Something crashed in the kitchen, and Sally turned to see Albert watching her through the window, his eyebrow furrowed.
She grinned.
Rebecca asked, “What happened to the other waitress?”
Sally turned back to the table and said, “Well, she wasn’t feeling so hot tonight, so she’s taking a break. I’m about to send her home early, I think.”
“Oh, well I hope she is better soon.” The young woman smiled warmly at Sally.
“I’ll let her know you said so,” Sally replied before giving one last wistful glance at Alan as she reluctantly returned to the kitchen.
“That is one fine-looking young man, Albert.” She gave him one more glance through the cook’s window.
“He is not real man,” Albert replied gruffly.
“Well aren’t you just full of opinions tonight,” Sally replied, with a “humph.”
****
Jennifer came out of the bathroom just in time to see Sally cashing the two customers out at the register. She felt dizzy again, and flushed. And cowardly. She’d stayed in there partially because of how she felt, but also because she didn’t want to face Rebecca. At least she didn’t have to pee anymore.
But she had to explain. “Sally, I—”
Sally bustled over. “You’re going home now, honey. I can’t believe you stayed this long. Now don’t start to think I’m getting soft on you, either.” She put her hand on Jennifer’s shoulder. “I’m only letting you go ‘cause you’re going to pick up one of those pregnancy tests on the way home and let me know the result.”
Jennifer shook her head in protest. “Sally, that’s ridiculous, and a waste of money.”
“My money.” Sally pressed a ten dollar bill into Jennifer’s hand. “Now do as I say and don’t argue with me.”
“I already told you—”
“I know, ‘I’m not pregnant.’ Well, if you’re so certain, it won’t hurt at all for you to take the test. Really, you have nothing to lose. You pee on the stick, it shows negative, and you come back and say ‘I told you so.’”
Jennifer laughed at Sally’s summation. “I don’t want you to waste your money either, Sally.”
“If there is baby, you need find out early,” Albert piped up from the kitchen before returning to his grill.
Jennifer felt genuinely shocked. Albert very rarely spoke to her, at least more than his requisite grunting. She looked helplessly at Sally. “I’m scared.”
Sally took her into her arms and held her tightly for a moment. Then ruthlessly she said, “Well, get over it, honey.” She took a step back. “Sometimes in life you take chances and they turn around and bite you in the ass.”
Jennifer laughed again. “Okay, fine. Fine. You both win. I’ll take the test. I’m feeling better now though, so I think I’ll wait out the rest of my shift.”
“Suit yourself,” Sally threw over her shoulder. She motioned Jennifer over to the now vacant table and handed her ten more dollars. “They left us a huge tip. I sure hope they come back; they were nice.”
“You mean he was nice.” Jennifer grinned at her friend. “And frankly, I hope they don’t. I don’t know if I could handle looking Rebecca in the eye again, knowing what I did. I just feel so awful.”
“I know. You’ve been beating this dead horse for far too long, and you still don’t know if you did anything wrong. You didn’t ask who she was. You don’t know.”
“Her picture is in Ruth’s apartment. If I’d asked, do you really think he would’ve been honest?” She felt like a dunce. It wasn’t as if she had a wealth of relationship knowledge to pull from. “And besides, that guy tonight said her last name was Stanton. That sounds like pretty hard evidence to me.”
Sally shrugged.
A clanging sound came from the kitchen. Albert, in rare form, walked past the women over to the register area.
“What’re you doing?” Jennifer asked.
Looking around at the counter he grabbed a pen before he spoke, “Sally is speechless. Is first time in all years we working together. I mark on calendar to remember.”
At the end of the shift Sally locked the diner door and turned to Jennifer. “Would you like a ride home?”
“No, thanks. It’s a nice brisk night and I need the air. Thank you anyway.”
“I would call it more frigid than brisk, but do what you like. Can you believe Albert tonight?”
Jennifer tried to hide her smirk behind a cough. “I think he’s sweet on you.”
Sally grinned. “I thought as much. Who knows? Don’t forget what we talked about, okay?” Sally got into her car, started it with only a little grinding, and drove away.