Brenda pulled into the parking lot of Rutter's Restaurant and parked her car. She turned it off and sat there for a moment. "Whew," she sighed. "Here goes nothing." She got out of the car, locking the door behind her. As she walked to the front door, she could feel her breasts jiggling slightly. Shit, she thought. She didn't want to look like an exhibitionist. She walked slower and tried to keep her hips from swaying side to side. She hoped that might eliminate her problem. It seemed to work a little.
She walked into the restaurant. "Welcome to Rutter's," the hostess greeted her. "How many this morning?"
"Uh, it's going to be two," Brenda said. "My...friend doesn't appear to be here yet," she added, scanning the dining room over the hostess' head.
"Smoking or non?" the hostess asked.
"Non, please," Brenda said.
"Right this way." The hostess took two menus and led her to a booth in the corner of the restaurant. She placed one menu on each side of the table. "Your server will be right with you," she said.
"OK, thank you," Brenda said as she sat down. She picked up the menu and started to look over it. For some reason she felt nervous. It wasn't because she was still conflicted over what to do about Ray. She had already made that decision. No, she now felt nervous because she was afraid Ray might stand her up. Wouldn't that be a kicker?
The waitress came over to the table and asked if she could get Brenda any coffee or juice. Brenda asked for a large glass of orange juice. She also mentioned that someone would be joining her shortly. The waitress nodded her head and said she’d be right back.
Brenda continued to look over the menu. Over her shoulder she sensed that someone was approaching her. Judging by the heaviness of her footsteps, she guessed it was not the waitress returning with her juice. "Sorry I was early," she said, looking up to see Ray's face.
Ray was taken aback. "How did you know it was me coming over?"
Brenda smiled. "Just a lucky guess. Not something I'm usually too successful with." Ray sat down on the opposite side of the booth. "Did you have a pleasant night of work?" she asked.
"Not too bad," he said. "Definitely one of my more eventful graveyard shifts, though, thanks to you."
Brenda laughed. "Yea, me and my klutziness."
"How is your ankle by the way?" Ray asked, showing concern.
"Oh," Brenda said, having almost completely forgotten about her fake injury. "Surprisingly, it felt fine this morning. I didn't even need the bandage."
"That's good," Ray smiled. He looked at the menu. "See anything you like?" he asked.
"A couple things," she said. "Not sure what I want yet, though."
The waitress, named Rachel, returned with Brenda's juice. "Hi, what can I get you to drink? Coffee? Juice?"
"Just a large milk and a small grapefruit juice," Ray replied.
"OK, I'll be right back with those," Rachel said, and she walked away.
"I hate coffee," he said, looking at Brenda.
She laughed. "Me too. I've never liked it."
"That's at least one thing we have in common," Ray smiled.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, as both of them read the menu. Rachel returned with Ray's drinks. "Are you ready or do you need more time?"
“I’m ready if you are,” Brenda said to Ray. He nodded in deference to Brenda. “Uh, I’ll have the egg and toast combo. Scrambled eggs, white toast.” Right after she ordered, Brenda realized that she would usually order something bigger at breakfast. But she wasn’t the same person anymore, and now a simple order of eggs and toast seemed to be all she wanted.
“OK,” the waitress said, writing down the order and taking the menu from Brenda’s hands. “And what can I get for you?” she asked Ray.
“I’ll have the ham and cheese omelette,” Ray said.
“Would you like pancakes, toast or muffin with that?” the waitress asked.
“White toast is fine,” Ray said.
The waitress wrote down his order and said, “OK, I’ll get those right in for you.”
Brenda and Ray looked at each other for a minute. There was an obvious tension in the air, as if both were afraid to speak. “So,” Brenda finally said, lifting the tension somewhat. “How old are you?”
“Oh,” Ray laughed. “I’m 24. How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?” He added the last part of the sentence very quickly, not wanting to offend her.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m not offended by that question. I’m 22.” Of course, she was really only 18. But she had already determined she looked older than that. 22 sounded like a nice number. Not too young, but not too old either. Relative to Ray’s age, she thought.
“What do you do Brenda?” Ray asked.
“I’m still a student,” she said. “I just take classes through the Internet from the community college, not the one you work for.”
“OK,” he said, sipping his juice.
“Which reminds me of something I wanted to ask you,” Brenda said.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“How did you come to be a graveyard shift security guard?” she asked.
“Well,” Ray said, smiling slightly. “I really want to be a police officer, hopefully a detective eventually. This kind of work is a good introductory, I was told. Not only that, but it still allows me do stuff during the day. I’m going to enter the police academy as soon as I’ve saved enough money to make some decent investments.”
“Why is that?” Brenda asked. “Sorry if that’s too personal.”
“Oh, not at all,” Ray said. “I’ve heard the cops don’t make a tremendous amount of money. So I want to be sure that I’m not really going to have to worry about my finances. I’m just going to make safe investments, ones that I know will yield good returns.”
Brenda smiled at him. “That is so smart,” she said. “Too bad more people don’t think like that.” There was another silence. “So, why do you want to be a cop then?”
