The Cycle Begins

Who: Olivia & Billy
Where: Mya's Diner
When: Early morning-ish

So the waitressing thing was fairly easy. Olivia hadn't yet broken anything, dropped anything, or run into a customer who was a complete dick, and to be honest, everyone who had walked through the door and sat down since Olivia began her shift were fairly pleasant and tipped well. All in all, not too bad so far. She had a long day ahead of her, what with going into Babylon later that evening. It would certainly be worth the exhaustion if it put money in her pocket, which in turn would put a roof over her head tonight. Venture had been ideal, but she couldn't stay there as long as Mathias was there. That was trouble just waiting to be had. Olivia still winced when she thought of her behavior the night before. She didn't know what she had been thinking. The only silver lining was that she hadn't slept with him. She was of clear mind now (okay, so not entirely clear...tequila and lack of sleep made everything a bit hazier). And logic was stuck firmly back in place. She wouldn't seek him out again, no matter how much she might want too. No, she didn't want too. Nope. No. No.

Olivia focused on brewing a fresh pot of coffee and pulled out the small notepad from her apron, checking it over to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. In truth, she didn't need to write orders down. She could remember them easily once they were said to her, but people got fidgety sometimes when you simply listened. Afraid she'd forget the syrup on the side or something if she didn't make note of it. In any case, everything was so far so good. She just needed to focus on getting through the day without any major malfunctions or disasters. Then she could find a bed, curl up and sleep, and start the cycle all over again tomorrow. How normal people got along with such a life of routine, Olivia would never, ever know.

Mya's Diner for breakfast was becoming a familiar haunt of Billy's. He wasn't much (read: any) good in the kitchen and had no real incentive to learn, since there was only him to feed. And on the days he was working, he liked to get a decent meal inside him to start the day - so, breakfast out. Most days, if not all.

Today was one of those days, as he slipped inside the diner and took a seat at an empty table, not bothering with the menu now he knew what was on it as he tried to catch the eye of the waitress. She must be new - he didn't recognise her.

Olivia was lost in thought, but noticed the man slip into an empty table seat. Grabbing the pot of coffee that had just finished brewing, she wandered over to him, placing a small smile on her face. Her cheeks were going to get sore from all the damn smiling.

"Morning. Coffee? Or I can get you juice, water?" she asked, flipping over the upside down coffee cup and going through the motions. "Or I can get you a menu, unless you already know what you want, in that case you wouldn't need one, so..." Trailing off, her smile became less forced. "So I can stop rambling so you can actually answer."

Billy looked up, his expressive face a picture of amusement as he listened to her. He took pity an her and nodded. "I'll have a coffee and a stack of pancakes with a side of bacon," he ordered. "Thank you, ma'am," he added, politely. There weren't exactly a whole lot of other customers in the place, this early in the morning.

"No problem." Stack of pancakes, side of bacon. Olivia poured the coffee. "I'm Olivia. Not that I mind ma'am," she said quickly, realizing she may sound rude. "But it makes me sound...old? I don't know. Nevermind. In any case, I'm Olivia," she repeated with a sigh. "Pancakes, side of bacon. Be right back." She turned and headed back to the counter to stick his order up. She did all right for herself when she didn't have to make much small talk.

Focusing on her tasks at hand, Olivia refilled the coffee cups of other patrons before hearing her order called. Grabbing it, she brought it to the young man and set it in front of him. Slipping her hand in the front pocket of her apron, she smiled. "You must be a regular here, right?"

"Yeah, you could say that," Billy told her. "Or if I'm not yet, I'm well on my way to becoming one." He smirked, pouring cream and sugar into his coffee. "I'm not exactly the world's best cook, and a guy's gotta eat, right?"

Olivia gave a small smile. "I know what you mean. I tried my hand at cooking once but everything I cooked seemed to expel black smoke, so I really didn't get the appeal and I just lost patience with it. It's much easier to pay someone else to do it for you." She motioned toward his plate. "Enjoy your breakfast."

"You know, I never thought I'd hear someone who worked in a diner say that," Billy told her, looking amused. "Which, thinking about it is a dumb assumption to make - someone else cooks the food, right? You just have to serve it up," he added, reaching for the syrup and pouring it rather liberally over his pancakes. "They look great."

Olivia grinned then, shifting the coffee pot from one hand to the other. "Yeah, I don't go near the food unless it's to bring it to someone else. Which you would think is incredibly easy but you know, in my experience, if the cook messes up the food, it's me who gets yelled at for it." She pulled a face. "Makes me wish I could be one of those waitresses that spits in people's food..." Pausing abruptly, she flushed and shot him a look. "Let's pretend you didn't hear that."

Billy pulled a face and looked down at his food, before looking back up again. "Yeah, let's," he agreed, obviously teasing. "So - you new? I haven't seen you here before..."

"Brand new." Olivia nodded. "First day, actually. I just got into town a few days ago." She knew she should leave him to his breakfast, but so far he was the first customer who didn't make small talk about the weather. "Have you lived in town very long?"

