CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
(part one)
Friday morning, 8: 07 A.M.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jill said. She scooted into the booth next to Sandy at Snooze.  Every Friday for the last two years, she’d met Sandy, Heather and Tanisha for breakfast at Snooze.  “I had to take Katy to school.  She’s still a little sick so she’s slooooowwww.”

“Jill!?!”  The waitress asked.  “Are you all right?  Oh my God!  I saw the news….”

“Hi Chantel,” Jill nodded. “Yeah, I’m Ok.  Thanks.”

“I….,” the waitress started speaking then realized the women were staring at her.

“Sorry, I just can’t really talk about it,” Jill smiled.

The waitress made a sympathetic face and touched Jill’s arm.  “I’ll just bring some coffee.”

“Thanks Chantel.”

“Hey, we’re buying your breakfast,” Tanisha said.  “So you can actually eat this time.”

“It’s a bribe,” Heather said.

“Bribe?” Jill asked.  The waitress set a cup of coffee and a glass of water in front of Jill.  “Thanks.”

“You can’t talk about Monday, right?” Heather asked.

“Criminal proceeding and all,” Jill said.

“We want every single detail about Sunday night with His Hotness,” Tanisha said.

“And your date last night,” Sandy added.

“Oohh a date with His Hotness!”  Tanisha said.

“We want to know what really happened on Monday, but….”

“Sorry,” Jill said.

“You can talk about the edges. The paper said Jacob came….”

Sandy trailed off as the owner of Snooze, Jon Schlegel, came up the table.  A tall thin man, he had to bend over to set a Pineapple Upside Down pancake in front of Jill.

“Hey Jill, this is our way of saying that we hope you’re Ok.”

“Thanks Jon.  With a little luck, everything will work out.”  Jill pushed the plate sized pancake to the middle of the table.  “We’ll share it.”

“Well, good luck,” Jon said. “I wanted you to know that you’re always welcome to work here.”

“Thanks Jon,” Jill said.  “My feet are pretty messed up.  I can’t work anywhere for a while.  Even Pete sent me home.”

“Just so you know,” he said.

The moment Jon turned his back, the women dug into the pancake with gusto.

“How did you have a date with Jake Marlowe last night?” Heather asked. “Isn’t he like in the hospital?”

“Mm’hmm” Jill swallowed a bite of delicious pancake. “He stopped taking pain meds mid-day so he could talk to me.  He had someone from Sasa Sushi bring dinner for me.  He had….”

“Cereal,” the women said together.

“Exactly. Captain Crunch.  He wanted me to try sushi since I haven’t tried it before.  He had a bottle of rice wine for me… um, Sake? I think it’s called.  It was really good… nice.”

“I told you,” Sandy said.  “Sasa is fabulous. Did you have the chocolate lava cake?”

“Yep, we shared one.” Jill blushed.

“And?” Heather prodded

“He’s in a hospital.  We just talked,” Jill said.  “The nurse put Jake to sleep around ten and I went to the Castle to get Katy.”

“Uh huh,” Tanisha said.  “And blushing girl, what did you and His Hotness talk about?”

“Sex.”

Heather and Tanisha screamed with laughter.

“Details!  We need details!” Sandy said.

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow….