Time: Thursday, 6:47 pm
We’re a fairly common place for meet-ups, I’ve noticed. It makes sense: we’re in a very central location, easy to find, right off the main drag. City Square is a decent sized hub for the Expressway, and between all the restaurants around, we’ve got good amounts of parking. So I’ve seen a lot of business meetings, realtors meeting with customers, couples coming in. I like it. People-watching makes for good song ideas.
Some better than others.
“What’s going on with 24?” I asked Ada, our hostess for the evening. “She’s been sitting there for a while. Does Amanda know she has a table?”
Ada nodded. “She’s waiting for someone. I think it’s a blind date, since she wasn’t sure what the person she’s waiting for looks like.”
“Ahhhh.” That would explain why she was sitting so close to the door, despite the chill breeze that was coming in each time the door opened. “Well this should be fun.”
Ada grinned. “It always is.”
Sure enough, I was near the door again about fifteen minutes later, when a man walked over and joined her, the two exchanging a friendly but slightly awkward hug. Amanda and I caught eyes and I raised my eyebrows, interested in how this was all going down. She walked over to greet them, water pitcher in hand, and I tried not to look like I was rubbernecking. Dishes. I can collect dishes. My section was still pretty quiet for the evening, only occupied by a relatively new regular: Jon, a occupational therapy student who came to work and/or study almost every night. We were friendly, and I’d learned some cool stuff about his classes, but I could just leave him be for the most part. I didn’t want to distract, and he knew to flag me down if he needed anything.
After a loop or two of the café, I came back to see Amanda shaking her head at the POS machine. “What’s up?”
“It’s not going well.” A dire statement to be delivered with a smile.
“How can you tell?”
She looked over at me. “Because after debating for a while on whether or not to get food, he ordered food and she didn’t.”
“Uh oh.” Yeah, not a good sign. That definitely indicated preparations for a swift evacuation. “I don’t envy him that situation.”
“Well, I doubt you’d be here if you were going on a date anyway,” Ada quipped from the hostess stand.
“Never know. I mean, I do get a discount,” I replied with a grin. “Hell, I could take someone from here and we’d get a double discount.”
“Don’t think it works like that,” Amanda said with a laugh. “Besides, who would you ask?”
I shrugged. “Wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Not exactly looking for dates.”
“Go ask Nate out.”
I glared at Ada. “Not exactly his type, I’m thinking.”
“You never know. What about Laura?”
“She’s taken and you know it. You’re being a brat. And besides, I learned the hard way not to date people from work.” Ada just gave me a grin as I vanished back into the kitchen to grab the order I’d heard called, keeping my head down in the process. I doubted the kitchen could hear anything we said front of house, but if they did, I didn’t need to see their reaction.
“Let’s just focus on the date that’s actually bombing, hm?” I added sotto voce to Ada as I walked by again, and got a laugh.
A/N: I don’t know how the date that spurred this idea actually ended, but I like to think that at least some of the dates we see go well. I hope for the best for these two.
I am not lost... 