Mel was about an hour into her second shift of the day when a customer slipped into booth #3. Barely had the young woman’s slender ass settled against the scarred oak bench than out came a pack of Camel straights. With an ease suggesting years of practice, a flame appeared as if the lighter had lit on its own the instant it popped free. The lighter disappeared just as quickly, leaving behind red embers that brightened from an obscenely long drag.
Mel felt the young woman’s sweet & innocent eyes lock on her. Only then realizing she’d been staring.
“Ya gonna take my order or what?” came the challenge.
“Uhm. I… I’ll have to see your I.D. first.”
Taking another long drag, the young woman… more of a girl really, rolled her blue orbs up at the ceiling. “Sorry sweetie, I forgot it at home.”
‘Sweetie?’ Mel marveled, fighting an eye roll of her own. ‘Cripes she sounds like my Grandmother’
“Sorry Miss, no I.D. no liquor.”
The girl snorted at that. “Miss! Yeah right. Gimme a coke then.”
Mel hesitated, hoping there would be more. She needed tips bad, and a single soda probably wouldn’t net her a thing.
“A Coke? That’s it? We have a really tasty…”
“Just a Coke.”
Mel watched as a third drag brought the cigarette dangerously close to the dainty fingers holding it.
‘Is she nuts?! Smoking like that is crazy’
Images of her blue-haired grandmother swaddled in the ever present and equally bluish haze flashed before her. “How’s my little sweetie?” she’d rasp, in a voice that sounded like gravel.
Back in the present, Mel pasted on a smile and nodded.
“One Coke, coming right up!”
As she stormed off to the fountains, however, a much less gracious thought filled her mind. ‘I bet that little bitch is going to stiff me on the tip too!’ Mel let her eyes drift over to booth #3, narrowing as the well-dressed girl fished out another cigarette. ‘It’s not like she can’t afford it. I know real Prada and Versace when I see it’ Not that she could ever afford such luxuries for herself.
The injustice of a world where Mel’s feet ached in cheap shoes while slugging through yet another double shift, and here this flawless little hussy could sit and spend Daddy’s money, nearly had Mel dump the sugary liquid over the girl’s head.
A cluster of over-the-roaders helped break up the monotony a bit. And though the groping, boob-staring truckers ate heartily, their combined $4.87 tips hardly were going to keep Mel in her apartment. ‘Gee thanks guys’
It was no surprise Miss Camel straights left nothing but an ashtray full of cigarette stubs. ‘Man, how can she smoke them so short?’ The girl’s fingers had to be burnt orange from such a practice. Yet, such a thing didn’t catch Mel’s eyes.
“Lazy bitch didn’t even bother to pick up her half empty pack.”
Turning up her nose, Mel swiped the whole works into the bin. Then, just as she turned to leave, her look of distaste turned to one of interest, then disbelief, and finally excitement. There, on the bench lay a gorgeous diamond pendant. ‘Wow that looks real’
Mel snatched it up. It was real, and no doubt expensive… like five figures expensive, maybe six.
“Holy shit!”
No way did Mel trust Wendel, her manager. The little slimebag would steal it for sure. For now she put it in her apron pocket. It’d be safe there until the girl came back for it. ‘Maybe now I can get myself a reward instead’
Mel’s shift dragged on another six long hours, but no word from the mystery girl. ‘Oh well, maybe tomorrow’
With a sigh, she transferred the pendant and cigarettes from apron to purse.
****
Chase brushed a silky blonde lock out of his girlfriend’s eyes. “Why don’t you just move in with me?”
Mel stared wide eyed back up at him. It was a tempting offer, especially now with him perched ever so enticingly above. Only inches separated them. ‘Still…’ Biting her lip, she broke his gaze and turned.
“I can’t. Not… yet.”
Chase ached to persuade Mel, but previous experience taught him that the more he pressed, the further she would retreat.
“Well, at least let me loan you some money to get by.”
He knew that was just as pointless.
Mel faced him once more, her sweet blue eyes threatening to tear up. “Thanks, but I’ll be fine.
Meeting her gaze filled Chase with a mixture of love and helplessness.
“There’s gotta be something I can do?”
Reaching up to clasp her arms around her boyfriend’s neck, a twinkle flashed in Mel’s eye. “Well, there is something you can help me with right now.”
Chase felt himself pulled closer… and didn’t fight it a bit.
*****
A week passed with no mention of the pendent. That week soon stretched into two, then three. Finally after a month Mel couldn’t take it anymore.
“If she doesn’t want it…”
The gold chain felt heavy and cool as she plucked it from the hidden compartment of her dresser. Light spilling in through the bedroom window danced off the big diamond. ‘Whoah’ Hefting it higher, Mel rolled the chain between her slender fingers. ‘I wonder what this thing is worth?’
In no time she had it on. As the cold surface of the diamond touched her chest a tingle radiated out between her breasts bringing about a startled gasp.
“Huh!”
The tingle grew, even as it sank in deeper and deeper into her chest, turning eventually into more of a tickle.
Cough Cough!
‘What the hell was that?’
A small irritation remained, threatening another bout of coughing, but Mel fought it back. ‘Strange’
Could it be guilt?
As if in answer, she snatched the pendant from her neck and slipped it back into the compartment.