Part 1
The menu had
egg yolk stains and reeked of burnt coffee, but the diner was full of patrons.
She was not going to insist on another menu just so she could order the same
thing she always did. The Tick Tock Diner at 34th Street was filled with
tourist ready to run to Penn Station to barely catch their 10 AM train. She
despised the weekend rush, but this was the only time Damien had to meet with
her.
The waitress
quickly took the two orders of eggs sunny side up, hash browns and bacon extra
crispy and black coffee. Haley couldn’t get a word in edgewise as the waitress
responded with a Yes and zoomed away. Haley looked at the doorway and saw her
ex-husband finally appear looking stressed. He wasn’t dressed in his usual
bright colored chinos or plain tee-shirt. Today he sported their alma mater
hooded sweatshirt and dark gray sweatpants. Barely looking at her as his
attention was to his iPhone he mumbled her nickname.
“Hales”
“Damien late
as usual” She scoffed as he dragged out the chair from the table.
“Don’t
start, it is too early in the morning” He grumbled back.
Haley
lowered her eyes at him and began to speak, but instead swallowed her words.
She wasn’t going to start a fight; at least not today. He fumbled around with
the sugar shaker as she just stared at him in amazement. Haley knew he wasn’t
going to speak first but he could have acknowledged that they had an issue.
Refusing to be the first person to speak, she leaned back in her chair and
scanned the room.
There was a
teenage couple sharing kisses in a booth by the door. They adorned the usual
tourist attire of I love New York Tee Shirts and bags with the usual shops.
They weren’t from around here and they stuck out like daisies in a rose bush.
Three men in business suits sat at the adjacent table sipping coffee and
letting out loud rumbling laughter. They screamed Manhattan with their perfect
gray ashen suits and coiffed hair.
They had the
aura of New Yorkers and it radiated to the group of the hung-over group of
women next to them. Hair frizzed out and their neon colored dress rumpled from
all night dancing. Circles under their eyes with makeup smeared. No one was
speaking, but holding their heads within their hands and taking in the aroma of
coffee.
