The Fast Times

Pete, his mother, brother and sister all went out to dinner downtown. His father was running late, wasn't sure he'd make it; he told the family to order, not to wait up. So, as soon as they got there, they ordered drinks and looked the menu over.

Pete noticed the place was somewhat packed, looking everyone over. He sat across from his mother and sister, with his brother on the outer side of the booth. They all went on with small talk, while Pete looked over what he'd eat; he picked the simplest thing he would see in the dim lighting.

"Welcome to Georgio's, can I get you any drinks?"

Pete looked up at the tall blonde waiter at the end of the table. He was handsome, Pete thought, reminding him a little of the guys he went to school with. He looked at his tag, his name read Thomas H.

"...and you sir?" Thomas spoke towards Pete.

Pete folded his menu, "Uh...Pepsi or Coke," he muttered.

"Are you all ready to order?"

They all ordered, Pete muttering last and handing over his menu. The waiter took off with a smile, making Pete feel sour inside; he thought it was probably the drugs. As his family continued on talking and laughing, Pete gulped down his drink, that the handsome waiter had brought in record time.

Pete looked around the room, trying to get the ill feeling out of his body. He felt this weird feeling overcome him, like a happening, sinking in his bones, making it's way through to his stomach. He sighed, gulping more bubbly pop down; Dale tilted her head, "You okay, son?"

Pete hummed, "I think I'm light headed...I'm starving again."

Dale patted his hand, "You'll eat soon. Get your mind off of it and tell us about Crystal."

Pete swallowed, "Uh, there's nothing much to tell...she's nice, sweet," he looked up, "she's majoring in English, she wants to be a teacher."

Dale and Hilary both asked more about her, to which Pete answered truthfully, and the more he did, the less he liked Crystal. He sat sideways in the booth, letting the conversation drift off to what they'd be doing that summer. The lake house is where their father planned to spend the rest of the summer; Pete barely paid attention, his eyes drifted around the room until he noticed a familiar smiling face.


Nancy got to her job at at restaurant Georgio's in Downtown Chicago at 3, where she waitresses and was a sometimes bartender. She had her section of the restaurant near the middle; she had been working there for almost a year and had come across her fair share of old friends and familiar faces. Tonight was no different, though she chose not to say anything as she took orders from them and hurried towards the register.

As the evening closed in, she took a small break, eating in the back with her co-worker Tommy. The two were well acquainted, having hooked up a few times in the last year, but learned they were better off as friends. Tommy watched her back for her, even offering to baby sit when she almost had no choice, but she had graciously refused, thanking him profusely for his kindness. Nancy didn't want to leave her daughter with a stranger, especially one she didn't know as well as she knows her friends.

Tommy came into the area off beside the kitchen, waving Nancy over, "Dave says break is up."

Nancy frowned as she looked down at her watch, "I only got like 15 minutes!"

"He said you were late."

Nancy rolled her eyes, tossing her pop can into the garbage beside her, "God, can't he take mercy on me? I'm a single mom, geez."

Tommy patted her shoulder, "C'mon, let's go bust our asses."

The evening carried on, with Nancy making small chit chat over specials and the best entrees. She brought out food and drinks, carrying on. Until, Tommy pulled her aside, "I need to piss, can you take one of my tables their food, please?"

Nancy nodded, "Yeah, is their food up?"

"Yep. Table 20 near the back."

Nancy went towards the kitchen, "I need table 20!"

The sou chef handed her the 4 plates, and helped get a platter and stand for her. She watched her steps as she went towards the back, towards table 20. She didn't pay attention to the faces around her, she didn't want to drop the food; as soon as Nancy got to the table, she set the stand and placed the platter down, "Okay, sorry about the little delay, your waiter is indisposed at the moment."

"Nancy?" A familiar voice behind her said.

Nancy turned her head, coming face to face with someone she hadn't seen in ages. The color drained from her face when she saw Dale sitting with Hilary, Andrew and, dreadfully, Pete. She swallowed the lump growing in her throat, "H-hey."

She quickly turned back and gave the patrons in front of her their food; her mind was moving a mile a minute, unsure what to do. Dale tapped her back gently, "Honey, how have you been? I haven't seen you in so long! How's your baby?"

Nancy swallowed again, looking back as she spoke, "I've been okay, working here..." She trailed, not sure what to say about her baby, Holliday.

