Family Reunion, Part 2 WHO Ashley Crane OT Michael Crane WHAT Father and daughter reunite and Ashley finds out some disturbing news. WHERE Uncle Joe's Diner WHEN Tuesday, March 29th, 2016 ~2pm PST WARNINGS Language, other warnings TBD
It had been a rather overcast and depressing morning with the sun making an attempt here and there to fight over the overcast cloud cover, but no avail until close to 2pm that afternoon. It was 1:53pm when she stepped out from under the scattered clouds in the sky and back into the diner after her break with a smile on her face, a spring in her step, and a tune being hummed. Such behavior garnered a few stares and outright looks of surprise when she returned to her shift with a more cheerful attitude than she usually displayed. She hated to admit it (OK, she hated to admit it out loud), but the reason for her good mood was because of Xander.
While it had started out rather awkward, especially since she had instigated a rather awkward situation in the first place when she had suddenly showed up at Kingston manor to ask him if he wanted to be her date to her cousin's birthday party, their date had turned out better than she hoped. It had been enough that she felt confident in contacting him again to set-up a lunch date when he was free after leaving a message with him of afternoons she wasn't working at the diner.
Perhaps it was because her mind was occupied, or perhaps it was just because things had been going so well since the new year, or maybe it just boiled down to the fact that the Universe liked to fuck with her. Whatever the case or reason may be, Ashley was wholly unprepared for her next customer that had settled in one of the booths.
As she approached the booth, she was busy scribbling the last part of another customer's order with a smile on her face when she started her spiel.
"Hi there, welcome to Uncle Joe's! Can I star—" the rest suddenly died on her tongue as she finally looked up from her order pad to finally look at the guy who had taken a seat in her section. Her grandparents weren't very keen on having any reminders of Michael Crane in the house given what he'd done to their daughter and her mother, but she'd seen enough photographs of him on visits with Rebecca that she was familiar enough with his visage to recognize him straight away. Upon realizing that her father, the man who had abandoned her and her mother, was sitting in a booth in the place where she worked caused the blood in her face to drain away as her heart nearly stopped in her chest.
The nerve of him! Ashley thought hotly in the next moment as the blood rushed back into her cheeks and she could feel the heat of her anger in them as she finally demanded, "And just where the fuck have you been?" There was a note of derision in the question.