His Father

“Chai tea latte.” Maddox yanks the menu out of the holder.

“Coming right up.”

I move to Bill who is eyeing our guests curiously.

“My closest friend and his father.”

“That’s Sargent Wolf,” he breathes, looking at the man who I live with nervously. I try not to laugh again at the name but whenever I hear it I wonder if Sarge’s parents were playing a cruel joke on him. He sounds like a character off Nickelodeon, not a millionaire bachelor with a successful partnership in an international business. “He’s in my diner.”

Is he some kind of local celebrity or anomaly? Perhaps a serial killer?

“Cap wants you by the window.” Bill nods to the creepy trucker with his faded blue cap and white shirt with greasy stains down the front and yellow stains around the armpits.

I approach his table with a smile like at any other table and get my notepad ready to add to his order. My memory is good enough but the foods here are different to back home, I don’t want to mess up.

“How long will my food be?” His voice is gruff and scratchy, I try not to cringe at the strong stench of stale fags coming from his dirty self.

“I’ll just check on that for you.”

“Yeah, you do that,” he murmurs as I walk away and I vaguely hear him comment, “Sweet ass.”

But I ignore it because I work for tips, not for an hourly wage.

Bill dings a bell on the counter. “Drinks, Pest.”

I grab a round tray and place the drinks onto it while asking, “How long on Cap’s food? He’s asking.”

“He ordered ten minutes ago. This isn’t Burger King,” he grumbles. “Tell him another ten minutes at least. Perfect pancakes like ours take time.”

I nod and carry the tray carefully to Maddox and Sarge who are both still looking at their menus.

“Any idea what you want to eat?” I tuck the tray under my arm after putting their drinks before them and pull out my pad and pen.

“Oatmeal with blueberries and maple syrup,” Maddox says and looks at his dad who tosses his menu down on the table and relaxes back in the bench seat.

“Same, minus the syrup, extra blueberries.”

“Fabulous,” I singsong, still smiling as I scribble. “This reminds me of when we met.”

Maddox nods. “I was just thinking that.”

“You were a waitress?”

“No, but I thought she was. Called her to my table in Thailand. She was wearing this black dress that was so similar to all of the other servers.”

“I thought he was hitting on me and then he just looked at me and said…”

“VOS!” We both burst into laughter together.

I add when I’ve calmed enough to talk, “Except he said please.”

“Funny.” Sarge rolls his eyes. “And you’ve lived a fairy tale ever since.”

“It has been pretty smooth sailing, hasn’t it, Pest?”

I nod, smiling warmly at my friend. “Let me get your orders in and I’ll be back.”

I rush their ticket to Bill who takes it and hobbles to the kitchen, handing it to the cooks through a hole in the wall.

“Hey!” Cap yells and I cringe. I got distracted.

I race over to him, smiling nervously because he looks really pissed off.

“I’m sorry,” I immediately say. “Bill tells me it’ll only be a few more minutes while…”

“You gonna give me the same hug you gave that faggot when he walked in?”

Did he really just say that? Is faggot still an insult used these days? It’s disgusting.

“I… I… umm…” I stammer, glancing at Maddox over my shoulder and finding his eyes on the man. I don’t think he heard him call him that heinous word, but I know he heard him shout “hey” at me. “They are perfecting your pancakes as we speak.”

I walk away before losing my temper and stop at another two traveling men as I pass. They are much politer and eager to smile at me.

“You okay?” Maddox asks, his brows pulled in with a frown. I notice Sargent’s eyes are on the man too. He looks livid.

“I’m fine, honestly, he’s just hungry.” I wink at Sargent this time and smile when he raises a thick, pointed brow. “Your porridge won’t be long.”

“Oatmeal,” Maddox singsongs.

“Porridge,” I singsong back.

“Porridge sounds tastier than oatmeal.” Sargent shrugs, looking human and less annoyed for once in my presence. Also, he just agreed with me. Hell has frozen over.

“The same way pussy sounds better than vagina.” Cap roars with laughter at his own joke, banging his hand on the table which startles the rest of the room, including Sabrina who has finally returned and is wiping down the clean tables in her own section to make it look like she’s working.

Which means, if he can hear us then they heard him and what he said.

I sigh.

“Speaking of pussy, walk yours over here with my breakfast.” He looks at Bill. “Least she’s nice to look at, if not a bit slow.”