The Diner

Upon entering the diner, Eddus paused to look around. A young-looking waitress gave him a smile as she hurried by, carrying a tray holding plates of food. A quick glance around, and he walked toward the far corner booth. At least the diner appeared not to have changed in his absence.

Sitting down, he looked first from the empty bench across from him to the door, through which he’d come in, and then toward the entrance to the kitchen at the far end of the diner. He folded his hands on the table in front of him, his gaze settling on the table. Memories began coming back to him – memories of sitting with his friends; mornings, afternoons, and nights, they’d met here, sitting at this very spot.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise?”

Eddus looked up, startled. He’d been so deep in thought that he hadn’t noticed someone approach the booth. Wearing a wry smile, Janice stood looking at him.

“You’ve been gone a long time, Ed.”

“So I’ve heard,” Eddus smiled at the older woman. “Hello, Janice. I thought that perhaps I had come in on your day off.”

“Now there’s a thought, hun. What’s a day off?” Janice chuckled as she spoke. “Are you expecting someone?”

“Not at all.”

“May I sit with you?”

“Of course.” Watching as she sat down, something dawned on him. “Are you just coming in?”

“I wish,” Janice laughed. “I’ve been on since five thirty this morning. Twelve-hour shifts every day now. And that’s a short day.”

“I just noticed you weren’t wearing your uniform.”

“I haven’t worn a uniform in almost a year now.” Janice raised a hand, getting the attention of one of the wait staff, and held up two fingers.

Eddus shook his head, not sure what she was getting at.

A few moments later, a waitress set two coffee cups onto the table and filled them. She smiled at Janice, who gave her a nod, and the girl hurried away.

“I don’t just work here anymore, hun.” Janice picked up the cup in front of her, sipping at the coffee in it. “I own the place now. The previous owner put it up for sale and retired to some island.”

Eddus blinked in surprise.

“Janice, that is fantastic! That’s such great news!”

“Thank you,” she said, “but I don’t know how fantastic it is anymore. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since I took over. I must have been out of my mind.”

“It’s still wonderful, Janice.” Eddus stopped himself before telling her not to thank him.

He pursed his lips in a thin smile as he thought about his wife, his mate, who was so far away from him, whom he’d not seen in over three weeks.

“Enough about me.” Rolling her eyes, Janice chuckled again. “Tell me, where the hell have you been, hun?”

“I don’t even know where to begin.” Eddus stared at the steaming liquid in the cup in front of him.

“Well, where have you been? Start there.”

“Janice, I- I can’t really say.”

“Why not? Were you in some kind of trouble?”

“No, but at the same time, a very big yes.” Shaking his head, Eddus laughed, thinking back on what now seemed more like a dream.

Strangely, a dream did seem a more apt description than a nightmare, despite all he’d been through. He’d been held prisoner while somehow not being held prisoner at all. He’d been married and then sentenced to death, both within the same twenty-four hours. His death sentence had been overturned, and he’d been banished from an entire world. And then he came back to find out that years had passed in his absence, which he thought couldn’t have been more than a few months.

“It’s hard to explain,” he said, “but I went away with someone for what I thought was only a little while, and I took a little trip that ended up being a bit longer than I expected.”

“Ah.”

Janice nodded. She didn’t say anything further, but the expression on her face said that she was intrigued.

Eddus could see that the long nights the waitress, now owner of the diner, had spoken of had taken their toll. She looked older than he remembered, especially around the eyes. He had to remind himself that quite some time had passed since they’d last spoken, which made him wonder just how old he, himself, looked.

“Do you remember Abbi?” Eddus spoke slowly, careful to use the name she’d given him the night he’d met her.

Janice’s eyes widened in surprise.

“The shoe-girl?” she asked.

“Yes, the shoe girl.”

Eddus sighed, resisting the urge to roll his eyes as he recalled the morning after he’d met Abbi.

“The one you came in with that night, a few weeks before you went away?”

“That’s the one.”

“She must have been some kind of special, to keep you away for all this time, Ed.”

“She was,” Eddus said, then quickly corrected himself. “She is.”

He looked at the street outside the window, then at the table in front of him, tapping the handle of the coffee cup with his fingernail. It had been twenty-eight days since she’d returned to the pixie ring. He could almost no longer feel that vibration within himself that was her heartbeat. The mark of their bond on his forearm remained a dull blue but no longer glowed from under his skin. Issabella’s absence left him feeling empty from the moment she crossed the barrier between their realms.

