Delores blinked, her eyelids feeling sluggish as she continued to watch the keyring swaying.
A lazy breeze drifted in through the open window, giving her a spilt second of fresh air, and allowing her a moment’s respite. She sucked it in greedily, the air travelling down her throat like ointment, soothing, gentle. Then she sighed heavily and pulled out of the diner’s parking lot and back on to the dusty road as humidity and guilt pressed back down on her.
Traffic was light. No one wanted to be out in this heat. Not unless they really had somewhere to go. Delores, however, did have somewhere to go and she was desperate to get there.
How many times had Michael and her put off this trip with different excuses? Too many times, that was how many. They were a busy family. With children and jobs filling their days. Long nights away with work had made Michael cranky over the years and their marriage wasn’t what it had once been. But she’d tried so hard to please him. So hard to be the woman and wife that he needed. She knew now that it was all futile.
She was never good enough for him. Would never be good enough for him.
She’d had the picture-perfect life; the beautiful children, the handsome husband, the house with the white picket fence, but it wasn’t enough to stop her own madness from creeping in. You couldn’t put off your own destiny.
And just like the inevitability of her downfall, she couldn’t put off this trip anymore.
Chapter Two
Sally
Sally stared after the woman as she drove away.
The shiny silver car reflected the sun off its hot metal roof. There was something in that woman’s eyes that haunted her, chilled her to the bone. She could see her crying as she drove; hell, she’d seen her falling apart piece by piece while she sipped on her coffee. That woman would haunt Sally for days.
It happened sometimes. Day in and day out, customers came and went, and most of the time they were merely a blur of faces, crude innuendoes and crappy tips. Dirty truckers with filthy mouths and bad teeth. Busy families with screaming children. Frustrated businessmen wanting to get home.
And then someone would come in, and they would have an energy about them that sucked the very life out of the room. And when they left they would leave a piece of their soul behind. This woman had done just that.
Only this time she hadn’t left a piece of her soul behind. One look in her eyes and Sally had seen that there was nothing left inside of her. Because yes, she could indeed see the torment in Delores’s soul. She’d been there, and she too had lived that pain.
Sally was thinking back to the days when her parents used to make her go to church every Sunday, way before she’d made bad decisions and had been cut off from everyone she had ever known. She’d hated going to church, it had felt like a lie because she didn’t really believe.
The Priest was always rambling on about seeing past yourself, and though she had hated attending church, those words had always stuck with her through everything.
“Sally, you’re off the clock.”
Sally looked up at Jackson. He was the manager of the little diner, and a grumpy asshole to boot. He was always hitting on her, constantly making sly, crude comments; he was as bad as the truckers that frequented the place. He knew she was single, knew that she had enough problems to deal with in her life right now, without his one-track mind to stress her out and make her hate this damned job even more than she already did. He also knew that she needed any overtime she could get, and as she fought his advances, he reminded her that he was in charge by not letting her have any extra shifts. Like today.
She scowled at him but didn’t argue. “Fine.”
He sneered, his expression leery as he pushed his hair back from his forehead. His protruding belly was straining against the buttons on his dirty work shirt as he shoved his hands deep into his pockets, and for a moment, he looked guilty. She cast him a glance as she passed, an attempt to show indifference.
Sally cashed up her till and clocked out before heading into the staffroom and began to untie her apron. She always tied it with a double knot to stop it undoing throughout her shift. She took pride in her appearance. It was something she’d been brought up on.
Look good, wear a smile, and things will be alright.
She wasn’t sure if she believed that anymore. Things weren’t always alright. They hadn’t been alright for a long time. Life had been hard, and time had been cruel. Sometimes so cruel that Sally felt like giving in because the heavy responsibility was just too much for one woman to take. But she didn’t give up because she loved her little boy and a future without her by his side, caring for him, would mean an even worse life for him.
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Sally.”
She turned to see Jackson leaning against the doorframe, a grin on his podgy face. He looked up at her through his dark lashes, a hint of the man he once was shining through.
“I’m not asking for much, just one date.” He held up a finger and moved towards her. “I bet you’d be surprised how well we got on. You just need to give me a chance.”
Sally had been prom queen. She’d had a glittering future laid out in front of her before she’d met Taylor’s daddy and had gotten pregnant. Then her life had tail-spun out of control and her future career of being an anchor-woman for Channel Four had crashed and burned. She’d barely graduated high school. And now she was a walking statistic.
Jackson noticed her step back from him and he frowned. “Don’t go being like that, darlin’. You know you ain’t got nothing to worry about with me. I’m a teddy bear compared to some men. I can do right by you, if you let me.”
Sally frowned right back at him and forced herself to stop moving. To turn and face the lion in front of her with grit and charm. “I have to get back to Taylor. I’ll see you at five tomorrow for my shift.” She lifted her chin and forced a pleasant smile. “I cashed out already.” She turned, opened her small locker, and retrieved her purse before turning back around to face him with another smile.
“I could look after you and that boy of yours.”
“We’re fine, but thank you,” Sally said. She swallowed and looked him in the eye, holding the smile on her face.
Jackson didn’t smile back, choosing instead to stare long and hard at her until the air seemed to leave the room and she felt uncomfortable. “No shift tomorrow, sorry, darlin’,” he replied, shrugging unapologetically. “It’s so quiet at the moment,” he sneered. “Damn heatwave is killing off the customers. But I’ll call you if I need you, and maybe you’ll do the same, huh?” He licked his lips before he turned on his heel and left the room.
Sally bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood, her fingernails dug into the palms of her hands as she grounded herself, stabilizing herself in the moment so that she didn’t scream out her frustrations. Her gut twisted in anger and defeat, but she refused to cry. Not for this man.
She’d sort something out. She always did. She had to.
*
On her way out of the diner, she paid for the woman’s pie, and the small act brought a smile to her face. She couldn’t afford to buy strangers pie, she couldn’t even afford to buy herself pie, but sometimes you had to see past your own problems for others, and so she had done it anyway, and she had felt good about doing it.