One More Sunset Pt. 06

"Well... That was then. Now, I've come to find myself wanting to continue my old man's legacy."

"But you aren't quitting now, are you?"

"Only because it's my old man's place, no. I'm putting in my two weeks, so I'll be gone by Thanksgiving."

"For fuck's sake." I leaned against a prep table and began to sweat about my early death as a result of stress-induced rapid aging. The diner wasn't open yet, but Keith was making us a skillet of eggs and sausage, with some onions and peppers sautéing in the pan. "I'm sorry for getting the job over you, for what it might be worth."

"It is what it is."

"Do you know what you're going to do now?"

"I'll probably go out west and find a place off the radar."

"You are unbelievable. You know that?" The food sizzled on the pan as Keith let it sit. "I'll miss you, Keith."

"Same to you. Although, there's probably a lot less fun Halloween parties out West."

I laughed and said, "I think I'm becoming a party-host kind of girl. Like, now I'm planning a Thanksgiving thing in my head, or maybe Friendsgiving, even though I don't like Friends as a show."

"Grab a plate, will you? These are about done." As I moved to grab a plate, Keith added, "And if I'm still here, make sure I get an invite."

"I'll add you to the RSVP list. Want coffee?"

"Pour it tall, it's going to be a long day today."

---

There was an artistry to Keith's collapsing upon the office floor everyday around 3 P.M. Rather than push the extra mile for a pillow or any cushion under his head, Keith would lie flat, and his eyes would remain shut until someone barked at him to return to the kitchen. He never slept. Instead, he only shut his eyes and remained still. I sometimes wondered if he had died while I passed by the room. Then, without prompt, without an alarm on his phone, or without a change in the wind direction, Keith would get up and return to work.

Today, I opened the door and moved past him to Mr. Wolfe's plush office chair. I almost collapsed with contact.

"How do we stay so busy for 15 tables and a dozen barstools?"

Keith didn't reply. Maybe today he actually died. If I wasn't so tired, I would have at least checked a little bit. For today, I let him lay there dead, because I would have wanted to remain dead if it were the other way around.

"Your 'Kiss the Cook' jar is getting full by the way."

"I tried extra hard today." Keith revived himself to acknowledge the tip jar he placed on the counter. "I'll go empty some of it out when I go back." Keith liked to leave some in there to motivate people to add. Apparently, he found that there were less tips overall on days when he completely emptied it. "How are your tips today?"

"They're almost nonexistent. With each day, people tip less and less, but complain more and more about how tipping is everywhere."

No response at first, but then he broke the vow of silence. "At least you're getting that big pay increase coming soon. That'll help."

"Sure, but that won't start until the boss man leaves on Christmas."

"Bummer. Try to hold out on resorting to feet pics on the internet. Desperate times, but don't be that desperate."

"You're disgusting." I scoffed then said, "And if it came to it, my feet pics would be chart-toppers on WikiFeet."

My phone buzzed.

I looked at the notification and it was a text from Evelynn, with 2 photo attachments. Before opening them, I looked past my phone and saw Keith still on the floor. In an instinctive defense, I even turned my head expecting some imaginary figure looming over me in anticipation of seeing some photos.

I swiped open the phone, and the pictures immediately got me wet. Lynn was in the bathroom at school, and the fist photo had her pants dropped to her ankles, and her shirt lifted up. Her black t-shirt bra matched the little black thong today, and to the side was her caged clit. The second photo had her turned around, and her asshole was plugged. A text came in shortly after saying, "Freedom just came one day closer." My ass clenched against my plug, and I almost moaned slightly knowing Lynn was wearing hers too.

Keith got up and saw me on my phone. "Did you get a feet pic?

"Something like that."

---

November 5 ^th - Evelynn

"Is that making sense at all? If it doesn't, I can go back and show you how I found that answer." Kate sipped at the hot cocoa, which was still steaming hot after half an hour. Those Yeti mugs sold themselves sometimes. That being said, my hot chocolate had burned my mouth on the first sip, so I was refraining for as long as possible before going in for a round two.

"Yeah, I think so." I checked my math one more time, "So if we take this answer, and plug it into the next step, that's how we find star density relative to different gravitational pulls?"