"Couple of years now," Billy told her, glad to find someone who was willing to talk. He spent so much of his time on his own - a purposeful choice on his part, but it did mean that he appreciated conversation when it did come to him. "It's a nice town once you get used to it," he told her. "You planning on staying for winter?"

"I don't know, maybe." Absolutely not. She'd be gone by September if she was lucky. She glanced over her shoulder and once she saw it was clear, Olivia sat across from him, barely on the edge of the seat should she need to get up quickly. She set the coffee pot in front of her. "Can I ask you something? Why is everyone here so...nice? I mean, is it the small town stigma? It's like, you see a stranger on the street and in five minutes, you're like...talking like you're long time friends or something."

Billy laughed a little. "Yeah - that's Marquette, it's just the way it is here." He took a bite of his breakfast, chewing and swallowing before speaking again. "Takes some getting used to, doesn't it?" he asked.

"I guess so." She relaxed, lost in thought for a moment. Okay, so all the craziness wasn't just her. Turning back to Billy, she set her chin on her palm. "So what is it you do here?"

"This and that," Billy told her, tilting his head to one side and absently wondering what her dreams were like. It wasn't something he always wondered, but he had to here. She seemed nice and normal - safe. "By trade, I'm a handyman. So, a little bit of everything really."

A handyman. It was a simple occupation. Not a drifter, or a demon hunter. Normal. It was a relief and a nice change to talk to someone who was ordinary.

"My father fixed things," she said, inwardly wincing when she used the terminology. "Not for a living, but he was really good at discovering what made things tick, and how to fix them." Olivia could say she received that particular gene when it came to human anatomy, but it seemed irrelevant. Not to mention untrue as it was impossible to have received any genes from the man, considering he wasn't her birth father. "I imagine you get a lot of business here."

"Yeah, a fair bit," Billy admitted. "Enough to keep me fed, at least." He spoke lightly, but the truth was it wasn't much more than that. Billy's wages didn't do more than pay the bills - he was just lucky that it wasn't him. If Maddie actually had any costs for her upkeep, they'd be fucked.

"That's the important thing, in the end, I suppose." Olivia stood, knowing it wouldn't do to get caught lounging around with a customer on her first day. "I should let you eat. I promise, I'm not always so nosy." At least she tried not to be. "I didn't catch your name."

"Billy - Billy Gardiner. And you're not interrupting me, I promise," he told her. "I quite like the company - eating breakfast alone every day is kinda boring, you know."

He even had an ordinary name. It made Olivia smile. While she wasn't one for normality, it was nice every now and then to pretend she could be. Just a waitress, in a small town, living an ordinary life, surrounded by ordinary people. Yes, it sounded incredibly boring, but, well...given everything that's happened in the past four years, she occasionally felt that twinge. But usually as soon as she felt it, it was long gone and she was itching to get on the road again.

"Maybe you should invite someone to breakfast with you," she said, though it was a pretty obvious suggestion. "Surely you know people, and everyone eats breakfast." There was that rambling again and she gave a smile, swaying to one side. "So...problem solved."

He clicked his fingers and laughed a little. "Damn - why didn't I think of that?" he joked. "Yeah, I know people, but I don't know too many people who wouldn't shoot me for even suggesting they get up at this hour." And the one person he did know who would happily keep him company would result in either a very onesided conversation, or him being hauled away and committed for talking to people who apparently weren't there.

"Ah, those people." What she wouldn't give to be able to sleep in past six am these days. "Well, tell you what, if I'm working when you come in, I'll make sure you get your pancakes and bacon and I'll just ramble along about nonsense while you eat. That way you feel like you have company, and I feel like I have some purpose rather than serving food."

"That sounds like a fair deal," Billy agreed, before taking another bite. "So, are you working here full time, or just every now and then?" he asked her.

"Whenever I'm needed," she replied. "I guess you could say full time. I'll take whatever I can get to get some extra cash. Small town so my employment options are fairly limited."

"You sound like me when I first turned up her," Billy commented. "I got started in my business just doing work for friends, then friends of friends - picking up what I could for cash to keep a roof over my head. It kinda snowballed into a business for me without any real intention. I'd just been doing what I could to get by." And then one morning he'd woken up and he had a life - it'd been a bit of a shock, all things considered.

"So you kind of got suckered into the whole career thing," Olivia mused. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to be making a career out of waitressing, so she was safe there. Olivia refilled his coffee cup. "Sometimes life works in strange ways I suppose. I like to think everything happens for a reason."

"Suckered into having a career, a house, the whole lot - before this I was kinda wandering. Stopped here just because I ran out of cash and then... Didn't leave again," he told her as he ate his breakfast. He didn't sound unhappy about it - and he wasn't. Not any more. He'd lost his life, and Marquette just happened to be the place where he got to rebuild it. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Didn't that sound familiar. Everyone in this town so far was extremely odd. "Well, I guess if you find a decent reason to stay in one place, it works for you." She glanced over her shoulder to check on her other customer. "It seems that everyone I've been meeting as kind of ended up here on a whim. Must be something in the water, or whatever."