"You had a boy, right?" Hilary asked then, "What's his name?"

Nancy's mouth felt cotton dry, unsure of what to say, "N-no, actually, doctors were wrong, it's a girl," she turned back to the patrons at table 20, "do you all need any refills?"

A women held her glass of wine, Nancy smiled, feeling the dread slip away. Then it returned when Dale asked, "A girl? What's her name, honey?"

Nancy looked back, her eyes meeting Pete's; she felt sick, "Uh-uh, um, Hol--"

Nancy was cut off by Tommy stepping in, "Sorry, Cy," he said softly to her. "Thank you. You folks warming up to my co-worker? Help you with everything you need?"

"Yes, thank you," Table 20, responded.

"This woman needs a refill on wine..." Nancy murmured to Tommy; then she looked back and forth at the tables, "I have to get back to my section now, it was nice seeing you," she jetted off, not waiting for a response.

Tommy chuckled humorously, "I'll be back with your wine, miss," then he looked over at Dale, "do you need anything miss?"

"No, we're quite fine, thank you. But, um, could you tell Nancy that we'd like to speak to her."

"Sure thing," he agreed.

Tommy took off, going to the bar, where he found Nancy going through tables, refilling drinks and table orders. He took her arm as she headed towards the kitchen, "The lady at table 18 wants to talk to you."

Nancy's face again drained and her stomach dropped, "No," she shook her head, "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Hey, you okay?" Tommy asked worriedly.

She shook her head, "Where's Dave?"

Back at table 18, Dale was in awe of Nancy rushing away; Pete had grown shocked, and a bit intrigued at how different and attractive she looked. Nancy didn't look the same to him; her black hair was a sandy brown color, her complexion was darker, and she had gained some weight, and didn't look so petite from what he remembered. Dale had caught Pete's awe expression, "Wow, she looks good. Right?"

Pete snapped out of his thoughts; he shrugged to his mother's words. Hilary and Andrew could sense the awkward feeling radiating off of their older brother. They all had known about the night Nancy left, after Pete had explained to them. They hadn't talked about it since, though Dale thought about Nancy and the baby nearly every single day.

"I wanna talk to her," Hilary said, looking back, "I hope she comes back."

"Just leave her alone," Pete muttered, "we don't need to talk to her. She lied to us."

"Oh, that's bull," Dale exasperated, causing her children to look at her incredulously, "I wanna see a picture of her little girl, I bet she looks a lot like you, Pete."

"That's not my kid," Pete growled, "that bitch told me herself."

Dale frowned, "Watch your mouth. You don't know what was going on with her, she felt bad about having to stay with us, remember? Maybe she need time to herself."

"Then why lie?" Pete spat, "Why lie?"

"I don't know, but we'll talk to her, okay?"

Tommy returned to their table, clearing his throat, "I'm sorry, Nancy had to go, family emergency."

"What kind of emergency?" Dale asked curiously.

"Something about her little girl."

"What's her name?" Hilary asked.

Tommy smiled, "Holly. She's a little cutie."

Tommy hadn't seen the resemblance in them to Holliday. He had only seen the little girl less than a few times, and those times she was running around, playing with Patrick or Rae.

Dale smiled faintly, then grabbed her purse, "Will you give this to her?" She wrote their phone number on a piece of scrap paper in her purse, "It's my number, I really want to speak to her."

Tommy agreed, pocketing the number, "Sure thing. Is there anything I could get you?"

"No thank you," Dale smiled happily.


Nancy was allowed to go home; Dave felt sorry for her; he was usually lenient with her because of Holliday. She was his favorite employee; the patrons like her and she was one hell of a worker, so he allowed her to go to check on Holliday, since it was her birthday. Nancy took the subway home, making sure she kept her tips safe in her bag; luckily for her no one hassled her like they usually would.

She walked the 3 blocks home, giving loose change to the few homeless women that live on her block. She got to her apartment and buzzed her way inside, jogging up the stairs and to her apartment, looking under the mat and taking the tapes key off, then went inside. The apartment was empty, quiet; Holliday's toys were in the living room, so Nancy picked them up and carried them to her bedroom, putting them away into her chest drawer, then stuffed her tips into their fun jar.

