November 1998
It was a Monday, the slowest day of the week. Even more so with it being right after Thanksgiving.
Carrie was flipping through a magazine, Jess was filing her nails, and Morgan was picking at a half-eaten plate of today’s special. I was wondering why there were four waitresses on duty with not a customer in sight.
I checked my watch and saw that I had four and a half hours left on my shift. I checked my tip cup and saw that I had exactly three dollars and twenty-eight cents racked up since seven AM.
Morgan and Carrie started whispering about some party they went to the other night, and I started thinking of how I was home watching reruns of Saturday Night Live with my little sister.
I could have been studying for my after-Thanksgiving-break French final in Mrs. Whitman’s class-- but if there was one thing I’d perfected since taking this job, it was the art of eavesdropping.
“So, that guy from my cousin’s school.. Well, I think his name is Landon. Isn’t that adorable?” Carrie blabbed while twisting a ring on her hand. She’d been seeing this guy, Chris, for almost three years. He’d given her his class ring, she wasn’t sure how she felt about him, they had broken up and gotten together more times than I could count.
It was almost like watching a soap opera-- bad script, sometimes even kinda inappropriate, but I couldn’t resist.
Just as the story was about to unfold, maybe involve more seniors and college guys, a customer walked in. Usually I knew most of the people who ate at the diner, but with this guy, I didn’t have a clue. Which is exactly what I needed-- a break from the small-town, interlocking lives that I had come to know, unfortunately.
I grabbed the chance and took a menu from the stack next to Carrie and her magazine. She shot me a look before returning to Landon and his chiseled arms, all described to Morgan with flourishing detail.
Quickly, I walked to the very back of the restaurant, where this guy had chosen to sit down. All the better though, to keep me running and the time passing. I was glad to see his table had full bottles of ketchup and hot sauce already there.
So this guy was cute. Just as I was about to do the whole “Welcome to the Diner” thing, I dropped my pen, where it rolled under his feet. Like always, I got really nervous and apologized just a few times too many, when one time seemed awful and embarrassing enough.
He actually picked up the pen for me, handed it to me, and said, “Cool pen. I like the lights.”
My stupid light up pen. I didn’t even know what I was thinking.
“Oh. Thanks,” I replied, hair in my face and a redness already spreading over my cheeks. “Um. Can I get you something to drink?”
This awkward (or at least on my end) exchange seemed like it was taking forever. I shuffled his order for a Sprite in the back of my mind and tacked on the reminder that he had someone else joining him soon.
When he’d told me, I figured it was his girlfriend, whom he would warn about the weirdo waitress he had unfortunately been paired with for the afternoon.
Back behind the counter, the other girls were huddling together and watching Days of Our Lives on the small TV hidden in the corner. So they really were like me, depending on how you looked at it.
As I poured the Sprite from the soda dispenser, I heard Morgan say something like, “New guy in booth ten is cute.” Carrie and Jess followed with, “Totally hot,” and “Will you get me his number?” respectively.
I did my little fake laugh and smiled without looking back at them, for fear of interrogation. It had happened before, and I didn’t really want to relive the experience of when I’d waited on David Denman, our high school’s football captain.
In that case, he wasn’t as cute or as nice or as funny as they made him out to be. He belched in front of me and left me one dollar on twenty. Usually, the guys these girls picked out were all the same, and I was surprised they had any interest in this one at all.
I carried out his Sprite and drew a straw from the back pocket of my apron. He said thank you. I asked if he wanted to order now or wait. He said wait. I glanced over him, just once, and allowed my eyes to fall on his name tag. I hadn’t seen it earlier because he was wearing a heavy corduroy jacket, something that looked worn and well-loved.
But Jim, as he had unknowingly introduced himself, worked at Best Buy, as he had unknowingly informed me.
A while later, after Days of Our Lives had finished, the girl had arrived to Jim’s table, just as I expected. It was Holly Halpert, from my gym class. She was the best swimmer in the county. And she was Jim’s girlfriend. I saw them laugh as she shrugged off her coat. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to go over there and do my job.
She ordered a Pepsi, but I had to tell her we carried Coke products. She smiled and agreed to a Sunkist. I was getting pretty bummed that the highlight of my day was going to be Carrie cheating on Chris for the tenth time and reporting said news to my little sister, an avid follower of the story.
But later, when I brought out their order, Holly recognized me.
“You’re Madeleine Yates, huh?” she said.
I nodded. “That’s me.”
“You seem like a perfectly nice girl-- someone with an opinion. Please tell my big brother here that he’s got to stop waltzing around and ask his girlfriend--” Jim cleared his throat. “Whoops, I mean his ‘friend who is a girl’ out on a date. Like a real live date.”
This had to be a joke. In my three years of waitressing, never had I been asked a question that didn’t involve food or prices or restaurant policies.
Jim interjected before I could react. “Holly, don’t involve the waitress in this.” He looked from her to me. “Sorry.”
I smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it.” Holly egged him on and he seemed almost as embarrassed as I had been when I dropped my pen.
This Jim Halpert, when I went back the the table and asked my standard, “Everything okay here?” Well, he had responded with, “My sister thinks it is.”
He worked at Best Buy and had a nagging little sister and was cute. That’s why the other girls seemed to like him, for all the superficial reasons--but he didn’t really seem like the type who wanted to put up with those other girls.
Or at least that’s what I liked to think.
He left me seven dollars on fifteen.
Author's Chapter Notes:
the first of a little something that's been cooking up in my mind. Madeleine, a high schooler waitress at a diner, meets just graduated Jim and instantly sees something special about him.
Chapter End Notes:
let me know what you think! Thanks for reading and please review :)
