After about two minutes of this, Marge came over with her hands on her prominent hips.
Lydia jumped back a bit, looking slightly nervous. She bit her lip and looked down. When the older woman didn’t say a word, she finally squeaked out, “Um, what is it?”
“You,” Marge said sternly, “Are avoiding that nice young man sitting out there.”
“Noooo,” Lydia said. Marge glared.”
“Not really,” she finished weakly.
“Sally and I,” Marge said with a toss of her coiffed hair, “have your tables covered. Get over there and sit down with him. Why, we’ll even take his order for you.”
“But,”
“Get!”
“But that’s not”
“Child, go. Now.”
“Yes, but,”
“NOW!” Marge yelled, looking stern for a moment before collapsing into a good-natured smile. “He’s waaaaaaiting,” she wheedled. A nervous Lydia looked over and saw that, maybe, it was true – Todd was drumming his fingers on the table and looking off somewhere in the middle distance. He quickly glanced over to where Marge and Lydia stood talking, his eyes sliding quickly off when he saw Lydia looking towards him. Blushing, Lydia turned around and looked at Marge’s feet.
“But –“
”But what, hmm?”
“How could he – why would he – I don’t understand!”
“One of those,” Marge said in disgust. “He likes you. Get over there.”
“What!” Lydia looked up suddenly. “No, he – he can’t!”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Marge’s voice was long past exasperated. “Listen, Lydia, you get your skinny quiet insecure little ass over there this moment or I drag you over there myself. And wouldn’t that be embarrassing.”
Gulping slightly, Lydia started to walk towards Todd’s table, stalling only a few feet away from where she started. Turning her head to look back at Marge in trepidation, she suddenly felt a sharp but gentle push in between her shoulderblades. Starting forward, Lydia caught Sally’s eye. The blonde smiled encouragingly at her, and Lydia managed a weak, warped twisting of her lips as she lurched towards Todd’s table.
Halfway there, she had regained her self-control and stood tall and mostly calm.
Her mask wavered a bit as she approached Todd’s table and he looked up with an unsure grin, but she flashed a quick smile back and, pausing for a second, set herself quickly down into the booth opposite him.
“Um. Hi,” she said.
“Hi.”
“I, uh, wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
“I could tell,” he said wryly. She blushed. “I’m sorry, I should have warned you that I was coming.”
“NO, no, it’s fine. It’s just – I was a little surprised, is all.”
“Want to sit down and eat something with me?”
“I – well, I can sit down, I guess. I mean, Marge and Sally are taking care of my tables for a while, and there’s nothing else to do – though even if they weren’t and there was I would still – well, yes. Except.”
“Except?”
“Oh. Just that I’ve already eaten.”
“Bah. Have a snack. I’ll buy.”
Lydia blushed again. “I can afford it,” she protested weakly.
Todd looked faintly surprised. “I wasn’t implying that I couldn’t. It’s just, you know, I wanted to get you something. I don’t know. It was stupid.”
“No! No, it wasn’t. Honest. Umm, I’ll take a milkshake. Thank you.”
“All right. I need to eat lunch, though, if you don’t mind. What’s good?”
“Nothing,” Lydia answered before her brain kicked in. She almost blushed again, but held it back.
Todd just laughed. “Nothing! Glad to know this restaurant receives high praise from its employees.”
“Um, I guess it’s all right, sort of. It’s just... really greasy, and rich, and it feels heavy in your stomach after you eat it, you know? And its soggy sometimes, and I don’t like the colors, but I think it might just be the way its supposed to be. So. I don’t know.”
“Just not your thing, eh? Where do you eat, then?”
“Um. Here.”
Todd laid down his cheesy menu and looked up at lydia with surprise, exasperation, and amusement in his eyes and voice. “Again! The I- order- things- I- don’t- like girl strikes again.”
“Why do you always do that?” Lydia said abruptly.
“Do what?”
“Call me girl?”
Todd opened his mouth to speak reflexively, then closed it slowly. “I... don’t know, actually. Instinct, maybe? I mean, obviously you’re not, you’re a woman. A young woman, unless you’ve discovered the mythical fountain or a very good plastic surgeon,” he grinned at his own joke, “but a woman. I guess... I don’t know. Where I came from, I guess we just always called young women girls. Unless they were older than us, or could beat us up.” He grinned again, at Lydia this time. “But if it was different where you’re from, then I can see how it would bother you. I’ll stop.”
