This is a tricky situation

 "We're going to make doughnuts?" CW cringed at the thought. Didn't they make enough money at the coffee shop on brownies and pie? He sighed as if he didn't get paid enough to do all this extra kitchen work. After all, he was just a fry cook on the griddle, making his way through breakfast. During the week, it wasn't that hard, but by the weekend, his shoes felt tight, and his lower back ached.

"I guess." Crysal shrugged back as if she'd had enough herself.

"It was your idea," he winced hard, wondering where her mind was lately. They couldn't afford to make those keto brownies she suggested. Sure, she made them at home on occasion, but there were so many eggs. Basically, eggs and sugar-free chocolate chips.

CW yawned with a sigh. It was warming up outside. He had better things to do than talk about new ideas to serve. No way could they compete with fast food, even if the going rate for their best burger ran a good fifteen bucks for a combo.

"What happened to your idea about a salad bar?" That was a bust. Wilted salad, basically. They did better with keeping lettuce in the fridge for a garden salad or the Cobb salad. Even so, another cost.

"Let's stick with the basics," he told her at their afternoon meeting in the back booth of the old place. "Folks come for coffee. They like breakfast even at lunch." He nodded. "And no way am I going to start liver and onions that just stinks the place up." Suddenly, he felt like the old timer. Thankfully, Nico was learning the basics, and they were getting used to the teamwork of cooking together on the weekends. But Nico was already off to do his own thing.

"Just forget the doughnuts," he shook his head, no. "We'll do the Reuben special the week of Saint Paddy's and move on."

Crystal sighed as if she was defeated, perhaps, but she OKed his idea. She'd finally gotten around to hiring some help for the weekends, and Millie's mom filled in during the week at breakfast. Chili came in to tend to tables at lunch. 

He knew all this would fall into Crystal's lap. After all, Millie was out after finding out she was pregnant all along. There didn't seem to be an end in sight. CW didn't really have a day off. It was supposed to be on Wednesdays, but it hadn't happened yet. When it came to small business, the cook had to make sure the equipment worked properly, which meant the refrigerator too. Still, everything he'd learned was from Crystal.

"Now we need to get down to the park for a walk." She prodded him along. Yes, life could make you old if you stayed in all the time.

Was it always in your plan to leave eventually

 Jude couldn't help but think, 'What about Connor?' in this whole Junie mess. It wasn't that she hated the girl who looked a lot like her [even if she couldn't see it]. It was the fact of not knowing what happened to Connor.

Still, Darry was beginning to grow on her. They seemed to be sticking together lately as if they might be a couple. And Jude felt awkward about this development. She sensed Darry felt it too. Especially, she found herself bumping into him when she knew all along she didn't need this closeness. It would only bring her grief.

There was loss, yet a gain. She disliked it when she found herself dreaming about Darry. Her Darry, not the Darry she hung out with. Not the guy she picked up from work. Of course, this was a delicate matter to keep from her mother as well. But Jude needed to know. Where in the hell was Connor?

"Connor!" 

Jude heard the echo from Junie's hospital room, and it made her skin crawl. Was Junie having nightmares about him? Jude found herself lurking in the hospital hallway. She didn't really want to make her presence known, especially, to Junie. She hated being alone like this. There was a fear that a nurse might come by and ask if she was waiting to see her sister.

Jude leaned against the wall, hugging herself, but a shiver shook through her, wondering what she was trying to prove, even being here. Of course, she came because of someone else.

Darry surprised Jude with a bubble tea. She took it, wanting to say thank you, but she couldn't. It was as if Junie might hear them.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, you know, " Jude's face tensed. "That Keegan guy is there. She keeps calling  him Connor."

Darry nodded as he sipped on his Earl Grey while he'd gotten her a lavender-flavored drink. It seemed he knew a lot of favorite things now. He knew she only ate chicken tenders or chicken nuggets, never burgers, and she was an onion rings girl.

She looked at him, thinking she couldn't give him up. Maybe it was best to stop thinking about Connor when she knew he was trouble. And she had to find a way so that her mother wouldn't think Darry was trouble, either.

And solitaire is the only game in town

"It's going to take a while," Junie's mother said to Mattie about Junie getting back to her old self. "She doesn't remember anything."

"Not even us?" Mattie tensed as if she couldn't even imagine what Junie might be going through.

"Oh, the doctors seem to think it'll happen. She can do so much. I mean. She can write. She can speak. She's going to be OK. It's like she's blocked some things out." Her mom made it sound as if it were temporary, but that temporary would take time. It overwhelmed Mattie. After all, she was Junie's cousin. She thought of her as a little sister. She couldn't help but break down into tears. 

Her mother was crying too. "I don't know how to be optimistic anymore," Junie's mother sighed. "I mean, I'm grateful. Still, I don't know if we are really out of the woods. Junie is still sleeping a lot. She doesn't want to talk to me. And..and I know it's all my fault."

"Have you contacted her father?" Mattie felt that might help. She knew Junie didn't really know him.

"Why would I do that?" It looked as if it would pain her to call him, even on the phone.

"Then, why don't you let me, he needs to know." Mattie sniffed back tears.

"But."

"Look, no one would ever tell me about my own father. As if it were the end of the world. But it wasn't." Mattie was serious.

"Oh, God," her aunt said under her breath. She sniffed back tears, too. "I just- I just can't. OK?" Her voice rose with emotion as she blinked tears. "Wasn't like he was ever around when I needed him, and when he was, I thought he was going to kill us." Her jaw clenched. Junie's father was bipolar. 

"Well, maybe he's changed now." Mattie was straight-lipped. "Just let me contact him for you. If he doesn't care. He doesn't care."

"Mattie, can you stop wanting to help so much?" 

Mattie knew she hit a nerve, but still, she knew it was the right thing to do.

The feeling amplified

 

There was a sense that he was there, but it wasn't Connor.

She knew he had abandoned her. Junie knew. But still, she was in such a fog. Or was life just a dream?

A part of her didn't want to go back, but there were unanswered questions. She just wasn't sure she could find them. Not now. Not after she'd been a fool. Was that all she was to her family? To Darry? All because of Connor. 

Still, a heat of passion smoldered. She wanted to know, but she didn't want to have her doubts either.

But someone was here. Someone she knew who was close to her, who was anything but Connor. She didn't know who he was, but it didn't matter. It didn't really matter after all. 

Memories came and went. She'd never really been a priority. And she lived with it because all she'd ever known was to be a latchkey kid with a television for a babysitter. And the Internet. But her family was never big on phone plans, so she hadn't really been addicted to social media like today's kids. Never had a Facebook account. She'd yearned for Instagram, but that hadn't been as great as she'd anticipated. 

And then she'd met a stranger at the coffee shop. Crazy kid, who did things like that? Certainly, not her generation. Yeah, there was Amy who knew all. Damn, if she didn't forget that old friend in all that had happened. She hadn't even come to the hospital to see her. She would know her voice anywhere.

Junie wasn't sure she wanted to come back. What was there for her? She knew. She knew everything, at least, momentarily. Then Poof.

Like a clean slate, perhaps.

"Con..Connor?" She sputtered, tangled in a web of lifelines that kept her heart in rhythm.

The face looked ashamed as if he could not bear to tell her the truth. Yet, he was her last hope.

"Connor!" She took a good look at his big eyes, big nose, a rat's nest of curls. Still, he looked quite sad.

Funny, how the only words to curse from her lips were "Connor."