his stomach that Marie could now see pressed invitingly against the countertop.

“What the heck, I might as well” he said almost resignedly.