Chapter Eight
Kas
The morning after the absolute worst and best day of my life, we are back in the diner, sitting in our favorite booth. We’ve already had breakfast with Riley and Beck. Riley could barely keep his eyes open after working the night shift at the inn, so he headed home as soon as he was done eating. Beck was off to work and seemed to be in a sullen mood today. He ran out of here before I could ask him what was happening, but I have bigger things to worry about right now.
“I have a little bit in savings. I could keep paying for the room for a week or so. Then I can just head back home when we run out of money for the room,” Charli says, nervously biting her thumbnail. We’re trying to solve the dilemma of where to stay until the end of summer, but there’s no way I would ever take money from my fairy.
“No, baby. I won”t let you do that. I’ve got a little money saved up to take care of the room. Or hell, maybe we can find a cheap one-bedroom apartment to rent month to month? We can borrow Grayson”s air mattress for the rest of the summer,” I suggest, thinking of the area and where there might be a room available. I don”t tell her I use my whole paycheck from working over the summers for college tuition. I know she would refuse to let me do this and empty her savings instead, but I can”t let her do that. I won”t let her do that. I will figure something out.
“I’m going to run down the street to the newsstand and try to find a paper. They should have some listings,” I say, standing.
“They still have a newspaper stand? Doesn”t everyone just use Craigslist or something?” she asks, scrunching her nose.
I laugh and lean down to kiss that cute little nose, no longer caring to duck my head in fear of her seeing my scar. Come to think of it, I haven”t even really thought about my scar or people”s reaction to it since Charli got here. She has a way of making me see the world in a whole new light, and that light is only her. I only ever see her.
“Boy, come over here a minute,” Tony calls for me from the kitchen pass-through window. “Bring my girl back here with ya.”
I snort at that and roll my eyes as Charli giggles behind me. If the man wasn”t old as dirt and like a father to Charli, I might think about kicking his ass. Instead, I usually end up laughing at his antics. Hopefully, he”s not calling me back to the kitchens today to work. While I rarely mind taking over as many shifts as they need, I have to find a place for Charli and me to stay today. I don”t want to take advantage of one of my best friends and potentially risk Riley losing his job, so I need to get on this.
“What”s up, Tony?” I ask as we step into the kitchen.
“My girl here said she overheard you guys were looking for a place to stay,” Tony says, flipping some bacon on the grill.
“Ratting me out, Al. That’s not very nice.” I give the waitress a smile to let her know I”m joking. She probably overheard Charli and me talking when she filled Charli”s orange juice. I know they all worry about me in this place, so she’s just looking out for me.
“Don”t pick on her. She”s just worried about you two. Barb and I are as well. That”s why we got a proposition for you two. We’ve got a room upstairs. Ain’t nothing fancy, just a loft with a small bathroom. The kitchen ain’t much to work with, but you two can have full access to the diner, you know that. We use it as storage, so there”s a shit ton of mess up there. You guys clean it up, and it”s yours. Just move whatever isn”t trash to the back shed.” He doesn”t even look up from the grill before dropping this bomb on me.
“That would be awesome, Tony. How much do you want in rent?” I ask, still dumbstruck.
“You clean the shit up, and we’ll call it even. I promise you”ll understand when you see the place. I believe there”s a small cot in the back corner, but it”s pretty sturdy. Keys on the hook in the back, palm tree keychain. Just head on up,” Tony says, waving us off.
I make my way to the back door of the diner and grab the keys before heading outside and up the back steps.
“Oh my gosh, I”m so excited!” Charli says, nearly pushing me up the old wooden steps. I keep a slow pace, not trusting how sturdy these things are. Storms always happen, and one little slip could hurt my girl. Finally, we reach the top. I unlock the door and push it open.
“Oh. My. Lanta,” Charli says from behind me.
“Yeah,” I reply, my shoulders falling and my head dipping. This place is nowhere near suitable for a girl like Charli. It”s an absolute disaster. She”s probably thinking of ways to get on the next bus home.
“IT”S PERFECT!” Charli screams, almost bursting my eardrums. She pushes past me and weaves in and out of boxes, bags, old furniture, and teetering stacks of books. You name it, it”s here. Charli doesn”t seem to care. She”s turning around in the room and making plans, and I swear I fall even further in love with her. “We could get a thrift store couch here, add some flowy curtains, oh I bet we could find one of those old box TVs for really cheap. We could have everything we need! With the food downstairs, we could stay here forever,” she says, bouncing up and down. I haven”t seen her this carefree since she stepped foot in this town. It”s like once the walls were down, her personality amplified. I can”t believe I got to be the lucky bastard who witnessed it firsthand. One thing she says stops me in my tracks, though. Stay here forever. Would she do that? Stay with me? I know we both have school to return to, but what if this could always be us?
“Let”s get started! If we can get through half of it, we can sleep here tonight! Oh my gosh, our own place! Hurry up!” She moves around like the little fairy she is, shaking her ass as she bends down to rifle through boxes. I can”t keep the wide-ass grin off my face as I step up beside her and get to work.
It takes all day to clear out the room, but as it”s getting dark, we move the last box from the corner. The first thing we did when we got through enough of the storage was get the cot out and clean it. Barb brought us some clean sheets, a quilt, extra towels, and some cleaning supplies. We got it clean enough to stay the night, so we headed back to the Inn and got our bags.
Now, we are down to the last box. Charli scoots it from the corner, trying to get it to the center of the room. Just as I start to move and help her lift it, the box breaks and the contents fall all across the floor.
“Oh no! I didn”t mean to break it,” Charli says, picking up what looks like old letters, photos, and other mementos. She stops and looks at one picture in particular. A young couple in bathing suits stands on the beach with the water in the background. The photo is obviously from the seventies, if the attire is anything to go by.
“I was just coming to see if you all needed anything. Oh, what do you got there?” Tony asks, ambling through the open door. “Ah, me and the old girl. That was the summer we met.”
He smiles fondly as he takes the photograph from Charli and pulls it closer. “She was the prettiest thing I had ever seen. We had both just turned eighteen, and I was ready to go wild with my buddies that summer. Her family came to the country club and stayed in the cabins. You know, those old hoity-toity places we ain”t rich enough to see the insides of,” he chuckles before continuing. “She came from a real wealthy family, and I didn’t have two pennies to rub together. I was the busboy for this very diner that summer when she walked in with some of her friends. I knew she was too good for me, but I didn”t care. When she looked at me… I knew. I tried to talk to her that first day and nearly shouted my name at her.” Another chuckle.
“Her friends laughed, but not my Barb. She gave me the biggest smile, held her hand out, and introduced herself. We were inseparable all summer. That is until her dad caught wind. He forbade her from ever seeing me again. That didn”t stop my Barb, though. She grabbed what she had brought with her, and we stayed in this very studio apartment until I bought the diner from the last owner. He was a grumpy old bastard, but he looked out for me. A year after buying the diner, I bought her our first home, and we have never looked back.”
I look at Charli in that moment, wondering, hell, hoping, that could be us one day. Maybe not this diner, but their same trajectory. Decades with the woman of my dreams, the woman I love beyond reason. One-bedroom studio apartment or a mansion in Hollywood. If she”s there, that”s where I want to be.