Title: Closing Time
Word Count: 1335
Rating: G
Summery: My mind wanders to the imaginary relationship we have. I see him holding the door open for me as we enter the movie theater, our first date.
Authors Notes: none

It is Monday night and it is deader than usual. Not many people have come in tonight. I fall into a chair that had been placed next to the counter to keep customers from sitting on the right side of the dining area since it had already been cleaned for the night. I cross my arms over the counter and drop my chin on them, gazing back into the kitchen, between the two registers. Dave is already starting to clean the grill. I lean back to catch a glance at the clock hanging next to the giant picture menu, noting that it is ten after seven, fifty minutes until we close. I glance back at Dave as he throws all his weight onto the big black brick, scraping it across the surface of the grill, a jarring smell that will forever be stuck in my memory reaches my nostrils and I drop my head back onto my arms. Who am I to tell Dave that it is too early to put the grill out of commission?

I sigh turning my head to watch Chad fiddle with the radio stations again. My heart aches slightly as he begins to sing along with a song that I have never heard before. My mind races back over the time that I have known him. From seeing him for the first time in the hallways at school my freshman year, to hanging out in his room with my friend and his girlfriend, Tarna. To three years later, six months before the present, seeing him tending the fryers when I first started working here, to three months later when he was discussing his now defunct relationship with my now distant friend Tarna, his voice indicating a humorous indifference, his eyes indicating otherwise. And then to the past month, when I started looking at him and realizing how until then I had never really looked at him, remembering the conversation I had with Cassie, hanging out the drive thru window one night just before close as she told me that she had mentioned me as a prospective girlfriend to Chad and he hadn't laughed right in her face but instead silenced into a quiet contemplation. My thoughts clipped over the week after that conversation, trying to block out how I had cleaned up for work and wore my best pair of jeans only to find out that he was back together with Tarna.

My memory slows as I recap the past three weeks, which included a snowball fight where Jackie and I are running around the building from a snow covered Chad , who is wielding snowballs. I try to run but the drive thru belt I'm wearing is sliding off my waist and threatens to drop to my knees. I almost make it to the door when I feel something incredibly hard and cold smack me in the ribs and I think I'm going to die. Once we're all back inside, I stand in front of the grill, trying to warm my frost bitten hands, listening to Chad poke fun at Jackie and as he passes behind me, I feel his hand rub the spot where he had hit me and I jump at the contact. As soon as his hand was there it is gone and I do my best to contain my smile.

Jump to a week later when I'm supposed to be working as an expo, putting the food on plates for the in-house orders or bagging them up for drive thru, and instead I'm standing up front talking to Sarah. I suddenly remember my place and see Chad standing in front of the expo counter waiting for Dave to finish making the barbeque for his order. I walk back to stand beside him and apologize in a mocking tone although I am being serious. He replies that it is alright, mimicking my tone and again I feel his hand, this time rubbing along the center of my back in a soothing gesture. I smile at him and he smiles back.

Jump to two days ago, when I'm talking to Cassie as she expos and I wait for my order and she says that Chad and Tarna aren't doing too hot, and then goes on to tell me about how he had spent New Year's Eve alone because Tarna had spent the whole night with her friends. I let the wave of anger pass before saying that I had invited him, although not expecting him to show up, to a New Year's party that I had thrown at my mother's house and was shocked dumb when Cassie replied that he almost made an appearance.

Roll back two hours, when Chad and I were exchanging money for a call in order that had come through the drive thru. I handed him the bills with the change on top as I did with customers, allowing the coins to slide down the paper money and into his palm, when his other hand raised and slid under my offering hand, his fingers running along the back of my hand, from wrist bone to finger tip, to catch the change lest it fall, sending a shock wave through my system.

My thoughts are brought back to the present as he changes the radio station again and I realize that I have been staring all this time. I turn my gaze back to Dave who is almost finished cleaning the grill. I lean back again and see that it is now seven-thirty. I fall forward, my eyes once again resting on Chad who is standing next to the grill, watching Dave. I stare straight ahead, my field of vision only allowing me to see him from his neck to about mid-calf, but I look over at the drive thru window and see his entire upper body in the reflection. He has cocked his hat to the side and is playing the air drums as he often does when he is unoccupied. He spins and I raise my eyes to watch him look up at the wall above the counter, which I know is where the clock resides. His head drops and he pulls his hoodie down farther around his hips and he turns back to watch Dave again.

My mind wanders to the imaginary relationship we have. I see him holding the door open for me as we enter the movie theater, our first date. I see myself standing in a club watching his band play, smiling as he goes into a drum solo, thinking ‘he's mine' as pride consumes me. I see me on a stage in the middle of a choir and stepping forward past all of the rest to stand in front, my eyes finding his, confirming his presence in the audience before I begin my solo. I see us getting our pictures taken at prom, his hand resting comfortably on my lower back. I see us playing in the snow. I see him holding me as I cry. I see us consumed in laughter. I see us sitting in front of the fireplace in his room and he brushing a strand of hair out of my face before cupping my cheek with a gentleness that I didn't even know a man could possess.

My daydream is shattered by his voice and I sit up giving him my full attention. My mind is still somewhat clinging to the fantasy I was spinning seconds before and I desperately await his words. I can see him asking me to step outside with him, and once we do, he states that he and Tarna are over and he realizes that he should have asked me out earlier and not even bothered to try and resurrect their doomed relationship. I can see his eyes imploring me to accept his offer and I do as I embrace him.

Instead, he cocks his head toward the door and says:

“You've got a customer coming in.”