"Shit! I forgot to let Delaney know I wouldn't be in. Shit, shit, shit," Ashtyn said as she shot off a text.
As she typed away on her phone, trying to salvage her job at Aces, I drove to the local diner–creatively named The Diner–instead of going home. When Ashtyn showed up banging on my door, I had just gotten home from Brass Knuckles, so I was ravaged. There was nothing appetizing to eat at home and The Diner was the only place around open 24 hours.
"Where are we going?"
"The Diner. I'm starving and I know you must be too."
"It's been a bit since I've been here. The last time was with you and Bronx and Rem."
I remembered that day. It was back before I fucked everything up. Back before Remington was a drug dealer. We spent the day swimming at the community center and went to The Diner afterward for milkshakes. Ashtyn sat next to me in the booth and my heart stuttered when her hand brushed mine under the table. She ordered a strawberry banana shake but ended up liking my chocolate peanut butter one better, so we shared it.
"It hasn't changed much. They still have the best waffles."
"No way, their pancakes are better," she said as we walked through the glass door into the old-timey diner that hadn’t seen an update in thirty years.
I scoffed. "I'll pretend I didn't hear you say that."
We continued to debate what was better: waffles or pancakes–with waffles coming out as the obvious victor–when a waitress approached our booth. Her name was Marcy and I’d seen her here a few times. She flirted with me even though she was at least ten years my senior.
"Hey West, haven't seen your pretty face in here in a while," Marcy cooed with a saccharine smile. She had bright red hair that must've come from a box, and big fake tits that threatened to spill out of her mint green diner uniform.
Ashtyn laughed under her breath at theprettycomment. I eyed her and she ducked behind the sticky menu she was pretending to read.
"Been staying busy, you know how it is," I said.
Marcy batted her fake eyelashes and twirled a lock of her bright red hair as she continued to smile at me. Awkward. "Yeah, sure. So, what can I get you?"
"I'll have a coffee and the strawberry waffles," I said before handing her the menu. She took it with a smile and continued to stare at me.
Ashtyn cleared her throat. "And I'll have the pancakes with bacon. And coffee to drink."
Marcy's stare finally faltered and she looked angrily at her. "Oh," she said, not hiding the fact that she was taking all of Ashtyn in. She was quite a sight. Wearing my oversized hoodie and no pants–or panties–along with a pair of black boots, she looked hot as sin.
"Short or tall stack?"
"The big one, definitely," Ashtyn smirked at me.
Marcy let out a fake laugh and ripped the menu from Ashtyn's hands before storming off to the kitchen to put in our order. When she came back to the table with our coffees, she slammed Ashtyn's down so hard that coffee spilled over the edge of the mug.
"Oops, sorry," Marcy said with absolutely no remorse in her tone. She looked at me one last time before going back behind the counter to tend to the few other customers.
"I don't know how you deal with that all the time," Ashtyn smiled as she took a sip of the hot coffee.
"I can assure you, I don't deal withthat."
"You know what I mean."
"So..." I said as I reclined back as far as possible in the red vinyl booth, kicking my legs out to rest on either side of Ashtyn's.
"We don't need to talk about this here, do we?"
"I thought you'd want to talk about it."
"Why? Because of last time? I'm not that girl anymore, West. I don't dissect every sexual encounter I have. Sometimes sex is just sex," Ashtyn said. "It wasn't even sex."
I took a sip of my coffee and analyzed the girl across from me. Was she telling the truth or just telling me what she thought I wanted to hear? The only reason I wanted to discuss what happened in the bathroom was to make sure she was okay. I couldn't help but feel like I took advantage of her, even if she was the only one who got off during it.
“But I have to know…” she said, fluttering her eyelashes. “Why did you do it?”