"Mandy Lowe’s eyes glimmered for a moment at something behind him.

"I think you have a table," she said.

"Do I?" Jeremy Leland replied without looking.

"You do. By the way, do you still flirt with every pretty girl at one of your tables?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Listen, Mandy, our relationship ended a long time ago. I don’t know why you still want to hang around me, I really don’t."

"Because we were so close, you big dork. And I hate the way your egoism hasn’t changed at all. I wasn’t asking because of jealousy. I was asking because the girl who sat down at your table is pretty."

There was a moment of silence. "Oh, well, all right then," Jeremy muttered.

"I was going to wish you luck, but forget about it now."

Jeremy sighed, and turned away from Mandy, and headed toward his table.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey," he sad to the young lady seated at his table. "How are you this evenin’?" He gave her his most charming grin.

"I’m doing good," the girl replied.

"Well, I’m glad to hear that. My name is Jeremy, and I’ll be your server today."

"My name is Melissa. I’ll be your customer," she replied smiling.

"It’s nice to meet you Melissa," he said.

"Thank you."

"You’re very welcome. Can I get you anything to drink?"

"I’ll have a sweet tea," she said.

"No problem. Do you know what you’d like to order?"

""Not yet, I don’t."

"All right, that’s cool. Gives me an excuse to come back." He winked at her. She colored, and lowered her head. He grinned.

He returned a few minutes later with her drink. "Now, do you know what you’d like?"

She smiled, giggled a little at an unexpressed thought, and cleared her throat.

"Yes, I’ll have the 10 oz sirloin," she said.

He smiled a little at his own unexpressed thought (one which surely would have killed his tip) and asked her how she would like it cooked.

She replied "Well done." He nodded, repeated it back, and wrote down "Medium."

He finished taking the rest of her order, and told her he’d be right back with her salad.

He went to the computer and began to put in her order.

"So how’s it going?" Mandy asked, materializing at his side.

"It’s going alright, actually. She seems a quite interesting young lady."

"I’m glad you’re getting along with her. She might change your whole outlook on life."

"Nah, I’m not one of those people." He sent the order.

"If you say so," she replied.

"I do, but if you’ll excuse me, I must be going."

Mandy held out her hand, and let him go.

He walked into the kitchen and made his salad. He stepped out, and took it to Melissa, who smiled.

"How long have you been here?" she asked.

"About two years. It’ll be two years in June," he replied. He sat down across from her.

"You look very familiar to me," she said. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"It’s possible. You ever go to the Total Grocery ‘N Live Bait Shack on East Crossing?"

"You know, me and my dad have been there several times."

"Well, that’s probably it."

"It may be. I think it is, in fact. Though you probably don’t remember me, do you?"

"Well, with all the people I see…"

"No, I didn’t think so."

"But I’ll definitely make it a point from now on," he said with a grin.

She smiled back and lowered her face as she colored again.

He reached across and patted her hand. "Well, I’ll let you get back to your salad. I got some other stuff I need to be taking care of."

"Alright, I’ll see you in a bit, I guess," she murmured.

Sooner then you think, he thought to himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Man, I hate crips," Jeremy muttered a few minutes later, as he watched a family step carefully through the restaurant. The mother and father were fine, but their son was not. His left leg was stunted, and twisted; bent in an unnatural way. He hobbled past Jeremy, following his parents to their table.

"Don’t call them crips," Mandy replied. "It’s not polite."

"I don’t care. I believe in calling a spade a spade. Political correctness is for politicians. I’m not one, and I don’t feel the need to be P.C."

"Kinda racist, isn’t it?"

"Not at all. I don’t discriminate against them, or think they should be euthanized. I just don’t like them."

"Alright, kind of borderline racist then."

Jeremy thought about it for a minute, and nodded. "Maybe. I don’t like to think of myself as a bigot, though."

"Just a… a… ‘Cripist’?"

"No! I’ll serve them just as well as I do everyone else. I just don’t like them. I’m not a racist. I just don’t have a preference for them, that’s all. I wouldn’t date a black woman-"

"Colored woman," Mandy interrupted with that annoying habit Jeremy remembered of her so well.

Jeremy paused. "I could be racist if I wanted to. I could’ve called her a coon, or a junglebunny, nightfighter, bootlip, or the ever-dreaded Nigger, but I didn’t, and I won’t. So quit calling me racist. I’m not a member of the KKK, and I won’t be. I think they’re a bunch of childish jerks."

"Completely unlike you, right?"

"Exactly."

"Right."

"You mock, but you don’t know me very well. I don’t like the way they always want some sort of special treatment. Like they’re more important because they’re crips. They aren’t. They’re people just like you and me."

"Are you listening to yourself?"

"Shut up. That’s not the point."

"What is the point, then?"

"Most of ‘em don’t have a shred of intelligence for some reason or another. Just a bunch of mindless cells."

"Mindless Cells, ha ha ha."

"Shut up. You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do. Why don't you go check on your table?" She disappeared again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Several minutes later, he took her food out to her, and set it down.

"How’s that look?" he asked her.

