Summer Love - Part One

“Two muffins to go, Bill.”

“Got it, Linda.”

“Four-on-two, scramble one, the other one over-easy, make it whole wheat on two, one no home fries, crisp bacon a pair.”

“Working them now.”

“I need a bacon and egg on dark rye to travel.”

“It’s in the works, Linda.  What a morning already.”

“What kind of morning is that?”

Turning, I looked out over the other side of the counter where customer’s stand waiting for their orders to go.  Standing directly in my view was Bernadette Peters.  Well, she could have been her exact body-double in every detail.  From the piercing eyes, curly blond hair, and smiling pouty lips, she was a dead ringer for Bernadette.

An attractive woman with yellow-gold hair, pert nose, silver-blue eyes, rose-colored lips, with the cutest smile filled with pearly whites, and such a body to go with the looks.

She was incredible looking.

“If you’re going to stare at me, you might as well start taking pictures.”

“Huh?  Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to stare.”

“That’s okay.  So what kind of day are you having?”

“A busy Monday kind of morning from the looks of things.  Excuse me a minute while I get these orders fixed.”

“Sure.  Don’t forget mine; the two English muffins.”

“No problem.”

Linda and I have a good system going.

All the customers place their order with her when they come in and pay her for their food.  If it is dine-in, they get a number which Linda gives me a copy of, and here are plenty of tables for them to find a seat, read a newspaper or whatever as I fix their food, call their number, and they come to the counter and pick it up.    Take-out orders are slightly different.  Like the Bernadette twin, they come down to my end, stand in line and I hand them their food and off they go.

Four orders later, I was wrapping up the two muffins and placing them in a white bag and threw in a couple grape and strawberry jam packets.

“You do good work, and you’re fast, too.  How long have you been cooking?”

“Seems like forever.  How is it I’ve never seen you in here before?”

“I just started working across the street at the Fun Center.  I’m the cashier.  Make change so all the kids can play the pinball machines and video games.”

“I wouldn’t know.  Never played a video game before.  I use to play pinball all the time when I was in junior high and high school.”

“Maybe what you need is to start acting like a kid again.”  Her eyes lit up with a soft smile.

“Your muffins are getting cold.  I might stop over one of these days and see you in action for a change.”

“Bring plenty of quarters or just give me a ten-dollar bill for a roll, and we’ll talk, Bill.”  She started to walk away when I yelled out to her.

“Hey!  How did you know my name?”

“Easy.  Linda’s yelled it out enough times.”

“Oh, yeah, silly me.  So, what’s your name?”

“Nancy.  Have a great day.”

“You, too.”  I watched her walk out the door.  What a body.  What a face.

Linda walked up next to me and rolled her eyes.

“Geesh, ‘how did you know my name’.  Who doesn’t know your name, lover-boy, now get ready.”  She giggled and poked me in the side.

“Now, one scramble, French toast and a stack.”

I grinned, but the order brought me back down to planet earth.

“Got it, Linda.  The scramble, white or wheat?”