It was unusually busy for a Friday afternoon, all but two tables in Avery's section were full, but to her, the diner felt empty. Vacant, without Benj there to fill it with his warm smile, his idle chatter, his ever drumming fingers. She missed him so much her heart hurt. Working weekends hurt her soul, more than anything in this world.
Without her break from constant torture, she would likely go insane. Allen wanted her to show up every day all day until closing, until she would finally collapse from exhaustion. He had been going extra hard on her since she returned from almost dying. He hasn’t said a single word to her for a week when she returned bruised up and body-aching. It had been really tough for her to come back to work, but she had to. She had wanted nothing more than to stay in