Holding the fun jar in her hands, she reminisced about the day she came up with the idea. Holliday was a year and a half and Nancy had no money to take her out, except for the nearly broken down playground with the broken swings and the graffitied slides. She decided to save up and let Holliday decide on what fun they would have when she wanted, which was usually when Nancy had a day or two off. Holliday always picked a trip to Navy pier or the science museum; Rae, Sabrina and Patrick would tag along. Sometimes, out of the sweetness of her heart, Holliday would tell Nancy to take some money and have fun herself; "Take a ba-jillion dollars, mama, and buy a toy!"

Nancy would take $150 and buy them food, or pay one of their bills early. That was her version of fun, and Holliday understood, even though to her "giving money away to a piece of paper in an envelope" didn't sound like much fun. She'd say occasionally, "Mama, you can give money to the envelope this time!" Nancy would have to take a moment to not cry; she appreciated it, unsure of where her baby girl got her sweet behavior from. She figured it was from spending so much time with Patrick, or sometimes over at the Stumph house, where Patricia Stumph spoiled the little girl with pumpkin squares and cinnamon pancakes. Nancy suddenly missed Holliday; she put away the fun jar, shut the chest drawer, and began to undress to take a shower and go upstairs to retrieve Holliday.

After her shower, she dressed and slipped on socks and kept her hair wrapped in a towel and left the apartment, jogging up the next flight of stairs. She knocked on Sabrina's door, hearing music playing softly just behind it. After a few seconds, Patrick opened the door, "Oh, Cy you're home early!" He stepped aside and let her in.

"Dave let me off early. Where's Holly?"

"She's eating in the living room," Patrick led the way.

Nancy followed, smiling when she saw Holliday dancing along to an episode of Spongebob. Her heart grew immensely at the sight, "Holly Dolly!"

Holliday stopped dancing and turned, "Mommy!"

Holly ran over, nearly tripping; Nancy giggled and picked her up, "Hey sweetness! Did you have fun with Patrick?"

"Uh-huh!"

"What'd you eat?"

"Noodles," she said, "want some?"

"No, I'm good. You wanna finish eating then head back downstairs?"

"Yep!"

Nancy set Holliday down and followed her to the couch; Holliday sat on the floor in front of the coffee table and ate a small bowl of Chinese noodles. Patrick sat up, looking over at Nancy, "You look out of it, you okay?"

Nancy hummed, "Yeah, I'm okay. How do I look out of it?"

"You're pale. Are you sick?"

"No...where's Sabrina?"

"She went down to the store to get some pop and some bread and milk."

"Thanks for watching Holly for me," Nancy said, "I'm off tomorrow, I just have to get my check, but I'm gonna take Holly with me. I'll give you some cash."

"Just give us $30 for lunch," Patrick said, "we both got early morning classes."

Nancy frowned, "Why didn't you tell me? I would've taken tonight off."

"Hey, you need the money. Plus, you got off early, didn't you?"

Nancy smiled softly, "Yeah. Thanks again."

"You don't gotta thank me, I love watching Holly."

Sabrina returned before Holliday finished eating, and said goodnight to the both of them before they headed back downstairs to their apartment. Nancy took Holliday to their bedroom, undressed her and began to give her a bath.

"What do you wanna do tomorrow, baby girl? Wanna go to Navy pier?"

Holly tweaked her lips, "Um...c'n we go shoppin'?"

"Shopping? I just bought you some new tights, a dress and shoes."

Holly shook her head, "Silly mommy, not fa clothes!"

Nancy laughed to herself, knowing what she meant, "You wanna go to Target, huh?"

Holly grinned sweetly, "I like popcorn!"

Nancy again laughed softly, "Okay. We need toiletries too. Are you sure that's what you wanna do?"

Holly nodded, "We ride the subway!"

"I think we should take the car, don't ya think?"

Holly' eyes widened, "Really?"

"Sure, we hadn't driven it in awhile."

To save on cash, Nancy didn't drive her car in the spring or summer, unless she needed to. She had a parking in the back of the building reserved for her apartment; there was only a handful of times Holliday had actually been in the car.

"Cool!"

"So, tomorrow, me and you are gonna go shopping and have popcorn," Nancy said.

"C'n we get a movie?"

Nancy thought about it, "Maybe, we can't splurge and go crazy, baby. We have to save up so we can have fun again."

Holliday nodded, agreeing, "'Kay. Popcorn 'n' shoppin' 'n' maybe movies."

Nancy smiled, "Yep," she knew that she'd get her daughter a movie, "maybe a movie."