..... (burningdown) wrote in the_dome, @ 2013-11-19 09:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | 04-14-2017, clementine, clementine and justin, justin |
Over Easy
Who: Justin and Clementine
When: Morning
Where: Eatzy’s
The breakfast rush was not so much a rush that morning as it was a slow trickle of people. One of his waitresses had been sick, so Justin was behind the counter, taking a few orders and pouring coffee. He didn’t mind it so much as he did the weather. It was cloudy and the wind was ridiculous, which he knew would keep people inside. If it began to storm, which he was starting to think it might, that meant lunch was going to be just as dead as well.
With only one person at the end of the counter eating a plate of pancakes, Justin had a cup of coffee at the other end, leaning against it casually as he glanced over the schedule for the rest of the day and into the evening. He needed to leave for a few hours, at least, so he was hoping the rest of his staff would show up so he wouldn’t have to lock up. He was already losing money, thanks to the damn, unpredictable weather.
Weather that had driven Clementine to find shelter in effort to warm up from her morning walk. She ducked into the diner during a particularly bold gust of wind that had her hair flying in all directions. She barely kept hold of her shawl and was starting to feel like she needed to focus on making some sweaters now with this weather as crazy as it was. Heading for the counter, she smiled when she saw Justin and plopped down in front of him. “Can I get the hottest cup of coffee you have?”
Justin glanced up when Clementine breezed into the diner. His eyes stayed on her, following her movements until she sat down. Then he straightened and set the schedule down before reaching beneath the counter top to grab a clean coffee cup. He set it in front of her before turning to grab the fresh pot of coffee he had recently brewed. He tried not to, but the state of her hair had his lips twitching into an amused grin as he poured her coffee. "You're a brave one, for goin' out in this. Not that I don't appreciate it."
She was sure her hair was a wild mess and although she tried to straighten it down, it didn’t really work and left her with a big, blonde tangled mess on top of her head. “Well, I was out for a walk and it got really, really bad so I figured I’d duck in here for some safety while I warmed up again. You’re brave for staying open.”
Justin shrugged. "It's not so bad. If I close, I lose money. If it gets worse, I'll probably lock up, but I've got Pancakes down there," he said, bidding toward the man at the end of the counter, naming him after his breakfast since Justin couldn't remember his actual name. "And then there's you." Justin replaced the coffee pot. "Sure you don't want breakfast? Two eggs over easy and toast?" It had been awhile, but yes, he remembered her last breakfast order.
“Very impressive. What do you call that? I want a cool name like Pancakes,” She said, smiling back at Justin as she nodded. “But I’ll take you up on that breakfast order.” If only to give some more money to Justin. She didn’t have much since her business wasn’t exactly picking up either, but she wanted to give Justin some of it.
Justin turned and called Clementine's order to the cook, pleased that she was ordering food. It was at least something to keep the cook busy for about five minutes. He leaned against the counter again, his eyes back on her face. Now that he was in a slightly better mood, he noted that she was pretty. At least he had perk while he was working on a day like this. "You want a name too? I'm afraid it would be something like Over Easy, and you might take offense to that."
Clementine took a sip of the coffee in her hands and she smiled after a moment when he came back. Thankfully she'd swallowed her drink because she did laugh at the name. "It's kinda funny. Over Easy…We can go with it," She said, grinning at him. "So, other than today, how is diner life?"
It humored him that she gamed for it. Justin had known plenty of women in his lifetime who would bristled at being called ‘easy’ in any context. “Diner life is what you would expect it to be,” Justin replied, reaching for his own coffee again. “You’re not likely to get any interesting stories out of me when it comes to work. What do you do?” Because while he remembered her breakfast order, Justin couldn’t really place any other details.
“Me? Well, my job is doing worse than yours, I can tell you that much,” She said, smiling a little. “I don’t have Pancakes asking me for hand-made scarves or blankets...though maybe after this storm, more people will need something. Otherwise...Life is fine.” It wasn’t great, not after the recent talk with Skyler, but she was still standing, still living, and that was always something to be thankful for at the end of the day.
Justin glanced down at the man who was still reading his book, shoveling pancakes into his mouth enthusiastically. Then his gaze came back to Clementine as he sipped his coffee. “You ever need some extra work, come around. I have a feeling I’ll be losing a couple of waitresses soon enough. Could use the help, and tips are good.” It never hurt to throw it out there. He hated the interviewing process. It was just that most of the people he knew he could trust with the job already had jobs.
She’d promised to help Skyler with the greenhouse and Zania with her club, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t keep extra busy and take some shifts here, right? Extending her hand, she smiled. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” It would keep her mind occupied instead of dwelling on things she wasn’t sure she’d figure out yet. “Gotta warn you, I’ve never been a waitress before. You sure you still want to offer?”
