Check Please...

It was one of those diners where people met, but rarely ate. The perfect place for lascivious and clandestine meetings of the uncomfortable sort. At least that's what I was told. But if I had believed everything I was told, I wouldn't have had to perform a cloak and dagger, spy novel type adventure, so that I could witness for once and for all if the someone who professed to love me was finally going to do what was needed to be done in order to finally make my fantasy a reality.

I was tucked away in the back booth close to the restroom which ironically had the best view of the unhappy couple who were sitting at one of the outside tables next to the enormous windows with the word Louie's etched into the glass. I looked around for a picture of this Louie. I even peeked at the nametag of the cook, but, honest to God, the tag just said-"Cook". So I stopped looking for Louie and instead concentrated on the scene I needed to see.

Lemon wedges with bruised skins spat sticky seeds into a cloudy water glass. Condensation rolled down its sides slower than the tears that ran down her face. Possibly because the condensation was natural.

Her tears were forced.

He appeared oblivious to her contrived emotions when he grabbed his glass and gulped down the rest of his water. Then he pushed the glass away from him as if it disgusted him. Like he never should have drank from it in in the first place.

On the contrary, she grabbed her glass as if it were a possession. As if it was obligated to quench her thirst. I could hear the glass screech under her gripping talons. The talons she used to keep him in his…place.

His exhale was a grunt of power. I do not believe his teeth parted when he spoke.

“You presented yourself to me as quenching. As if you would wash my pain away and baptize me with serenity. For a while, I floated, but then I wanted to swim. So you sucked me under. Never once, letting me forget that you saved me from a drought. So now, you no longer are an oasis, you have now become an anchor of obligation.”

At this point in our arrangement, he had promised he would finally have the conversation with her. But she unfortunately had the mental capacity of a sheep along with the sexual flair of a stuffed flounder.

Why was he still with her?

I realized if I magnified starlight combined it with true love and God’s word, it would sever any shackle of deception and allow me to float free then swim swiftly into the arms of my spiritual soul mate.

He then handed her a folded piece of paper. When she opened it, I could see it was an itemized invoice with a big red stamp that read: paid in full.

I now had tears streaming down my face, but when she sucked her teeth in disgust I couldn’t hold in my giggle. She forcefully pushed her chair away from the table and her glass crashed to the concrete.

I actually heard his sigh of relief as she hissed and slithered away.

The broken glass and bitter soaked lemons sizzling in the San Diego Sun were swiftly swept away by a busboy leaving not a remnant of their existence

As I was frantically wiping away my tears, he sat down across from me and grabbed my hand. A waitress appeared smiling, “Can I get you guys anything?”

He grabbed my hand tighter, “No thank you. I have everything I could ever want or need right here.”

The waitress smiled knowingly, “Should I even ask?”

I smiled back, “I’ll have the same.”