Finding Grace

Chapter 2

“Welcome to Max’s would you like our special of the day or would you like to start your day with a cup of coffee?” I say the words coming out of me like a recording

“coffee. black.” He curtly says

Nodding my head i turn over his cup and fill it to the brim of fresh hot coffee, and leave the menu on the table just in case. Turning to the pass i see that Jamie is busy serving breakfast and that she’s three tables behind. As i grab another order i heard a loud commanding voice break the silence of the customers eating.

“ what the hell am I paying for coffee or hot water get me a new cup and make sure it stronger and hot this time!”

As i watch his mouth move all i can think about is how much i want to stain his perfectly white washed shirt with this cold watered down coffee as he screams profanity at me and storm off into the cold storm.

Oh of course sir ill be right back with a fresh cup for you and ill even throw in a blueberry muffin for the trouble, make it chocolate he mumbles not expecting my response. “Sure anything else.” “No that would be all.” As i make my way to the back to grab the coffee and muffin the guy in the back gets up and storms off. A five dollar bill on the table remains. Going back to the table and grabbing the money i head back to the kitchen. Putting in the ticket that i had just taken i hear banging.

“Bang Bang!” The sound vibrates through the whole dining room.

“What in the world?” I say confused, “where is that coming from?” I turn to face the window and someone catches my eye, the man he’s just staring inside and i keep looking at him wondering if he was debating on coming back in to grab a bite or to even seek shelter but he’s just staring not blinking not moving and as i look more closely he’s mumbling something over and over again.

“Hey Jamie what’s up with that dude by the window?” i ask when she comes up to ring someone up.

She looks over to were i nodded my head and to my eyes he’s disappeared,

“what guy?” she asks, “oh he was right their just staring at me and mumbling something under his breath.” “Ew you didn’t tell me you had a stalker what was he an old ex of yours.” Sad she shakes her head in disgust, “Um no I don’t know him, maybe i was mistaken he probably was just thinking about coming in and then chose not to.” I thought, As the day goes on the storm has calmed. Sitting down and put my head down trying to ease the pounding headache that this day has caused and think to myself maybe i should changed what i should be doing for the millionth time today, hey sweet face don’t look now but i think you got a secret admirer Doug whispered over the bar top to me.

“What?! no I don’t” I say quickly,

“Yea he’s been looking at you through the window for about 10 min now maybe you should go talk to him see if he wants a nice warm cup of joe and a scone”

he nudges.

looking out the window once more and there he is the same guy as before but this time he’s just staring at me, his eyes giving me daggers and I can sense that he doesn’t want a coffee or a scone.

He moves closer to the window as i take a step closer to the kitchen doors trying to get away from his provoking star the look on his face is different like he knows something about me like he’s figured me out as I’m about to turn toward Doug his face changes and he smiles evilly and before i can even blink he’s walks back into the crowd of morning goers. Chills run up my body my stomach turning into knots and bile comes up as i try to breath deeply. Walking toward the break room to get some space between me and everyone else i decide to listen to some music to calm down. Starting up my phone takes a while I don’t have the new and improved version that everyone is raving about these days so getting it to work without it blacking out on me or stopping every couple of minutes is like trying to get a baby to stop crying when it’s hungry. Refreshing it for the 10 time i go check the internet router in the the office.

hey Claude didn’t know you would come in on a day like today.” I say as I’m retrying the WiFi passwords again.“Being the only manager to a small diner, you would think it would have its perks but no i have to make sure that everything is accounted for still on shipments even on wet days.” He chuckles.

“I’m only here for a bit to log everything on how are ya is the front doing good?”

“Oh its alright kinda slow now, just wanted to take a 15 I’m not feeling all to well right now.” I say a bit hushed

“Ahh well if you need to go home i can stay or i can try to call Cindy, but just let me know before i leave.” Turning back to his computer.

“Thanks but I should be good plus I need the cash my ceiling decided to make a waterfall this morning, but since your here can you check the internet? My phone isn’t connecting to it like it should.”

“Hmm ill check it but honestly the weather could be causing the problem my computer has been acting slow this morning too.”

As soon as he finished the power went off

“Ahh s**t that’s wonderful let me go to the generator, you wanna go see if they need help up front now.”

Nodding my head i walk back up to the front with my flashlight on, i hear Doug telling everyone that everything will be okay and that we’ll try to get the lights back up and running.

“Hey Doug, Claude went to check the generator we should be good in 5 min.” I whisper to him

As i grab a coffee pot and make my way around the diner pouring and reassuring everyone that all is well i hear Claude come back up.

“Well everyone looks like we wont be getting the lights back up a mouse chewed the slacks and with the storm going on we wont have power until it passes. So please take a muffin and a free cup of coffee to go as an apology.” He speaks loudly to inform everyone.

As everyone start to gather their things and Doug brings out a basket of muffins i head over to Claude.

So looks like you can leave early now and get some more rest and don’t worry all of you guys will be getting the rest of your pay you would’ve missed out today.

Aye my man treating us right! Doug yells

Sweet thank! Jamie smiles

As they start to clean up i whisper to Claude, thanks again for that you know that you didn’t need to tho right we only have 3 hours left on the clock since its a Sunday.

Oh I know I didn’t have to but i wanted too. Plus you aren’t feeling well and I didn’t want to do inventory anyways he says chuckling.

Haha ya i get that, so do we need to place traps since a mouse chewed through the electrical?

No we don’t we need to call the cops

The cops! Why you wanna put out an APB on a mouse i start laughing

No he sighs, we need to call the cops because the cord wasn’t chewed it was cut someone purposely cut our power.

Oh but we have the camera to find out who it was right?

Yea we do but sadly we cant get into that until we get that fixed. We’ll just have to wait for the electrician to come out, but for now I have to go call it in.

Ya okay I’ll just clean up a bit since you’re still here and the rest left.

Grabbing a rag and wiping off the tables making sure all the chairs are pushed in and everything is refilled i start to take off my apron and head to the back to see if Claude is off the phone with the police.

Walking back to get my coat and purse, hey do you need me to stay or do you mind me leaving too. I ask as I grab a chair next to his desk. As he gets off the phone with the police.

Oh I don’t mind if you wanna stay, but i thought you were feeling bad? Did the headache go away.

Um ya it went away. My mind going back to the guy outside the cafe. So when you say the wires were cut um i was thinking that maybe some kids maybe have done it. Or maybe the mouse just chews in a straight line.

Oh no it was cut they even took off the protective layer to get to the actual wires. Someone knew what they were doing and i know that kids weren’t behind this. Plus they had to have known what cords to cut kids would just cut all of them whoever did this left the alarm wires intact.

Oh so this was done on purpose for what for the cafe doesn’t have a lot of money in the safe and

And they wouldn’t need to cut the power to steal anything. He finishes

Ya exactly plus like you said they left the alarm wires intact. So what was the goal just to annoy us?

I don’t know the goal on why someone would do that but sounds like a distraction for me. But the cops say that they’ll come and see as soon as they can. But for now you go home and get some rest. You’ll need it when we open back up again. Alright I’ll go home and relax might even take a small run later tonight. The thought of someone coming into the building to cut the wires is scary, we don’t know the motive but is there even a motive. What if it was just a kid playing around with his dads scissors or maybe it was an animal and Claude was just confused. Sighing i make my way back to my locker to grab my things. “ I’m leaving” i say as i head back out. “Oh okay, thanks for staying to help. Get home safe now.” Claude says back.