I returned her easy smile, happy to meet someone new, even if I was slightly intimidated by her beauty. “Hey. I’m Wren Brooks.”
Ellie looked to be around my age, mid-twenties. Perhaps even younger. Her smile widened, revealing perfectly straight, white teeth, and she pushed back a strand of dark hair that had escaped the elegant, braided bun at the top of her head.
“Oh, you must not be from around here with that accent. Where you from?”
Her eyes sparkled, but I cleared my throat, looking away briefly. I wasn’t sure why, but the question made me uncomfortable. I pressed my lips together, deciding it was a silly insecurity. It’s not as if she were going to look me up. And even if she did, I doubted she would find anything.
“I’m from Chicago.”
Ellie’s eyes grew with surprise. “Well, you’re a long way from a big city like that. What made you come to Cypress Falls?”
I shrugged nonchalantly, still not able to chase away the uncomfortable feeling. Small-town residents seemed very interested in newcomers, and I wasn’t ready for probing questions. I’d seen people’s eyes on me at the grocery store and even the lady who checked me into the motel had chatted with me and asked similar things. I wasn’t used to people taking any interest in me.
“Oh, I just needed a change.” I waved my hand in the air dismissively.
The perfect skin on her forehead creased. Those blue eyes scanned me quickly. “Are you attending the college across the river in Sherrodsville?”
I blinked. I didn’t know there was a college close by. I shook my head. “Not this year.”
Ellie leaned closer, her mouth opening like she wanted to ask more questions, but after a sidelong look at me, seemed to decide against it.
I was glad.
“Well, Wanda is back in the kitchen helping with the line tonight since our line cook is sick. She asked me to show you around and train you. You’ve served before, right?”
I nodded vigorously. “Yes! For most of high school and a little bit after.”
“Good. Then you know the basics. I’ll just show you how we do things here. I’m sure you’ll be able to keep up. We usually have a decent dinner rush, which is a little more extreme on the weekend. You’ll make some good money if you try hard enough.”
Relief washed over me. “That’s good.” If there’s one thing I needed, it was a decent payday.
Ellie smiled, her eyes crinkling in a way that made her seem relatable in addition to her obvious beauty. Something about her expression eased any discomfort, like I could trust her, even though I knew next to nothing about her.
“Just follow me, Wren. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.”
Ellie hadn’t been kidding about the rush. She’d only had time to show me the basic mechanics of how the restaurant worked and where everything was when suddenly the place was teeming with customers. Luckily, I had spent a good part of the day studying the menu posted online, so I didn’t struggle taking orders. It felt good to be working again. Being on my feet and interacting with customers gave me some semblance of normalcy. Like I had found a piece of the girl I’d once been long ago. I found it easy to slip into the flow of the restaurant. The rush of people and food and drink gave my mind no time to dwell on anything but the work. It wasn’t long before Ellie had let me take tables by myself as the seats continued filled. I understood why I’d been hired so quickly. They were definitely short-staffed.
Hours slipped by as I buzzed around the restaurant, and I was a little shocked when I walked out of the kitchen to deliver food and noticed the place was almost emptied out.
I climbed the staircase to the second floor and pushed out the doors to the outside dining on the back deck. A couple sat on the far end of the deck. They were the only remaining customers outside, and I delivered the plates of food to them, making sure they had everything they needed.
I started to clear some dirty tables, stacking the dishes and tossing the trash. As I wiped down the tabletops, the sinking sun caught my attention. It was beginning to dip low in the horizon across the river. The clear, unobstructed sky turned a deep orange with a tinge of pink. My jaw dropped, my eyes unable to steer away from the sight.
I’d never seen something quite like it before—I’d grown up in the city and seen sunsets, sure, but they didn’t hit like this one. The buildings and smoggy haze hid the true beauty of the sunset.
I abandoned my towel on the table I’d been cleaning and stepped up to the wooden railing along the deck, leaning against it. A breeze fluttered my curls around my face, and I breathed in as deep as my lungs allowed. Something settled in my chest, a sense I hadn’t felt in a very, very long time... Peace. And maybe there might also have been a tiny seed of hope planted in the sea of that peace. A hope for things to be different now. A hope of new beginnings.