"It's not that hard," Justin said, taking her hand to shake it firmly. "As long as you got a decent memory and can handle the occasional asshole, I think you'll be fine." Clementine had that pretty, perky blonde thing going for her. He was betting she would come away with plenty of tips. "Just tell me when you want to start and I'll get you on the schedule."
“Whenever works for you. Maybe tomorrow or after the storm, when you might need some more help? I don’t want to take tips away from you today. Plus I’m still hoping you think about closing up, because I think the storm is only gonna get worse.” She shook his hand as well and then dropped it back to her coffee mug to go for another sip.
“Tomorrow is fine,” Justin said. It wasn’t storming yet, but it certainly appeared as though it was going to. “I’ll be here most of the day so come around whenever and I’ll show you what you need to know.” He heard the cook and turned back to grab her plate of food. Setting it in front of her Justin shrugged one shoulder. “We’ll see how bad it gets. Seeing as how you and Pancakes are the only customers I got right now, it’s probably not going to get any better in here if it gets worse out there.”
“I just don’t want you to get stuck here and the weather keep you trapped here or something. I’d rather know you were safe at home instead of here, stuck in a giant storm.” Home was always better when the weather was threatening like this, even if she did really like this diner. With food in front her her, though, she tried to push the storm aside from her mind and smiled. “Want some toast?”
He couldn’t help but grin a little. “I don’t live far,” Justin said. “If I get wet heading home, I’ll probably survive. Unless I catch pneumonia and die, then I’ll probably regret not listening to you sooner. You can come visit my grave and tell me you told me so.” He sipped his coffee again, eyed her plate and then shrugged before reaching for one piece of toast. “Yeah, sure.” Justin didn’t make it a habit of eating off of anyone else’s plate, given he could make his own toast if he wanted, but hell, why not. “You going to be okay going home too?”
“Well, hopefully that doesn’t happen. I’d prefer to visit you, not your grave,” Clementine said, smiling back at him. She took a bite of her eggs and shrugged. “I’ll be ok. I’ll make it there. Unless I get blown over by the wind or picked up like that cow in Twister.”
“Can’t see why you’d want to visit me, unless you like the way I yell your order to the cook,” Justin said before taking a bite of his toast. He smirked a little, then swallowed before speaking. “If there’s a tornado in the dome, we’re all fucked. So let’s hope that doesn’t happen, unless it means I wake up in Oz.”
“Oz isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” She said, looking back at Justin with another grin. “They were all hiding behind lies.” She said, taking another bite of her eggs. “Unless I get to meet the Cowardly Lion, because I liked him the best.”
Cocking a brow, Justin studied her with some amusement. “Lies, huh? In Oz? What, you mean the wizard?” He remembered seeing the movie once as a kid, thinking the wizard had been badass, until he was revealed to be a fumbling old man. “I liked the flying monkeys, myself.”
"Yeah, the whole place is full of lies. They all blindly follow this Wizard without even knowing who he really is. All they had to do was look behind the stupid curtain. It's like some weird scientist decided all of Oz was just one big experiment for him. Not cool," She said, shaking her head a little. "Those monkeys were traumatizing."
“Sometimes it’s easy to blindly follow someone who makes you feel safe,” Justin pointed out after another bite of his toast. Then he licked his lips and raised a brow, trying not to grin. “Maybe there’s a weird scientist in the dome, making us all his weird experiment. Makes sense that they’d show Wizard of Oz as their first movie at the theater, huh?” And instead lions, and tigers and bears, it was vampires, and werewolves and ghosts. “But yeah, the monkeys were traumatizing. That’s probably why they were my favorite.”
“Maybe there is,” Clementine said, smiling a little more. “Well, I hate that movie, but if you want some company, I’ll go watch it with you.” She didn’t get to spend too much time with Justin and it might be nice to get out with a friend. On a day when the dome didn’t feel like it was going to collapse. Finishing off her food, she smiled again and fished in her pocket for her money. “I should probably get home before it gets worse.”
Justin couldn't help chuckle. "I wouldn't make you go see a movie you hated. But maybe another movie, sometime." It sounded like a polite way to make plans that would never come to fruition. At least that was how Justin usually operated. But who knew. Maybe he needed to get out more, though his track record with nice women wasn’t terribly great. Even platonic, nice women. "Be safe walking home."
“You be safe staying here. Don’t stick it out for too long,” She said, looking back at him as she placed her money and a nice tip on the counter for Justin before she headed toward the door. Bracing herself, she stepped back into the storm and forced her way toward her house.