The two of you arrive at Rocky's without incident and without being followed. Looking through a window, you notice a small crowd, six people divided into three groups. First, two women at a table, one with natural, shoulder length blonde hair and clearly fake large D- or DD-cup breasts contained in a blue halter top. The other has longer hair, down to her shoulder blades, and dyed it platinum blonde, with a set of C-cup breasts, maybe very small D-cups, contained in a white crop top. Both girls are wearing way too much make-up, mini-skirts, black leather thigh-high boots, and cannot possibly be older than twenty-five. Based on the unusual way they're sitting, it seems a lot of business has hit their corner lately.
The second group is of three guys, all of whom are in their early thirties, wearing fresh do-rags and semi-clean t-shirts under leather jackets. Since they're in a booth, you can't see too much of them, but based on their clothes and the fact that the three Harleys out front appear to be fresh from the showroom, they're most likely a few friends trying to start a biker gang, so you wouldn't be surprised if there aren't any colors on them yet and no real danger.
The third group isn't a group, it's one woman, sitting at the counter, back to you. Sitting like this, you can clearly see the long ponytail of black hair extend to the small of her back, her light blue windbreaker, and black jeans. With her back to you, you can't really get a read on her or see what she's doing, so she never leaves your sights, and your hand never strays too far from your gun.
You snap back to reality, and learn you just assessed the situation in no more than 5 seconds. 'Why not, I've done plenty of other weird shit tonight. I'd be more surprised if I stopped surprising myself.'
Regina opens the door, and leads the way in to Rocky's. She leads you to a table in the corner as she says, "You always said it was better if we sat at this table. You never told me why, but I went with it since you always seemed to relax a whole lot once we sat down here." You take your seats, and you see why you always relaxed, you can see everything in and around the diner and there's no way to get behind you without you seeing.
After a slight wait, a middle-aged man emerges from the back, and you flashback. You remember, he's Rocky, he's a great cook, and although his establishment and his customers aren't the cleanest, he is. You found out through a couple of phone calls that he is as ordinary as he seems, with only one real flaw: he only knows how to live in society and how to run a diner. Despite this, he has always been someone you could talk to, even if he never offered useful advice, you always viewed the conversations as a way for you to organize your thoughts. Something interesting is you never had these conversations at the bar like most people do, you always had them in the back after an inspection, and you always had him promise to never talk about this with anyone other than you, and you know Rocky never breaks a promise.
As the rest of your memories begin hiding from you again, Rocky looks across the diner, noticing the new addition of you and Regina. As he walks over, Regina opens her mouth to speak, but you tell her, "I just remembered Rocky, don't bother." He stops at the table, getting ready to take your orders, when he finally notices who he's waiting on.
"Hey, Regina, where'd you find ?"
"He hasn't said where he's been, but I found him in the club and we decided to hit our favorite diner before enjoying the night."
"Sounds like the same , so I guess he hasn't changed too much since he left. Anyway, the usual, right?"
"Sure," you answer, "but can we talk first?"
Rocky scribbles down the order quickly and leads you to the back. |