“No,” Lydia said absent-mindedly. “It was the same.”
Todd looked at her again, with a peculiar expression. Just then, Marge passed by.
“Sooooooo,” she said, her grin very broad and cheeky, “What can I get you two?”
“Um,” Lydia said, but Todd got there first.
“I think I’d like a grilled cheese sandwich – unless you have a suggestion as to what would be better?”
“Mm,” Marge said, looking at Lydia and making exageratted eyebrow movements and eye rolls. “The catfish isn’t bad.”
“Really high praise you waitresses have for this place,” Todd muttered under his breath while gazing perplexedly at Lydia’s confused expression. “Well then,” he said a little louder than necessary, pulling an exasperated Marge’s gaze reluctantly away from Lydia and back to her customer. “I’ll take the catfish, and a coke, and a milkshake for Lydia.”
“What kind?” Marge asked matter-of-factly, without having written at thing down.
Todd glanced at Lydia.
“Um,” she said. “Vanilla.”
“Of course, of course,” Marge said, nodding her head sagely. “That’s one catfish, one coke, and one vanilla milkshake, right?”
“Yes,” Todd said. Lydia nodded.
Marge slowly nodded her head, up and down.
“Yeeeees,” she said. “Yes indeedy, that’s the order. I never get an order wrong, I don’t. I could do it all in my head if I wanted to.”
“Really?” Todd asked politely. Lydia bit the inside of her lip and reminded herself not to bring up the infamous potato casserole incident.
“Yup,” Marge continued, taking the opportunity to make more exagerrated faces at Lydia, who still responded with looks that screamed “What?” and “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“However,” Marge said, raising her eyebrows emphatically as she moved her eyeballs pointedly from Lydia’s face to Todd’s and back again, shrugging her shoulders in question. When Todd moved his eyes from the ceiling back to her face, Marge’s countenance quickly smoothed. “However,” she continued. “I don’t want to. I like to be on the safe side. Makes customers feel better, you know.”
“Indeed,” Todd said.
“So I’ll write it all out, here in front of you. Just so you can know that your order’s right, and the right food will be coming right along soon. I know how nice it is to know these things.
“Yes.”
“So.” With exaggerated care, she pulled her pad out of the front pocket of her large uniform. “That is one... catfish... for the gentleman, yes?” As she looked up, Todd was staring at her so incredulously that it took him a few seconds to remember to nod his head yes. “And one... coke, right?”
“Yes,” todd answered quickly.
“And for Lydia here, one... vanilla ... milkshake. My, but those milkshakes are good, aren’t they, dear?”
“Um... yes?”
“Yes indeed. So. One catfish, one coke, and one vanilla milkshake. All correct?”
“Yes, yes, all correct. Do you need anything else?”
“Let me think.” With her pad on her hip and her pen tapping against her chin, Marge thrust out her lower jaw and looked off into a mirror across the room. “Anything else... anything else... ah yes, do you want dessert?”
“No thanks.”
“Oh, but just take a look at our menu. It’s so very tempting,” and she shoved the menu, open to the dessert section, in front of Todd’s face. With him effectively partitioned off, she resumed making facial gestures to Lydia. ‘You,’ she mouthed. ‘Him.’ ‘What?’ lydia mouthed back. Marge opened her eyes and mouth, raising her eyebrows and thrusting her head forward at the same time that her shoulders went up. Lydia pulled her chin and right shoulder together, looking up at Marge askance. Her own eyebrows went up and her eyes widened. Further exasperated, Marge dropped back into a more relaxed position and clearly mouthed, ‘Well?’
“No, no thank you,” Todd said very firmly as he forcibly pushed the menu down to where he could see over it. Lydia was still looking at Marge in confusion, and marge was still stuck somewhere between pouting and being angry.
“That will be all, thank you,” He continued.
Marge kept glaring at Lydia.
“Excuse me!” he said very loudly.
Marge gave him a perfunctory glance. “Yes?”
“Don’t you have to take our order in to the kitchen.”
The waitress scowled. “Fine. If you insisted.” With a slight hmmph, a final glare at Lydia, and a superior glance for Todd, she strode off towards the bar.
Exhaling, Todd leaned back into the pink cushion on his bench. “Are they all always like that?” he asked.
“No,” Lydia said. “Not at all.”
“Just her, then?”
“First time I’ve ever seen her do anything like that.” The young woman looked vaguely shell-shocked.
“Hmmph,” Todd said.
“What?”
“I said hmmph.”
