Page 66 of Pete and His Precious

I don’t have a whole lot of extra cash, but considering that I came into a new windfall this month, I think I can splurge to buy everybody’s breakfast. It’s not something I could do on a daily basis, but a single man living by himself doesn’t take that much.Plus, now I have the perfect excuse to talk to Zoe while I’m up and no one will think anything of it. She’s with another table as I walk across the diner, so I use the restroom first, hoping when I come back, she’ll have a few minutes. I’ve been watching her the whole time I’ve been eating, and she hasn’t slowed down. This waitressing gig is not an easy thing. I guess I never really thought about it too much before. Not until someone I...cared about, did it.

I definitely haven’t been leaving big enough tips.

As I come out of the restroom, she just finished settling up someone else’s bill at the cash register, and I hurry over.

She starts around the corner of the counter, then looks up and sees me.

“Oh! I don’t think I’m going to be able to look at you without being embarrassed for a long time.”

“Well don’t be. I’m telling you, it’s fine. I...need to pay the bill. I’m going to take care of the ladies too.”

Her brows go up at that, and I never even thought until that second that she might be impressed with that. It wasn’t something I really did on purpose. But I’m glad I thought of it.

I guess I don’t feel like there’s a whole lot I can do to impress Zoe. I’m just a pretty ordinary guy. No great talents, no huge personality or sense of humor. Just me. Maybe a little bit too straight and narrow, but is there such a thing, really?

She gets all the bills together, and gives me the total. I run my card, giving a generous tip, and as I’m tucking my card back in my wallet I say, “Are we still on for the drawing lessons tomorrow night?”

I hope that she’s not going to cancel, but I want to confirm.

“Yes. I’m looking forward to them. My place?”

“I suppose it’s only fair, although... I hate to ask if I can bring my bird.” I saymybird, but it’s not really mine.

“Oh I think Flipper would be really offended if you didn’t bring him,” Zoe says, and I smile at her sense of humor. She’s fun and funny and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being around her. She’s not a barrel of laughs a second or anything, but she just gives me a reason to smile often, and smiling keeps you happy, you know?

She hands me my receipt, and I say, “Thanks a lot.” That seems kind of lame, but I don’t know what else to say. I don’t want to keep her from her job or make things harder for her. Plus, I can’t think of anything more intelligent or witty.

She smiles and says, “Have a good day. I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”

I nod. I wish I would see her before that. But she seems content with that, and I’m going to try to be content too. It’s hard when you like someone more than they like you, and I know I should just back off. I’ll probably spend the next day and a half telling myself that.

Still, I head back to the table, knowing I still need to carry a lady home, and spend some time on the farm before it’s time to pick up Bexley at school.

I’m definitely looking forward to tomorrow.

Chapter 25

Zoe

I look at myself in the mirror and swallow. I spent more time on my hair this evening than I have for the last three weeks combined.

I don’t know why I am nervous. I tell myself it’s because I spilled water in the man’s lap yesterday, and I want to make up for it. But I know that’s not true.

I like him. I really do. He handled that far better than anyone has ever handled anything going wrong in the diner. I mean, he had ice in his lap for goodness sake. Now, it was just water, but I’ve had customers get irate and start screaming at me over far less.

And you know how those micro-expressions go over people’s faces? I didn’t notice any of those either. Like, he truly wasn’t mad from the very beginning. I suppose that's the way people should react to things like that. It was an honest mistake, not something I meant to do, and that was obvious. Plus, getting upset about those things never does any good. But what are you gonna do? Take the water back?

Regardless, I admire that, deeply. And I already really liked the guy. But he sent me friend flowers. There is no way he wants anything more with me, when he sent me friend flowers.

Plus, I was the one who told him that I wasn’t interested. Not even a little bit. I said I wanted to get my career going.

Speaking of, I spent the day after I got off work yesterday and today finishing the recording that I had started of the Scarlet Pimpernel. I’m pretty excited about this one. I have a little bit more editing work to do on it, and then it’s ready to upload to my channel. The last book I uploaded got tens of thousands of views. I’m not making a killing there, but it’s starting to get better.I’m optimistic. Not optimistic that I’m going to make a killing, but optimistic that... I don’t know, maybe someone will notice? Maybe I’ll draw the attention of someone who knows someone who needs a voice actor for a movie. Or, who knows how it could work. I’ve heard stories of that happening, and if I’m not putting stuff out there, I have no opportunities. So, that’s part of the reason I’m trying to use all of my spare time to get something out there. I’ll do my part, and then, if the Lord sees fit, He’ll work things out so that the right person sees it at the right time.

A knock on the door startles me, and I remember that I am nervous.

I laugh. The one thing that can get me to stop being nervous is to think about my career. Does that mean that my career is more important than Pete?

I would have said yes not long ago, but now I don’t know. Would I be crazy to let an opportunity like this slip by? If he is interested in more, Connie’s right, and my intuition is right, I should just tell him, or maybe ask if he might be. That feels scary, but it’s like getting my voice out there on social media channels. Nothing is going to happen if I don’t lay everything out, and I’m not even trying.

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