Chapter 3

 

3

 

 

Walking into the dining car, I sat down and waited for the waitress to come over and take my order. I pulled out the menu and looked it over even though I already know what I am going to get.

“Good afternoon, sir. What would you like to drink this afternoon?” The cute young waitress asked less than a minute before I sat down at the booth.

I looked her straight in the eye with a smile on my face. I said in a calm voice, “I would like a coffee, black, with a tall glass of ice water, please. And if you wouldn’t mind, I know exactly what I would like to order as well.”

“Well, that took no time at all, did it? Go ahead.” She said with a bit more cheer in her voice than when she originally approached.

“No, miss, it didn’t. You learn what’s good when you travel a lot.” I said putting the menu back in the slot against the wall, never breaking eye contact. “I would like an order of biscuits and gravy.” There is real beauty in a diner that serves breakfast all day.

“A man that knows just what he wants, you can’t beat that. I’ll be back with your order soon.” She walked off making sure she had a little bit of a shake in her a*s. That is how you know she wants you to look, and on top of that she knows you are going to too.

I glanced around the car and only noticed an older couple across the way in the diner with me. With no real other conversation there around me except for that beautiful young lady who just walked away, I reached in my pocket and pulled out my smokes. Firing up the tip, I slouched back into the booth and looked up. This will be one hell of a week. We only have ten days to push over a hundred micro-comps to the different businesses in Boston or we are screwed. Usually what Geoff and I do is push our quota plus some in the first night then hit the bars in whatever city or town we are in and enjoy the remainder of our mini vacation. This time it was going to be different. We had to run around with our bags and the shipment of micro-computers in hand before we could even afford our place to sleep.

“Excuse me, sir, here is your coffee. I hope I didn’t startle you.” When she said “startle” she let out a grin.

“Oh not at all, just winding down before this long and stressful week coming up here.” Her presence is taking my mind off of the world of s**t I have just dug myself and Geoff into.

“Business trip, I assume?” She said as she sat down across from me. “I hope you don’t mind, we are always dead during the noon trains.”

“No, not at all,” My head seemed light. The tension seemed to seep off of my shoulders. All I needed right then was company. “You guessed it. My partner and I are a little bit busier this week than we have been the pass couple of trips. Its no big deal though, we will survive one way or another. Would you like a smoke?” I extended my arm out to the women as I stared into her deep blue eyes.

“Why yes, thank you.” I sparked my lighter for her, “What’s your name, handsome?” Another smile, her soft cheeks can make me melt.

“Jack Fletcher. And may I ask yours?”

“It is Amy Mitchell. So what kind of business are you going to be doing on my hometown here Mr. Fletcher?”

“Selling micro-computers that free up space and organize computers, they can save you a fortune over buying a brand new computer.” I chuckled, “Sorry, it’s hard to break that salesmen mentality sometimes.”

“Wow, that seems like a little more than I could ever comprehend.” She giggled. “So I bet you meet lots of interesting people, do you?”

“Lots of people, yes, I don’t know if I would say interesting though. Many of the folks you meet are just working class stiffs who don’t give a damn about what you think or say, they are just there to make their top dollar. It’s pretty rare that you run into a gem in this world.” I winked and took a drag off my cig.

At about that time the dinner bell rang which told Amy that my food was done. She replied with a smile, “I’ll be right back.” She took off around the bar and grabbed my steaming plate of biscuits.

While she made her approach back, a group of frat looking guys came bustling in the diner, making a ruckus and talking extremely loud. Noticing them there, she dropped my plate off at my table and scurried off to take care of them. Just as I figured, she was just another waitress flirting to make her tip nice and juicy. She didn’t come back to my table while I was there. The other group of guys kept her busy for the most part so I choked down my meal and laid down the ten I got back from when I bought my soap from the shower room and took off back to the roomette. I got back there, nodded to Geoff (who was already halfway through that damn book), and laid across the seat to sleep until we got to Boston.