“Are you two still together? Pardon my assumption, but I’ve known you for a while, and I just can’t see you going away with someone for such a long time unless there was something there.”

Nodding slightly, Eddus lifted his cup, attempting to conceal the smile that he still couldn’t keep from coming to his mouth when he thought about his wife.

Over time, it seemed to be the only thought that kept him sane after all he’d been through, first in the faerie realm, and then having to say goodbye to her, not knowing if or when he’d see her again. The thought of how close he had been with her, sharing not only a physical intimacy, but now a connection that he could see as well as should be able to feel... it gave him hope.

Janice’s sharp eye caught his smirk as he tried to hide it. She quietly watched him take longer to sip his coffee than was necessary, and finally put his cup down, avoiding her gaze for a moment. After a brief silence, he looked at her.

“I’ll tell you something, but you have to keep it to yourself,” Eddus said.

“Who am I going to tell, hun?” Janice laughed. She shook her head, glancing at the table for a moment.

“Abbi and I are still together.”

“And why is that a secret, Ed?”

Eddus took a deep breath.

“Janice, Abbi and I are married.”

“No shit...” Janice said, almost under her breath. She blinked a couple of times, then smiled at him. “Now, that is wonderful news! Congratulations, Ed!”

Eddus had to hold back the urge to laugh. He’d never heard Janice swear in all the time he’d known her. He picked up his coffee cup, trying again not to smile too broadly.

“Will the missus be joining us?”

His smile faded, and Eddus carefully set the cup down in front of him.

“Not right now.” He said, shaking his head. “Not for a while now.”

The older woman sipped her coffee, taking note of the change in Eddus’s demeanour.

“It’s none of my business, hun, but is everything ok with you two?”

Eddus gripped the coffee cup handle between his finger and thumb, shifting it back and forth where it sat on the table. He quickly decided against mentioning that Issabella was expecting. Sighing, he glanced at Janice with a half-hearted smile.

’Yes,” he said, “but then again, no.”

“Is that why you’re back? Trouble in paradise?”

“It’s complicated.”

The back of his head began to ache dully, and Eddus wished that the topic of conversation was anything but what they were talking about.

His relationship with Issabella was complicated and probably would have been so even without the current circumstances. While one might find the notion of a human and a pixie falling in love to be a story of faerie-tales, knowing now what he knew, even if he’d never entered the faerie ring, it was not.

“I miss her.” Eddus pursed his lips as he realised what he’d said.

“How long has it been, Ed?” The elderly woman watched him sympathetically. “How long have you been away from Abbi?”

“Almost a month .” Abashedly, Eddus glanced across the table. “I know, right? Just a month.”

Janice smiled thinly, but said nothing.

“We’ve been through a lot, recently. And again, it’s complicated.”

It occurred to Eddus as he spoke that while it had been relatively recent for he and Issabella, it had, in fact, been a much longer time here.

“Ed, if you’re still together after this long, I’m sure that whatever it is, you two will be fine.”

“I hope you’re right.” Eddus nodded. He quickly met Janice’s gaze. “You know, Janice, I don’t know what I’m saying. Of course you’re right. I’m just feeling sorry for myself.”

“It can’t be all that bad, can it?” With a concerned look on her face, Janice tilted her head. “I only met the young lady once, but I could tell that she was sweet on you. And she wasn’t the only one. I could see that you were fond of her as well. I could see it in the way you looked at her and the way you spoke with one another. And now, three years later, you tell me that you married her. Whatever it is, I’m sure things will get better.”

Saying nothing, Eddus lowered his gaze. Something else had just occurred to him as well: He really had no idea just how long he and Abbi had been mate-bonded. He had, of course, given some serious thought to trying to figure out the time difference between the realms. He’d thought about it until his mind was numb. And while he did have a vague idea, he couldn’t be certain. The older woman had mentioned that it was over two years later, but in his mind, everything was still so fresh.

Janice smiled warmly.

“You and I go back a ways now,” she said. “I don’t know your Abbi, hun, but I do know you. I’ve never known you to jump into anything, and I doubt that this was any different. I can’t see you getting yourself into something that doesn’t work out in the end. Every marriage has its rough patches, especially when you marry someone younger than yourself. But if I know you, things will turn out fine.”

Eddus resisted the urge to smile at the mention of Issabella’s age. In that moment, he could have hugged Janice. Every uncertainty that had been present before was still there, but it helped to hear her reassuring words.

“Janice,” he said, “I’m glad that we were able to talk.”

“It’s good to see you again, hun.”