Knows their kids' names. Their grandkids names, too. What she doesn't say out loud is this. She doesn't own the ground her diner sits on. That land belongs to Whitmore Construction.
Has for years, long before her mother poured the first cup of coffee. Rosie pays rent every month like clockwork to a family that could end her business with one signature. She never talks about how much that scares her. Most days she just makes the coffee and hopes. On the wall behind the register hangs an old photograph.
A younger Rosie standing beside a woman in an apron. Her mother Meor me the year the diner first opened. Meen is smiling in the photo. Flour on her hands. Rosie dusts the frame every single morning before opening.
Never skips it. Not once in 20-some years. Regulars joke that the coffee tastes better because of it. Rosie always says the same thing back. My mother's watching.
Better make it good. It's more than a joke to her. Everyone can tell. Some things in a small town get passed down like that. Quiet rituals nobody explains.
Everybody just understands. It's a Tuesday morning when Josie Mallister walks in for the first time. 21 years old. Quiet eyes. A canvas bag over one shoulder.
The kind of bag that holds everything you own. She'd answered a sign taped to the window the day before. Help wanted. Ask for Rosie. Rosie looks her over.
Not unkind, just careful. The way you look over a used car before you buy it. You got waitress experience a little. Josie says, "I learn fast. There's something in the way she says it.
" Steady. Most young people fidget when they walk in here. Look at their shoes. Talk too fast. Josie does none of that.
She just wait like she was taught to stand that way her whole life. Rosie almost asks where she's from. Almost asks why a girl this young would land here alone. No car, no family, just one bag. She doesn't ask.
Not yet. Some questions you let people answer in their own time. Shift starts at 6:00. Rosie says instead, "You drink coffee? " "When I have to, " Josie says.
For the first time that morning, Rosie almost smiles. "Be here at 6:00. Wear shoes you can stand in all day. Nobody warns you about that part. That first night, Josie sits alone in a small motel room.