Not Just Another Night At The Diner

Stephen was so lost in his own thoughts while staring at the bottom of the empty coffee mug that he didn’t hear the waitress at first.

“Excuse me, sir, would you like a refill?"

His eyes blinked a couple of times as he came back to reality. "Sorry, yes. I would love one." He lifted his mug as she topped up his mug of decaf. As much as he would have loved something a lot stronger, it was already past 10 pm and only Wednesday which meant that he still needed to be back in the office tomorrow by 7 am. He'd been pulling 12 to 14 hour days straight for the last 2 months on a project that he didn't even want to be a part of and now he got roped into being the lead developer. The original project was to develop a web-based application for an important client but instead of the team of 6 developers that was quoted, the accounting department decided that 4 would be more effective. They also cut the budget accordingly. Within the first month, the lead quit. Then, only a month later the second team leader quit too citing stress. That left him holding the bag with only 1 other programmer to get it all done.

Of course, this all meant that the project was falling behind schedule but, thanks to all of his overtime, it wasn't as far back as it could have been. Unfortunately, the higher-ups didn't see things that way and blamed him for all of the delays. To make matters worse, when he brought up the subject of getting paid for all of that overtime, they countered with the fine print on his contract which stated that he was on salary and that any extra pay would only be given after the successful completion of the project. They also made it clear that any further delays might put that into jeopardy. To add insult to injury, they also refused his request to bring in more programmers to replace the ones that quit.

He took a few sips of the decaf coffee. He normally didn’t drink decaf but if he touched anything stronger, the results would be a very rough morning. Caffeinated or not, it still felt comforting going down as he turned his attention to the traffic light in front of the dinner. The way the lights changed colours helped relax him. Red, then green, then yellow, and back to red. Completely predictable. No surprises. The colour of the light making the decisions for all of the drivers at the intersection. No other traffic light was going to quit and dump all their traffic on you. If only everything else in life could be so straight forward and wished that he could make deciding his next steps so easily. Would he stay and probably work himself into an early grave for peanuts or cut his losses and go somewhere else? He was still on good terms with the original team leader so that might give him a foot in the door.

The waitress caught him off guard for the second time that night. “Looks like someone had a rough day?” He was a regular at the diner and her smile always helped take the edge off the day.

“Try a rough couple of months but you don't need to hear about the drama in my life." There was a part of him that truly did want to vent out all of his pent-up frustrations but he was too fond of her to just drop all of that in her lap. "I'm sure that you must get fed up with customers pouring their hearts out to you."

She sat down in the seat facing him, "You and I are the only ones still here right now so I'm hardly busy. Besides, I see you in here all the time and you always order the same thing, a roast beef sandwich, side salad, and decaf coffee so I probably know you better than I knew my ex. You're also my best tipper so you might as well let me have it."

As he began telling her about the trials that were his life since starting his current adventure, it became obvious just how badly he needed to get it all out of his system. Just as he finished something hit him. “Here I am venting out my life story to you and you don’t even know my name.” He held out his hand, “I’m Steve.”

She took it with one hand and pointed to her name tag with the other. "Peggy." Then she looked towards the kitchen and saw that the cook was more interested in his phone than in what she was doing. "Since you gave me your life story, I guess it's only fair that I let you know mine." Peggy had no idea why she trusted him enough to share her personal life with him but she did. Perhaps she needed to vent as much as he did and told him that she wasn't always a waitress. As a matter of fact, there was a time when she was attending college out of state taking business marketing. She was just starting her second year when she met the love of her life. Or so she thought. Everything was going perfectly until she got pregnant, and that's when her world came crashing in. The love of her life promptly disappeared without a trace. Then her parents, who were helping her with tuition, disowned her. This forced her to drop out of college, come back to her home town and move in with her sister. Thankfully, her sister defied their parents and stood by her side. She has been helping her ever since by looking after her daughter when she needed to work late. She even called in a few favours to get her this job at the diner. It wasn’t glamorous but it paid the bills.

That was over 8 years ago and her parents still refuse to speak with her. They haven't even met their own granddaughter and the pain was clearly visible on her face.

“I can't imagine what that must be like. My folks keep asking when I'm going to make them grandparents." It was hard to believe that parents could still think like that in the 21st century. Steve didn’t consider children to be a problem and dating single mothers was never an issue. Actually, he found children to be a lot more fun to hang out with than most adults because they didn’t have all of the baggage and hidden agendas that most people tended to grow into. He was tempted to tell her that but figured it might come across as sucking up and just saying it to try to impress her.

The tension was getting a little thick so she decided to change the subject, “Since I don’t see a ring on your finger, I’m figuring that you don’t have someone waiting for you at home?” She had become an expert at spotting rings and the tan lines where rings should be.

“Not unless you count my cat, Oscar. Even if there was, I doubt that there are many women out there that would put up with a husband or boyfriend putting in so many hours at work that they hardly ever saw him.”

She wasn’t about to say it to him but the idea of having a boyfriend that had a solid job and tried to be home every night sounded a whole lot better than what she normally ran into. She could also tell that he wasn’t the cheating type because he never once tried to hit on her even though she saw him at the diner several times a week.

“What about you? A beautiful woman like you must have your pick of almost any guy that comes in here.”

The frustration at the train wreck that described her love life was obvious on her face. "Quantity doesn't mean quality. Most of the guys that I meet in here are either looking for a break from their wives or a meaningful one-night stand." Peggy paused for a moment to let her temper cool. "The part that hurts most is when I finally meet someone that might have potential, as soon as I tell him that I have an 8-year-old daughter, POOF! Gone. Oh, and thanks for calling me beautiful. I'll take that over 'hot', 'sexy' or 'are you on the menu?' any day."

She stared out at the traffic light for a moment while working up the courage to ask the question that had been on her mind. “How do you feel about children? And about single moms specifically?”

That question forced his hand. “At the risk of sounding like I’m sucking up to you, I love kids. I’ve dated single mothers in the past and children were never the issue. It was usually my stupidly long workaholic hours that did the relationship in or my wanting to have one or two of my own.”

She couldn’t see the fault in him wanting children of his own and wouldn’t be against having more if the right guy came along. The more she thought about it, the more Steve looked like he might have potential. She was used to working insanely long hours so that part didn’t bother her either. “It sounds like we both might be long overdue for some life changes.” As soon as the words left her mouth she hoped that it didn’t make her sound desperate because she wasn’t. Just tired and not about to jump into a relationship with the first guy that told her that he liked kids. But he did have potential.

He held up the half-empty coffee mug, "In that case, how about I make you a deal. Top me up and then I'll drink this cup with my eyes closed. When I'm done, we'll look at that traffic light. If it's red then we keep doing what we're doing but if it's green, then I hand in my resignation tomorrow and take you out and your daughter to dinner Friday night?"

Peggy thought about it for a moment then reached over to fill his mug. “Deal. Remember, no peeking.”

After a few minutes, Steve called back to her. “Almost done.” She came running back and watched him drink the last mouthful. Then they turned towards the window as he opened his eyes and focused on the streetlight. A smile crossed his lips as he asked her, “What do you think of Italian?”