Rudy's All-The-Time Diner was fairly quiet from 10:00 pm until midnight, and the waitresses took advantage of the lull to fill ketchup bottles and salt and pepper shakers, and they wrapped silverware in clean white napkins while gossiping and giggling. Mimi enjoyed the comraderie, but she would rather be waiting on tables; with two small children at home with her mother and sisters and secretarial school tuition to pay for, she needed the tip money more than she needed the fellowship.
As the neighborhood bars began closing down, the doors to Rudy's began to swing open, booths and tables rapidly filling up with drunks, some quietly downing coffee before facing the reality of home, others boisterously shouting across the dining room to their drunken cronies while jovially shoveling in eggs and pancakes and sausage. Mimi worked her way through the tables, refilling coffee cups, carrying plates, and dodging the gestures of wildly animated diners while dropping tips into her apron pocket and wiping up spills.
As she paused at a newly seated table of exuberant drunks with her coffee pot poised to fill their cups, the man nearest her looked hungrily at her, his face leering, and he slurred, "I'll have a piece of you a la mode, baby," as he reached out and squeezed her bottom with both hands.
"I'm not on the menu," Mimi replied as she poured the contents of the coffee pot into the diner's lap and walked away.
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge's Blog for Six Sentence Stories with the prompt "menu"
The diner picture says it all. So many places like that now long gone! I miss them. Thanks for the memory jogger! Good six.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And yes, so few diner-type places anymore, although small towns often have a local place that's pretty close!
DeleteExcellent Six, giving us a glimpse into Mimi's working life and her values. I hope that coffee was good and hot, and the diner patron learned his lesson.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I hope that coffee was hot, too!
DeleteEasily visualized Six. No trouble picturing the scene. Bet her nickname after that was "Don't mess with Mimi" 😆
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sis! Yeah, I wouldn't want to cross her!
DeleteWell drawn scene. Action (such as it was) all the more enticing for it's 'everyday' qualities (not as easy as it looks) and an engaging protagonist.
ReplyDeleteNicely done.
Put me right in a booth at the diner is all ya did, yo.
Aw, thanks, Clark! It definitely played as a movie in my mind as I wrote it.
DeleteYep - made me grin or was it a grimace!! 🤣
ReplyDeleteHah! Maybe both?
DeleteOh yes! I remember days like these. Mimi was braver than I was. I'm cheering for her cool...and her piping hot coffee!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter definitely would have done something like this when she waited tables last summer!
DeleteLet's hope that drowned his ardor. There are some things you just don't tolerate, and i say good for her.
ReplyDeleteGlad you agree with your namesake!
DeleteHoly burning... Yowzers! I may have spit out my coffee!
ReplyDelete