tinybubbles01

O N I O N S A N D C H O C O L A T E: a t i n y b u b b l e s s t o r y

Every day on the hour, the man in the hideous green sweater would eat lunch at Tiny Bubbles, the diner whre Cassie worked. He never was late. And Cassie would always write the same order in her waitress issued receipt book: a multigrain bagel with an onion salad on the side and water, just water, please, or iced tea if he was feeling particularly daring.

He never ate much, either. Just a few mouthfuls before he was rushing out the door. Just barely enough to feed a halfgrown child.

"But better make that two iced teas, today," he said, passing a menu to his lunchdate with a smile. She was a small woman, nearly the same height as he, and was wearing a matching orange sweater. Though he looked quite the same, still wearing the same rust stained, bottle green sweater (Cassie could never stand to stare directly at it for long) he wasn't sitting at his usual seated-for-one table.

Now Cassie hadn't waitressed long enough to know his name, but hey now. Here was a change. Here was potential gossip. Ian the (assistant) dishwasher, head chef had taught Cassie well. She had learned that some 'regular' customers made it their business to try everything on the menu, at least once, and. And some customers preferred routine.

As the lunchdate protested, alibet ineffectually, he paid for the teas.

"Can I suggest des--?" Cassie began.

"Oh no, my sister and I will be fine. Although." he said, but when he asked for tofu, which they were plumb out of stock on, Cassie had to apologize.

This waitressing stint was only temporary. Cassie had been thrilled after finding Tiny in the Helped Wanted ads. Finally that newspaper subscription fee paid off, just when she really needed that summer job. It was something to keep her busy until Med school classes started up again, but more importantly, she needed the money to pay for classes.

Cassie thought that he had gotten a pet, at first. Something big, and with a strange appetite. He came to the diner at all hours, by random. He ordered anything and everything on the menu -- including the cheese fried waffles, and what he couldn't force down he took to go. He started eating more and she started seeing him more often. Totally by chance, surely.

She even was beginning to spot his shiny black hair outside of work.

It wasn't that she cared what went into Green sweater's shopping basket at one in the morning, but she could say that she didn't have a lot else to concentrate on at one in the morning. It was an odd time to shop for groceries even if K-Mart was open twenty-four hours a day, but it fitted neatly into her schedule. Cassie got out of her night shift at the diner just after midnight, and K-Mart wasn't very far a walk. She walked, usually, and picked up what she could remember from her mental shopping list. Toothpaste. Bread. Milk. Apples. Her essentials, tucked neatly into a brown paper bag.

Green Sweater had taken to walking her home, lately. He never asked to escort her; he just did. He waited for her to get her groceries, no matter how long it took her, and then chatted away about absolutely nothing as they walked through the cool, dark, pre-dawn streets together. Green Sweater, who finally introduced himself as Henry, was nothing if not chivalrous to a fault.

She wasn't quite sure why Green Sweater did his shopping at one in the morning. Personally, she was under the impression that he didn't sleep at all, and some kind of natural stimulant kept him going. And going. And going. And going. Maybe too many years in green wool caused the human body to secrete it, Cassie mused as she eyed the tall, one-man freak show over the aisles. He was parked in front of the sweets aisle, musing aloud over the properties of chocolate.

Now, Cassie had never seen the health nut stray away from the raw foods and health bars. Ever. It was terribly interesting, especially since Henry didn't seem to know what he was doing with all these empty-calorie-filled snacks. He was picking up each box in turn, mumbling the ingredients to himself and then replacing it, his comically large eyebrows huddled together stormily.

He looked highly distressed, and his mumbling kept getting louder and more agitated.

"Hello?" she asked lightly, coming up beside him and giving the rows of sweets a scrutinizing glare.

"Good evening," he said with a nod, not looking up.

"What are you looking for?"

He made a non-committal grunt, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Chocolate."

"Chocolate what?"

"I'm looking for something, with chocolate."

Grabbing hold of her temper, Cassie remembered that she was far too polite to push further questions (shopping for someone else? developing another caffeine addiction - ah maybe that was it) and besides, this was Green Sweater. She picked up one of the boxes.

"Unless you're looking for the kind with almonds, I don't think you'll find any healthy chocolate here."

"Would you like to grab some dinner instead?" he blurted, not looking away from the chocolate.

"Open at this time of night?"

"I know a sushi bar; it serves california rolls and the waitresses -- there aren't any!

It's a serve yourself buffet--"

"Look, Henry... "

"Everything is half price off the menu tonight and."

"Henry. I'll go with you."

" Excuse me. What? Really? Wow. Um. Ok. I'm paying for the check of course."

"We'll see about that."