“What does hmmph mean?”
“It means hmmph. Sheesh.”
They grinned at each other.
“So,” Lydia said, not quite hesitatingly, “What brings you here?”
“I.” Todd couldn’t keep his eyes off of his hands, but he dragged them quickly back up.
“I wanted to see you,” he finished.
“Oh.”
“Why else would I come here,” he asked drily, “for the fine cuisine?”
She cracked a grin.
“So why do you eat here, if you don’t like the food?”
Lydia sighed. Todd was so fond of why questions. “It’s convenient.”
“Does that mean cheap, easy, or quick?”
“All three.”
So you’d rather have cheap, easy, and quick than good?”
“Well. Yes.”
“Sheesh. Lydia, I don’t understand you, I just don’t.”
Something closed behind pale green eyes. “Sorry to hear it.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, Lydia. You know I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“I’m trying, that’s all.”
“Why?”
“This again? What is it with you and your why questions?”
Lydia blinked at him in surprise. “Um. Okay then. What–“
”Exactly,” Todd said in delight.
“Huh?” Lydia was entirely perplexed.
“Time for new kinds of questions.”
“Okay. Who?”
“Who what?”
“Where how?”
“When who?
“Where what?”
“How when?”
“We’re making no sense whatsoever.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Psychic powers. D’oh.”
“Oh, right.”
“Who?”
“I am. Obviously.”
“Always.”
“When?”
“Always is every when. Gracious, get it right.”
“I already have, remember?”
Todd flashed a grin at Lydia, one that seemed full of thanks – as though he were grateful to her for having played along. She just blinked at him.
“So. How was your day.”
“Eh, it was okay. Nothing terribly exciting. You?”
“Same, I suppose. Until you came in.”
“Ah yes, me. The most important and exciting event in your life.”
“Yeah.”
Todd blinked twice, and looked at lydia. He peered for signs of sarcasm, but saw none and sat back with a sigh.
“Wow.”
“Wow what?”
“That’s quite a duty.”
“Nobody made you.”
“No,” he said thoughtfully, “No, they didn’t.”
They sat for a few moments in companionable silence, Lydia sitting on her hands in order to distrat her from the fact that she had no idea what to do with them. She desperately wanted a coffee cup, no matter if it was yellow, or even orange.
Todd has his hands on the table, fingers twisting around slightly. They would interlock, tighten and tug, and then shift down one digit – again, and then again, until finally he could move down no more fingers and was obliged to reverse direction and travel back up.
Not that Lydia was watching.
Lydia had just opened her mouth to speak when Todd beat her to it. “So,” he said, until the world proved that it moved in fits and starts as Sally came walking up at just that moment. A tray was balanced on her right hand and shoulder.
“One catfish, one Coca-Cola, and a vanilla milkshake for Miss Lydia over here,” Sally said cheerfully, ostensibly speaking to them both as her eyes swiftly ran up and down Todd. Almost reflexively, his did the same, and although Sally appeared to be paying no attention, the saucy curve of her body deepened slightly.
With a faint blush on his cheeks Todd looked away, abashed, and glanced up at Lydia. The apology in his eyes was overshadowed by embarassment and uncertainty, as he seemed to check to see whether she had noticed.
Lydia pretended that she hadn’t.
Sally’s sharp eyes travelled between them both, but with a flip of her hair and a bright grin she spoke as though she saw nothing there. The curve was gone now. “It looked to me like Marge was botherin’ ya’ll,” she said, exageratting her very slight southern accent. “Don’t mind her, she’s just an old busybody. I, on the other hand, am a young busybody and shan’t be quite so much of a bother. Won’t be a bother at all, actually. You probably won’t even notice I exist.” Smiling brightly at them both, she made to walk away. “Oh,” she added, turning back around, “Lydia. Greg will be in again in half an hour, and he’ll probably want to see you doing something useful. Jerk. Anyway, just so you know.”
“Right. Thanks.”
“No prob, dear. See you both.”
“Do you ever call people by their names?”
Lydia glanced down rather than answer Todd’s question. “That’s different indeed. A do you question. We haven’t done many of those.”
He laughed softly.
“Yes, Todd, I do. Happy?”
“Oh, exuberantly.”
“Dig in, I suppose,” Lydia said with a fake helplessness as she waved vaguely at the dish in front of Todd.
“Don’t mind if I do,” he said with a grin as he started to demolish the fried fish with his fork. Lydia listlessly stirred her shake.