“I want to help people,” Ray replied immediately. “I mean, I think that one person can make a difference. And even if no one knows I make a difference, I’ll be happy to know to myself that I did.”
Brenda nodded at him. “How noble.” He blushed at her. “No, really. It is. You think of others before yourself.” She took a sip of her juice and added, “Just like last night.”
Brenda though that statement would put him at ease. But his faced turned redder than it had been before. “Yea,” he said meekly.
Right away Brenda could tell that he was uncomfortable. “Are you still uncomfortable about what happened when my top came off?”
He looked away from her eyes. “Yes,” he said. “Very much so.”
“Don’t be,” she said. “It wasn’t your fault.” But she could tell that he wouldn’t listen to her. Brenda was upset with herself now. She thought she had made him feel at ease with her, and with one statement, that was intended as a compliment, he was completely uneasy again. Her feelings of guilt were too much. “Look, Ray, you should be embarrassed because I did that on purpose.”
His face had been looking away from her. Once she finished talking, it jerked back to look at her dead on. “You what? Why? I mean…” He was clearly perplexed by her admission.
Now it was Brenda’s turn to look away. “I did it to seduce you,” she said. His jaw dropped a little. “I was being dumb,” she continued. “I thought it would be a good test of your character.”
“A test?” he asked, a hint of anger in his eyes.
“Yea,” she said. “Dumb, like I said. I guess I wanted to see if you’d…you know…take advantage of the situation. I suppose I thought most guys would…given the circumstances.”
“I would never take advantage of someone like that,” he said. “I mean, for all I knew, it was an accident, and you were prone. It would be like a lion jumping a wounded zebra. I’m not that kind of lion.”
“No, you’re not,” she said, looking back at his face. “I guess in that regard you passed. You showed me what your character is.”
Ray leaned back and gave her a slightly condescending look. “And what is my character then?”
“You’re kind,” she said. “You’re helpful, quick-thinking. You’re clearly intelligent. You know what to do. You know what’s best to do. Above all else, you think of others first. I think you might be the most honorable, best natured guy I’ve ever met. And I want to get to know you.”
Ray smiled and leaned forward in the booth. Brenda leaned her face forward, too. Their lips were about to meet, but were interrupted by the waitress putting down their plates. “Here we go,” she said, oblivious to what they were about to do. “Ham and cheese, white toast,” she said, putting down Ray’s plate. “Scrambled with white toast,” she said putting down Brenda’s plate. “I’ll check on you in a minute.”
Brenda and Ray started to eat. For a few minutes, neither of them said anything to each other, except for small talk commenting on the quality of the food. Brenda decided it was time to finish her thought. “I want to get to know you. A lot more,” she said.
Ray looked up from his plate. “Hmm?” he asked.
“You know,” she smiled coyly. “I want to know you.”
Suddenly Ray’s mind felt like it was about to overload. A few minutes ago, she had made an admission of trying to seduce him. But that had led to them almost kissing. Now it seemed like she was trying to seduce him again. Or was she testing him again? He decided to just remain calm, no matter what she did.
“Yea,” he said. “I want to know you too,” he said in a very nondescript manner. He was almost done with his omelette. Luckily, he thought. If he had to eat any faster, that might be a failure of her test. If she was testing him, that was.
“Yea,” she said before putting the last bit of toast in her mouth. All the while she had slipped her foot out of her shoe, and was sliding it closer to his feet. “Know you.”
He felt her foot rub up against his leg. “Yea,” he said, pretending to ignore her foot touching him, and the fact that his penis was reacting to it.
Brenda frowned a bit as she inched down in the booth. She was hoping to get some kind of a reaction out of him. She would just have to go a little higher up on his body. She ran her foot up his leg, feeling it the whole way, looking for his groin.
Ray held his breath as Brenda’s foot drew ever closer to his manhood. He didn’t know what to do now. He remained motionless, frozen in place in the booth. Her foot was almost at its target.
“I want…to get…to know you,” Brenda said again, pausing each time as she felt around more and more. At last she found his groin. She pressed her foot against it gently, not wanting to hurt him. Immediately Ray reacted. He inhaled sharply and his eyes went wide. She could tell that his penis was hard. At the very least she knew he was attracted to her. He continued to remain still, except for the strange look on his face that could best be described as the look someone gets when a heavy weight has been dropped on his or her foot.
“Yea,” he groaned. “Know me.”
Brenda was now defeated. She removed her foot from his groin, sat back up in the booth, and put her foot back in her shoe. “Oh, the hell with it,” she said. “Ray, can we go back to your place?”
Ray knew he wasn’t being tested. He was going to call for the check, but as luck would have it, the waitress returned and put it on their table. “Have a nice day,” she said.
“Thank you,” Ray said. He pulled out his wallet and put a few dollars down on the table. “I’m paying, so don’t even try to give me any money.” He got out of the booth and took Brenda’s hand, practically pulling her out of it. “Sorry,” he apologized, sensing he had been a little rough. They paid at the front and ran out the restaurant’s door.