"Everything looks great," she said.

"Yeah, I thought so too," he replied.

She cut into the steak, and hooked a piece up to her mouth, and then paused. The fork fell away as she looked at it.

"Ooh," she said. "Steak’s not done."

"It isn’t?"

"No, it’s too rare. This isn’t well."

Jeremy leaned in and looked at the steak, and whaddya know.

"Well, yeah, that is an underdone steak. Let me take that back for you and get it cooked up for you. I’m really sorry."

"That’s all right, I’m not in a rush," she said.

He took it back to the kitchen, and gave it to the grill cook to cook it up some more, amidst the sound of a steady stream of obscenity from the grill cook’s mouth.

He walked back out to the table, and told her that the kitchen was working on it, and they would have it out to her as soon as it was done, and is there anything else I can do for you?

"No, I don’t think so. Well, maybe one thing, but that can wait until later."

"Alright, no problem, I’ll be sure and catch up on it later. He grinned and walked off.

Mandy materialized at his side again.

"How do you do that?" he asked her.

"Do what?"

"Appear out of nowhere like that. I don’t see you anywhere, and all of a sudden, poof. There you are."

"Women’s trade secret. I could tell you, but then you would understand the very basic thought processes of the female mind and be able to decipher us. We can’t allow that."

"Oh, so you’re a secret society now?"

"Yes, but we don’t use decoder rings. We have the WGN."

"Isn’t that a radio station?"

"See? Now I’ve got to kill you."

"Oh, bummer. So what did you want?"

"An update."

"On?"

"How you’re doing."

"Well, pretty good. Got a fair amount of money."

"With the girl, Jeremy."

"Ah. Still doing good there, as well."

"You’ve got a date all locked up then?"

He turned away smiling, and poured himself a soda. "Yeah, I think it’s a done deal," he said.

"Who are you talking to?" a completely different voice asked him. He turned. Mandy had managed to do that vanishing trick again.

"Oh, Mandy," he replied.

"Mandy, huh?" There was a note of skepticism. "Maybe you should join Eric’s Club as well."

"Shut up. That’s completely different."

"Is it?"

"Yes."

"Alright, if you say so." The other server, Val was his name, took a drink a walked off.

Jeremy closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. When he opened them again, Mandy still wasn’t there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he went back out to the table, he was carrying her freshly and correctly cooked sirloin. He placed it down in front of her.

"How’s everything look?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "Looks good," she said. And then more quietly, "And the steak looks good as well."

Jeremy grinned, and asked her if she needed anything else. She replied in the negative.

"What about that one other thing?" he asked her.

"Oh yeah, that. It can wait."

"Alright," he replied. "Let me know when you are ready to take care of it."

"Don’t worry," she said. "I will."

He grinned again. "I trust you. And now, if you need nothing else, I’ll take my leave, milady."

"As you say good sir," she responded in kind.

He walked away, and headed towards the computer stand. Mandy failed to show up. He opened up Melissa’s check, and then cashed it out. A few minutes later, he was walking toward the kitchen again, when Mandy came up at his side.

"You’re paying for her meal?"

"Well, you know, I felt bad because we messed up her steak, and I thought this would placate her."

"Liar."

"Not totally. Besides, what’s the harm in buying her a steak?"

"You don’t even know her for one thing."

"I don’t know. I probably know more about her then you think I do."

She barked a short laugh, and shook her head. "I don’t know about that. There’s probably stuff you don’t know about her that you should know."

"Like what?"

She shrugged. "I suppose you’ll find out in time."

He turned away momentarily to grab a plate of food in the window. "You know, ever since we parted ways, you’ve done that to me. Hinted at stuff like that. Don’t you know I hate that?"

When he turned back, Mandy was gone again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a few minutes after that when he went back to check on Melissa. She was doing just fine, and even, Yay for Jeremy, invited him to sit down across from her. He did, and his leg bumped against something metallic. Probably the table leg.

They exchanged a few meaningless words about the restaurant, and then she asked him the question.

"So, are you seeing anyone right now?" There it was, out in the open. The subject had been broached. There was no going back. Sink or swim.

"Well, no, I’m not seeing anyone as a matter of fact," he replied.

"Is that by choice or by default?"

"Kind of by default, I guess. My last girlfriend, her name was Mandy, we… well… I guess you could say I let her go. She hasn’t quite managed to let me go, I don’t think."

"Is there a story there?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose. Not much of one. Do you want to hear it?"

She poked the remains of her steak around her plate, mulling over the question, and then looked him in the eyes. "Sure," she said. "I’d love to."

"Alright then, since you asked for it. Mandy was about a year younger then I am, and when we were dating, she was 20. We met at a movie. It was a crowded theater, and she-"

"Which movie?"

"Oh, umm, Scream 3, I think it was. Some stupid flick like that. Anyway, the theater was crowded, and she ended up sitting in the seat next to mine. Well, the movie got to a particularly tense point, and being of a slightly silly mood at the time, I folded my arms across my chest, snuck my left hand out under my right arm, and poked her in the side.