"You'll find that a lot round here," Billy nodded. "This town seems to be the end of the line for a lot of people. Interesting people though," he added. Very interesting, from what he'd seen. And not just in that 'funny anecdotes' type of way. Course, he himself was included in that group. He wondered if she was also.

"Interesting is one word to describe them," Olivia agreed. "And this place certainly feels like the end of the line, but doesn't that make it sound like people come here to just...wither away the rest of their lives? It's not a very exciting place to set up shop and be content." Then again, maybe she was just reading into things too much again and over-analyzing. It was an annoying habit and one she needed to try and break.

Billy smirked. "All depends on whether you've had enough excitement to last a lifetime already, doesn't it?" he asked her, his warm brown eyes sparkling with mirth. "Some people just aren't looking for excitement. And hey, you can always make you own fun," he teased.

She chuckled and shook her head. "Excitement and me just don't mix. I'm as boring as they come, so maybe that's why I'm here." Yes, with the foot in the mouth thing again. "Not that I mean you're boring at all. I'm sure you make your own fun..." Trailing off, she sighed and then smiled. "I'm not this dense usually. It's this social interaction thing. Still getting used to it."

Billy wasn't offended - Billy was notoriously difficult to offend. "Oh no," he argued, lightly. "I'm boring as they come. Really," he told her, though the look that flashed in his eyes for just a second suggested differently.

She made a noise in her throat and eyed him warily, despite the smile. "Whatever. Only people who are trying to hide something claim they're boring. Who wants to openly admit something like that?" People who were quick to assure another they were boring were usually anything but. "No worries, I'm not going to pry," Olivia continued.

Billy took a sip of his coffee as he cleared his plate. "Okay, okay - you got me. I'll admit to my secret life as a stripper and gigolo," he laughed. "The handyman gig is just a front."

"And here, I thought Marquette was boring," Olivia replied jokingly. "Strippers and gigolos? I think I'm going to have to forget my expansive ambitions and try that settling down thing right here."

"Well, of course - wouldn't want to get bored now, would I?" Billy shot back, carrying on the joke. "And you'd be amazed - there's a whole 'nother Marquette out there, if you know where to look." Which wasn't actually a joke - though it sounded that way. It happened to be the truth, it just wasn't filled with strippers and gigolos. "So - what were your expansive ambitions then?" he asked her, pushing his empty plate out of the way and resting his elbows on the table, coffee held in his hands.

She wasn't sure she wanted to know the other side of Marquette. Joke or no, she was well aware of things that went on after dark. She just preferred not to think about them.

"Hmm, well, my dream has always been to become a showgirl in Vegas," Olivia told him, feigning a thoughtful look. "So that's my next stop after I've saved enough money. You know, small town girl with no family struggles to become somebody, and meet a rich, unattainable CEO on the way. I'm thinking of selling my story to Lifetime or the Oxygen network."

Billy honestly laughed at that, drawing a few looks from the other customers, until he shut up. He leaned forward, almost conspiratorially. "I hate to ruin your carefully laid out dreams, Olivia - but I don't think Lifetime really goes in for the whole 'showgirl' story. It's a little too risqué for their viewers," he told her with a wink. Like Billy had ever watched Lifetime. Yeah, right.

"Oh, please." She waved her hand dismissively. "They've had worse. Usually it's damsels in distress getting beat by their lovers until they grow a backbone and end up shooting them. Then the whole trial and emotional, tearful speech and acquittal." Olivia stopped. "Not that I have ever watched Lifetime before." She reached down to pick up his empty plates. "Let me get your bill."

"Ahh yeah, but remember - bloody violence and murder are acceptable on TV in a way that naked breasts, sequins and feathers will never be," Billy pointed out, a smile twitching across his lips.

Olivia pretended to pout at that before shooting him a smile and heading to the counter. "I suppose I'll have to approach HBO instead. Because come on, you can't have a showgirl without the strategically placed feathers." She set the coffee pot back on the burner, dumped his dirty dishes in the rubber bin to go to the dishwasher and wrote out his check before carrying it back to him. How is it she always ended up having strange conversations with strangers?

Handing him the check, Olivia eyed him. "My life is copyrighted you know. So, you know, don't try to beat me to fame and fortune by stealing it."

Billy looked up at her through his lashes, giving in to 'incorrigible flirt' for just a moment. "Olivia - would I ever steal your dreams from you?" he asked, innocently. He couldn't resist, really.

And then the look was gone, and the tone, as he took the check and pulled out his wallet.

"Not if you know what's good for you," she responded. "In all honesty, my dreams are nothing special, so you wouldn't find much use for them." Olivia winked at him and took the cash he offered. "I'll get your change."

Billy just gave her a knowing look, but then nodded and stood. "Nice to meet you, Olivia. I guess I'll see you around," he told her.

"You too, Billy." She sent him off with a smile and a wave, pleased to have finally met someone in town who seemed normal.