Shelley's Not a She

Her name was Shelley, she was a waitress at the local steakhouse Buck's, and she was the reason that Matt came back to the place every Friday night for dinner. Sure, the sirloin was pretty good and the chef made it a point to offer some interesting sides, but it was watching the swish of Shelley's skirt as she whirled away from a table that was the real draw. She offered a smile as she approached his table, more genuine than the usual waitress smile for the man that over time had become more of a friend.

"Hey Matt, your usual Yuengling Light to start you off?"

Matt returned the smile and nodded his head; some nights were more like this night with the restaurant doing steady business. At the nod of his head Shelley spun around and hurried off towards the bar, pausing only a moment to check that a delivered dinner was to a customer's expectations. He leaned back into the booth, lightly closing his eyes as he listened to the live band play. This week's band seemed to have a slight Southern Rock thing going for it; he supposed that led to the choice of red beans and rice as the side dish. He slowly tapped his foot along with the beat, at least the singer wasn't too shabby.

After a minute or two he heard a bottle placed down upon a coaster and her sit down on the booth bench next to him. He cracked an eye open and offered her a smile. Matt knew Shelley well enough to tell that this had been one of those stressful nights, and that while she outwardly projected the typical happy waitress, inside something had bothered her. However, it wouldn't do to ask her about it while she was working and so he didn't push. She sidled up to him and he leaned in close enough that he caught a whiff of her perfume, the music was loud was his excuse to himself.

"Busy night tonight, huh?"

"Yeah, well a destroyer squadron just pulled back in from a long deployment. Guess they're seeking some real food for a change. As usual though, most can't hold their liquor so it's going to be one of those nights you know? Oh well, they're tipping well so I guess I can't complain too much." She offered a faint smile.