"She jumped like a kangaroo on acid. Didn’t scream, which is a credit to her fortitude, but she jumped. She turned and looked at me and I smiled at her. After the movie, I apologized, and asked her her name. We talked for a bit, and I walked away with her phone number.

"I don’t think she expected me to call, since she sounded surprised when I did, but we became first friends, and then a couple, and after that, well... things were going good.

"Until one day, Mandy was telling me about a guy who was harassing her. A guy named Nick. Nick was your typical jock. ‘I’m bigger stronger and faster then you, so bow to my will’ kinda thing, you know?

"Well, he decided that Mandy should be his girl, to which I strenuously objected.

"This was just as I was coming out of one of my college classes to meet Mandy for lunch. He was in the parking lot waiting for Mandy and me. When we showed up, he started haranguing us.

"I told him to leave us alone, and we tried to walk off without any sort of confrontation, but he kept pressing the issue, so I finally just gave in to a dark urge and gave him a shove.

"He didn’t take to that too nicely, and grabbed my shirt and pulled me toward him. I grabbed his hands, trying to keep my shirt from getting stretched out or torn up, and he spun around, and gave me a toss.

"None of us three present saw the black toyota, but it came barreling down the parking lot. The driver was one of those white guys who likes to pretend he’s black by playing the rap music real loud, and sings along, but then turns it down whenever a real ‘gangsta’ comes by. He thought he was hot snot in his ’94 toyota, and wasn’t regarding any sort of speed limit, which is part of what happened.

"The other part was Nick tossing me into the middle of the parking lot. Directly, he noticed too late, into the path of the toyota.

"Toyota slammed on his breaks, and there was a horrible squealing sound as he turned the wheel, and the car went into a skid. If he had turned it the other way, he would have banged up his car, but everyone would be all right. Instead though, he slung the wheel to the right, and while he avoided hitting both me and Nick, Mandy wasn’t so lucky.

"He smashed into her, and carried her across the hood of his car directly into the side of a blue ford escort, smashing and killing her instantly. At least, that’s what the doctors told myself and her parents later. She didn’t feel any pain, they said. It was all sudden, they said. She didn’t suffer.

"No, she might not have suffered, but the rest of us, still alive and well on planet Earth, we suffered. And eventually, the pain faded, and we moved on."

He lapsed into silence, during which, Melissa didn’t speak, digesting the story.

She reached across and took his hand, and squeezed it gently. "I’m sorry," she said. "I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have asked if I had, please believe me." He squeezed her hand back and smiled at her.

"It’s alright. I’m really okay with it. I mean, yeah, she’s dead, but I know she’s there with me, in spirit." The shaded truth in his words almost made him grin. Or maybe it was a grimace trying to get out.

"Well, that’s good, Jeremy," she said. "I’m sure she knows that you still think about her a lot."

"I think she does," Jeremy replied. He got up from the table. "But now, you have a steak to eat, and I have a job to do."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I think I’m about finished," she said. "Could you give me the check?"

"Sure," he replied reaching into his book. He extracted the check, and laid it down on the table. She picked it up, and looked over it.

"Wait a second, the total is zero?"

"Yeah, well, since we messed up your meal, we might as well pay for it, right? Or more accurately, I might as well pay for it."

"You didn’t have to do that," she said, reaching down into her purse. "How much was that steak? Eleven dollars? Twelve?"

"Nothing. Don’t worry about it."

"No no, I’m going to give you something for that. That was very sweet of you. She reached into her purse, fiddled around with something inside, manipulating some paper it looked like to Jeremy, and then handed him a fold of bills. He took it, and nodded his thanks. He started to put it in his pocket, but she stopped him.

"Don’t you want to see what I’ve given you?" she asked him, with a twinkle in her eye.

He took the money back out, and unfolded it, counting as he did so. He had just reached fifteen dollars when a little white sheet of paper fell out, and fluttered to the ground.

He bent and picked it up, and looked it over.

"Here’s mine. Can I have yours?" The paper said. Beneath that, were the ten digits that comprised her phone number. He looked at her, and grinned, and she smiled back.

"Absolutely," he replied. He pulled a scrap sheet of paper out of his book, and wrote it down. He handed it to her, and she put it away in her purse with the same deft movements.

"Well, you have a wonderful night then," he replied, "and I guess I’ll be talking to you later?"

She nodded. "That’s fine. That’s my own private line, so you won’t be getting anyone but me."

He grinned. "Good deal. Alright, I’ll call you later then." He held out his hand to help her out of the booth. She took it, and scooted herself to the edge, then reached underneath, and pulled out something long and metallic, that had been sitting next to her. Something he hadn’t noticed earlier, hidden, as it was by the table and her body.

As she stood, her skirt fell in waves to her knees, beneath that, a single leg led to a shoe. As she stood, she put the crutch under her left arm, and leaned on it. She stood straight and looked him in the eyes again.

"It was nice meeting you, Jeremy, and I look forward to talking with you again." She turned deftly on the axis of the crutch, and worked her way out of the restaurant.

Jeremy stood, holding his money, too dumbfounded for words.