"Exactly!" Kate stood in her chair and stretched as she paced around the study room, "That's a pretty good first hour. We've got this until 5 P.M., but I doubt we'll be here that long."

"I'd hope not! It's a Friday afternoon. We need to get out of here sooner than later."

"Not until you figure out thermos-densities forward and backward. I'm not going to have you failing Morgan's next exam and leaving me to do these classes alone."

"Me? Never! I only fail one exam per educational career, so I'm all finished with those."

"Oh whatever."

"Hey, did you need Savannah's address again for tonight?" Savannah had invited Kate over to hang out for the evening. A new movie was hitting Hulu, something about scary monster demon people, and Savannah apparently had been waiting months for this, so she wanted to make a micro-event out of it. As a result, Kate was going to come over and join us.

"No, I've still got it from Halloween. What is the name of the movie again? I want to look it up and act all smartsy so I can show Savannah up on her movie trivia."

"Honestly, I have no idea. Savannah finds these movies from the dusty dark corners of the internet, and I rarely have ever heard of anything about it."

Kate rolled her eyes. "It must be hard, you know? Go home to a fun girl that shows you all these weird movies, and all you do is show up after half-studying all day."

"Half-studying? Again, I'm insulted to the core of my character.

Kate walked over to the thermostat and said, "It's too cold out there. I'm literally still shivering from it." She tapped the screen a few times, and the heaters thoomed to life. "It's freaking below freezing. Why couldn't they cancel classes? And cancel being outside as well?"

I wanted to agree, but I was bundled in layers to hide my bra, which brought forth a layer of panic. I hadn't taken a photo of myself today, but I was plugged and wearing a bra. It would be an extra two days for not sending the photo today. No matter how sweaty I got, I wasn't going to reveal the bra to Kate, even though she had already seen me at Halloween, and she had claimed to notice the bra straps through my shirt in class. I wasn't ready for that sober conversation. Despite this, I was warm, and Kate noticed.

"Feel free to take off the Arctic gear anytime. It'll get warmer in here pretty fast."

"I'm fine," I lied.

"If you say so," Kate said, "then let's get back to studying. I doubt it'll be another hour."

Fifty minutes later, we finished studying the main course material, but before we were ready to leave, Kate suggested that we submit applications for Morgan's student-professor program. "To my understanding, it's a presentation thing, where we get assigned various subjects, and whoever he picks joins him at a beach resort to present in front of the Eastern Space Division of Students."

"You don't need to submit yours, Kate." I mocked her, "I actually just rewatched Star Wars last week, so it'll be pretty embarrassing to go against me with how much knowledge I have of outer space."

"Yeah, maybe embarrassing because I won't be sweating profusely."

"I won't be sweating in a minute or two, because as soon as we submit these, we have to back..." I paused for dramatic effect, "there."

"I'm not sitting near you tonight, because the second you pull those layers off, it's going to smell like you ran a marathon."

"Say that again to the person that supplied the world's best hot chocolate."

"I will say that to the person that brought it, because I know where to get it now."

"I never should have told you that..."

"It's from your girlfriend's diner. Why would you not promote her place? You're ridiculous, Evan. How's that going? She owns the place now?" Kate typed in her application as we spoke.

"Co-owns the place once Christmas starts. Until then, she is in training under her boss's coattails or whatever."

"I guess she really likes working there. I couldn't imagine running my own place already. And she's the same age as us?"

"Yep. Rather than pursue a master's degree, Savannah made the wise decision to just begin her life without being in debt."

"I hear that. My part-time at the mall is not making enough to cover basic expenses."

I perked up and pointed at Kate, who immediately mirrored the point back at me. I said, "Savannah was actually talking about how she needed more help at the diner. I was mildly debating it, but because we are dating, I didn't want to make it weird and apply and ruin it or anything. You should totally apply!"

"Oh, gee thanks! So, I can ruin it instead."

"You know what I meant!" I elbowed Kate. "Talk to her tonight about it. She'd hire you in a heartbeat!"

"She'd hire you as well!"

"Maybe, but it'd be weird, right?"

"Are you kidding? Savannah's personality, but bossing around her friends and getting paid for it? That'd be the girl's dream job." Kate typed away on her laptop, then after a few minutes she said, "Done! Submit yours!" She slid the laptop over to me. I finished mine, and Kate said, "With that, I think we are done! I have the room for another half hour, but I feel like we covered everything."

