______________________________________________________
Adam entered the diner still shaken. During his shower earlier that morning, he'd tried to make heads or tails of the dream he'd had... But all he could come up with were those couple of devastating years of his childhood.
He wondered, though... Why had he appeared as an adult in the dream?
"Hey! Well, look who's here," Shawn sang happily, waving his friend over to the counter.
The waitress named Mickie greeted Adam with a small hello and a smile as he passed her. He was glad to see Shawn there, but he didn't see Amy at all.
"Sit right here," the mechanic said, gesturing to the stool at his left. The right was already taken, and he recognized its occupant as Michaels' employee, whom he'd seen once or twice. "I saved you this seat," Shawn told him, then turned to the young man at his right. "Adam, you've met Johnny, right?"
"No, but I've seen him before."
"Well, he's my helper at the garage, so that'd be why. Guys, meet each other." The man followed that with a laugh as Adam and Nitro shook hands.
"Ah, Adam! Hey," Melina said brightly as she emerged from the double swinging doors of the kitchen. She wiped her hands on her apron as she approached. "These two have already ordered... What would you like?"
"Just a scrambled egg and some coffee would be fine," he told her.
The pretty Latina smiled.
"You got it."
"By the way," the blond man said, running a hand over his still sleepy face, "have any of you seen Amy today?"
"Can't say that I have," Shawn answered.
"Nope, sorry," Johnny said, and Adam was confused for a beat as to how the young man would even know who Amy was. As Melina came over to him by the counter and held his hand, however, he realized that they were a couple - and the waitress must have introduced them.
"She hasn't been here all morning," the brunette said. "But she comes in nearly every day, so maybe you'll get lucky."
The tall blond man sat and couldn't help feeling affected by the young woman's last words. The double meaning, which he knew she hadn't meant, hit home and reminded him that he hadn't really 'gotten lucky' for awhile now. He put that out of his mind in a hurry, though, and decided to see the redhead if she didn't show up within the hour.
*
More than an hour later, Amy had never turned up at the diner. He remembered the newspaper she worked for, so he wanted to get home and do an internet search for its address. By late morning, he planned on taking a trip over there to take her out for lunch.
She was the first woman he had felt really comfortable around. He and Melina had had a good repore, but not to the same extent. In fact, it was nowhere near the same extent. Before he had asked her out, they had only made very small talk at the diner, never anything really deep or meaningful. It was probably the closest he'd been to a woman since college.
About an after he'd eaten breakfast, he tossed some bills on the counter and rose.
"Thanks, Melina."
"Sure thing, sugar," the Latina waitress called, giving him a smile from over her shoulder as she headed into the kitchen.
"Well," Adam said as he faced Shawn and then Johnny in turn, "I've got work to do, guys. Maybe I'll stop by the shop later." He gave Michaels a friendly slap on the shoulder before shaking the younger man's hand again.
"Anytime, Ad."
With that, the tall blond man left. He headed back home, his mind still focused on the lovely redhead he had yet to see that day.
Once home, Adam turned on his computer and opened an Internet Explorer page. Accessing Google, he did a quick search for the address of the paper. His eyes quickly scanned the results provided and he saw that the second had precisely the information he needed. Opting not to write it down, he knew he would memorize the address by heart. Inwardly, he recited it repeatedly until he was able to do so away from his computer. Ten minutes later, he tested himself and spoke the address aloud. He walked back to the machine to check, his eyes glancing at the entry on Google - and sure enough, he'd memorized it correctly.
The tall blond man stepped away again, this time to enter the bathroom so as to face the mirror over the sink. Staring at his reflection, he spoke, practicing just how he would ask her to lunch.
"Amy, I just so happened to be in the neighborhood... I was wondering if I could take you to lunch?"
He tried a few more different lines, but all of those seemed so contrived to his own ears. Taking a deep breath,
he decided to go with the first.