Luke's, Monday

[vdistinctive]

It was Columbus Day, a US holiday fraught with entirely reasonable controversy. Eliot was braced for just about anything coming into his diner Monday morning.

He found his kitchen staff calmly performing their jobs and chatting amiably about perfectly mundane things. The dishwasher asked the busboy about his evening plans, and the busboy's answer was perfectly reasonable, something about having a night in with his boyfriend.

It was the strangest thing Eliot had seen from them in months.

He watched for several moments before the cook looked up and noticed him.

"We thought you'd gone on the trip!"

The busboy and dishwasher exchanged glances, and promptly launched into an onion fight. The cook began singing Klingon opera. Poorly.

Eliot gave a long suffering sigh and went to go sort out paperwork in his office.

Today's specials
Fried chicken salad
Chili cheese fries
Oven-fried apple pies

Luke's was open and OCD free.

Comments

[redhairgoldheart]

It had been a long time since Mary had been to the diner -- living in a place with room service had its perks -- but she needed a change of pace. Not to mention that Gunther was still obsessed with the one thing she refused to eat.

Mary walked through the door and paused, wondering what she had walked into.

[vdistinctive]

What, wasn't every diner like this?

"Hey," Eliot greeted. "What can I get ya?"

[redhairgoldheart]

"I'll have a salad, please," said Mary, looking over the specials. "It's just chicken in the salad, right? No red meat? The chef at the hotel has this obsession with hamburger right now," she added with a wince.

[vdistinctive]

"It usually comes with bacon bits, but we can skip that part, no problem," Eliot assured her. "I like beef as much as the next guy, but hamburger all the time sounds like hell."

[redhairgoldheart]

"And the worst part? I don't eat red meat and he knows that," said Mary, shaking her head. "I just hope he comes to his senses before we get busy at Homecoming. It's already the most stressful time of the year for me."

[vdistinctive]

"We get that many visitors for it?" Eliot asked. "You know, I wouldn't have guessed. We usually only get crazy -- well, crazier -- around her when the kids show up after prom."

[redhairgoldheart]

"I would have thought that the hotel would be busier on prom night, since it is an island full of teenagers," said Mary, "But Homecoming weekend blows away prom night in comparison. It's like my Black Friday. One good Homecoming weekend and I'm set for the rest of the year."

[vdistinctive]

"Well, I wish you luck, then," Eliot said, offering her a smile. "Nice to see you out and about, too. Ain't sure we've had a chance to chat before."

It was a small enough town that he'd definitely seen her around, after all, but as had been noted, she tended to go for room service instead of coming out to eat.

[redhairgoldheart]

If she managed to leave the hotel at all. Mary had gotten stuck in her routine.

She smiled sheepishly in response. "I've been meaning to come by since the place reopened after all the hurricane. It wasn't so bad at the hotel, but I felt awful when I heard how badly the diner was damaged. It looks great now, by the way."