Page 132 of Finding Us

“Jade, what would you like?” Garret’s grinning at me from across the table.

The girl looks at me and waits, smacking her gum.

“Um, I don’t know what that means. Are there different types of syrup?”

She sighs. “We have regular, light, sugar free, or blueberry. I can bring them all if you can’t decide.”

“Regular is fine. Thanks.”

She takes off again.

I watch as she gets the syrup from behind the counter, then fills two glasses with orange juice. “I don’t think I like this place.”

“Yeah, something’s missing. It doesn’t feel right, does it?”

“It’s definitely not Al’s Pancake House. Maybe we could call Al and see if he could open a restaurant here.”

“I think Al died 20 years ago. That place has been there for like 50 years.”

A few minutes later, the waitress appears with our food, setting the plates down and walking off without saying a word.

“She forgot the orange juice. It’s sitting on the counter back there.” I see the girl take her apron off and walk out a side door. “And now she’s on break. Or maybe she left.”

Garret shakes his head. “I’ll get it.” He comes back with our juice. “So I guess we won’t be coming here again.”

“The pancakes are really bad,” I say as I try them. “They’re almost as bad as the ones in the dining hall.”

He takes a bite. “These are worse. They aren’t even edible.” He shoves his plate aside. “Let’s just go.”

“What about breakfast?” I take a drink of the juice.

“We’ll go to the store and make our own pancakes. A mix would be better than this.”

As he gets his wallet out, a man stops by our table.

“Garret, I didn’t know you’d be moving here this early.” The man is tall and thin with dark brown hair, wearing a navy track suit. The jacket has the Camsburg College logo on it.

Garret looks up. “Hey. Yeah, we got here yesterday.”

“How’d the move go?”

“It was fine.” Garret drops some money on the table. “This is my wife, Jade. I don’t think you met her when we were here in May.”

Wow, that sounded weird.My wife, Jade.I think that’s the first time he’s introduced me as his wife. I like it, but it’s still weird.

The guy looks at me. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. Who are you again?”

He laughs. “I’m Keith Altman, the swim coach at Camsburg. I guess your husband hasn’t mentioned me.”

Again, the husband term sounds strange. Since getting married, Garret and I haven’t been around anyone besides Sean and Harper so the husband and wife terms haven’t really been used.

I look at Garret. “Um, no. He hasn’t mentioned you.”

“I did,” Garret says. “I just called him ‘coach.’ I never said his name.”

“Congratulations on the marriage.” Keith smiles at both of us. “How was the wedding? Did the weather cooperate?”

---