Cassidee looked up from her feet, surprised to see a man behind the counter. Though it may have been sexist, she had always assumed that a southern diner would be owned by some large lady with a thick accent and a personality that made everyone smile. This man certainly didn’t fit that stereotype. It made her uncomfortable to be in a place she knew nothing about, but mostly she was regretting what would happen when she finally did take the coat off and followed his advice.

Stalling, she took a moment to look around the place. It’s not that she’d never been to a diner, but the ones she [i]had[/i] been to were just chain restaurants in disguise. That’s what you got when you lived in a city, and no one was really bothered by it. They had good waffles after all. This place, though, she could tell was the real thing. In fact, Cassi had only just noticed that it seemed like there was no one else really there. At least not as far as wait staff was concerned. It surprised her, that he would be the only one working.

After a few moments, when it was becoming painfully obvious that she had just been standing there saying nothing, Cassi did what he’d said to, and took off her backpack and coat to hang them up. As soon as the dripping thing was off, she was tempted to put it back on, but she knew that would just make her look even crazier than he thought she was at this point. Besides, she was already slicking up the tile. Her eyes stayed down as she made her way to the counter, and only when she placed both arms on the thing did it become obvious why she’d wanted to keep them covered.

A large bruise, in the shape of a hand, was located on her forearm. It was deep purple, on its way to turning green, but it would still be a week at least before it disappeared completely. The horrid thing had attracted too much attention as she was trying to leave and was the reason she’d bought the jacket in the first place. The staring was worse than the constant heat she felt with it on. In an attempt to distract Rhett, she said, “I’m Cassidee. I’m not from around here, and I’m sorry about your floors. I’d offer to clean them up for you, but then you’d think I was trying to get something for free.” Even as she was talking though, she never once looked up at him.