"Same here. How are your other classes going?"

"This semester is a light load, so I'm not doing so bad. I'm taking a literature course as a humanities credit, and its about comic books actually."

"No way! That sounds really cool. Are you guys just reading Batman and Archie?"

We started packing up our bags as Kate answered, "It's a theory class. We look at the art, and the color palettes. We compare styles, and all of these little things I never noticed before."

"So, you're basically an expert now?"

"You could say that."

"Well, between you and comics, and Savannah with her movies, I'm significantly missing my own niche thing to know way too much about."

"You're a boy. Don't you know football by default or something? Wait, you're a hockey dork."

"Kate, has anyone ever told you that you're a bully?"

"Honestly, I'm told that pretty regularly."

"Good. I just needed to make sure I wasn't the only one of your victims." I grabbed my bag and threw it over my shoulders. "Come over whenever. Savannah is usually done by five, but I'm heading there now."

"What's the food plan? I might grab dinner before heading over."

"Savannah is bringing a crazy amount from work. Plus, it'll be a good segue for your application to the job."

"What would I even do?"

"I don't know. Cook, serve, mop. I think that's the job at most diners."

"Fair enough. I'll see you later, dude."

We split ways, and I shivered as the cold wind pierced through my heart as I walked across campus. I was mildly convinced I wouldn't make it back to my car, but against all odds I sat in the driver's seat with my hands jammed against the vents awaiting the hot air. Something made me laugh as I sat there, and I wasn't sure what. I had just spent the day with Kate, and never once had I been Evelynn to her, and I liked myself. Now, I was headed home to become Evelynn for Savannah, and I liked myself there too, but it was very different.

I caught my words and wrestled them down. I was headed home to become Evelynn for Savannah. Was this for her? Did I enjoy being this way all the time, or was it localized to just Savannah? I looked at my nails and wondered if I would have liked them had I never met Savannah.

---

"So, you forgot to take a selfie! It's not a big deal, babe." Savannah said to me as she unloaded a few bags worth of food from the diner. I had preheated the oven, so an ensemble of goodies were loaded onto trays: mashed potatoes with bacon, chicken fried steaks, soft and buttered bread rolls, some spinach artichoke dip, little smokie, and a few finger sandwiches as well. When product goes bad at the end of the day, the servers started to prep their dinners. Mr. Wolfe never cared either because he didn't want to ever waste food. Despite it being a Friday, the diner would have to do record numbers twice over to polish off this amount of food. "It adds two days to the count. It'll be over before you know it."

"Okay, when we get done, we're doing some reverse version of this to you." I was tidying the apartment, as Kate was due to arrive any minute. Despite being in a bra all day, I took it off for the night. I was in sweatpants and a t shirt over my thong and cage. My ass could only take the plug for so long, but Savannah was still rocking hers. I almost hadn't believed her when she said she was going to keep it in for the evening.

"We will do no such thing," Savannah said as she walked past me and pinched my butt.

My initial senses thought the apartment smelled amazing when Savannah had walked in with the bags of food. Now, the oven sent the warm aromas further, and it was as if new layers of the food were being activated, and my mouth salivated with every breath I took.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Savannah continued to ready the kitchen, and I opened the door.

"Heyyy!" Kate walked in with some beers and a bottle hidden within a brown paper bag. "I'm feeling like I need a catchphrase when I come in."

"Hey Kate!" Savannah chimed from the oven. "Come in!"

"Oh my goodness, it smells so good." Kate walked in and dropped the bottle on the counter, and she opened the fridge to set the beers inside. "There's like a hundred smells fighting their way into my nose right now."

"Give it five minutes or so to heat back up," Savannah said.

"Sounds good. I brought you some fruity beers to enjoy, girly! I like these ones enough, so I'm guessing you'll love them."

"Give me!" Savannah lurched toward the fridge, but said, "They probably need to get a little colder."

"Speaking of cold, your hot cocoa was amazing."

"I'm glad you liked it!"

"Seriously, Savannah. What's the secret?"

"So don't tell anyone," Savannah leaned in as if she was trying to keep the secret from being heard, "but we take chocolate... and heat it up."

Kate waved her off.

I asked, "Savannah is this a bad movie that I need to drink through to enjoy, or is this a pretentious movie that I need to drink through to enjoy?"

"If we're lucky, a little bit of Column A, and a little bit of Column B."

"Then I brought just the thing!" Kate brandished the brown bottle from the bag, "I present a bottle of... scotch, because I never drink scotch, but I wanted to try it and not feel bad if I didn't like it."

The bottle was severely dented by the time we started the movie. Savannah didn't love the scotch, but the IPAs were exactly what she liked. The fourth can cracked open as she sipped it back. Kate and I sat next to one another, passing the bottle back and forth to top off one another's glass. I knew we were supposed to sip scotch, but as smooth as this was, it was going down in gulps.

The movie was alright, but I could tell Savannah was getting more out of it than Kate or I was, so we started heckling it like Mystery Science Theater. We were cracking ourselves up to the point of incoherency, and neither of us knew what was truly making us laugh, but we were both leaning against one another wiping tears away every couple of minutes, while Savannah tried to enjoy the movie.

I eventually started laughing so hard, I almost peed myself, so I went to the bathroom. I pulled my pants down and sat to pee. After one week of being locked up, one of the strangest things was being forced to sit to pee. If I stood, the pee coming out would spray against the cage and go everywhere, so here I sat. In a way, I immediately preferred it, as it gave me a second to sit and think as my brain stumbled over continuously from the alcohol.

When I returned, I filled up a large glass of water from the kitchen, and Kate and I nursed it back and forth for the remainder of the movie. Our laughter was still there, but far less than the first half of the movie had provided. Somewhere in the movie, I realized Kate and I were sharing a glass, and I was rather shocked to see how close we had gotten. She had a comfortability with me that I hadn't imagined. Was Savannah right? Did Kate only see me as "one of the girls?"

"Okay, its over. Thank you for bombarding it with your nonsense." Savannah stood up and stretched. "I'll be back," she said, and Savannah disappeared into the bathroom.

I turned to Kate, "I'm gonna ask her about the job for you."

"Don't you dare. I don't want my first interview to be when I'm buzzed beyond words!"

"So is she! You're on equal playing field."

Kate drunkenly eyed me, and I noticed her eyes weren't just watching me, they were surveying me. I could tell she looked at my entire face, and she was capturing every inch. Then she blinked as she noticed me looking back, and said, "What were we talkin' about?"

Savanah's voice came from the bedroom, "You guys want to play a game or something?" When she came back in, Kate stood up and went over to the kitchen to grab her own glass of water. Savannah continued talking, "I'd be down for another movie, but I doubt you two could stay quiet long enough to appreciate it."

I made a fart noise with my mouth as a response. "Appreciate it! Film snob alert."

"Oh, hush it! What do you guys say? Up for a party game?"

Kate said, "I'm down. Pick whatever!"

Savannah went to the linen closet, and she opened it up and grabbed a few boxes. "We could turn this one into a drinking game!"

I hollered, "All of these are now drinking games. We must drink!"

Savannah returned to the couch and set a game on the table in front of the sofa. "This game is pretty easy. The cards have spicy questions on them about every category. Sexy stuff, dark humor stuff, and a category called 'Friendship Destroyers.' If you don't want to answer, you have to take a drink." Savannah started retrieving the cards from the deck as I queued up some music.

We asked questions for maybe fifteen minutes, but the questions were shockingly tame on the cards, and we booed at most of the answers, only because they were uninteresting.

Kate said, "We're all adults, we can just ask the real questions here. These cards are too weak for us."

"I'll start," I said. "Savannah, will you give Kate a job at the diner?"

Kate covered her face with her hands, and said, "No, don't ask that! Forget it Savannah. Evan and I were just joking about stuff during the study session and--"

"Sure. You're hired. Wait, are you a sex offender? That's about the only question that actually matters. We can start you at about $12 an hour plus tips."

"Are you serious?" Kate asked through a drunken slur.

"Come by the diner tomorrow around 3. That's when we are slow, and we'll do an official interview and stuff."

"I can't just go work there and... do that stuff."

"Sure you can!" Savannah tried to sound more sober through her words, but the booze slipped through every few words. "It's easy. You're a hot girl. You'll make so much in tips."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll come by and we can talk about it more."