A/N: So late, so very late, but on time too, so... here we are ;)

This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: Put On a Happy Face.

"Familiar Strangers"

4. Direct Approach

Before he'd left after his third day, she'd told him she didn't work on the weekend, in case he had any ideas of showing up when he wasn't working either. So they had said farewell until Monday. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, not until the next day where he had something like an urge to go out to the diner. Three short days, and not even that… three short hours, all the time he'd spent with her since he'd walked into the diner and found her there… and now the idea that he wouldn't see her that day was just…

Maybe it was the idea of their little game still being unsolved that bugged him. Like any good mystery, you wanted to see the end, pull back the curtain, reveal the ruse, bring it to light, all those things. Except this wasn't a book, or a movie, where he could cheat and peek at the end, it was a girl with a secret. It wasn't even so much a secret as it was her withholding something she knew, something he didn't remember…

But was that all it was anymore? Had it ever been that? The reason any mystery pulled you in was inevitably tied to some desire to find out. The more ardent the search, the more pronounced the desire, the investment. So what did it mean if the mystery was a person, a girl… a girl with those eyes, and that smile, everything…

The weekend had gone by like some challenge to find anything that would keep him busy, to help pass the time until he could head down there again. He wanted to see her again, and the only way that would happen would be if he went to the diner and she was there, and that wasn't going to be until Monday. She'd gone and gotten in his head now, couldn't be chased, not that he wanted her to. Monday… He could get there, it was just a weekend.

Monday morning, he was so minded on his work, he'd never been this productive. If this had been a cartoon, the moment his lunch break started, there would have been a cloud shaped like him where he had been standing, with his hat left spinning in mid-air: he had to get to that diner.

When he got there, he took his usual seat, looked around… No sign of her yet, so she was probably in the back, and as he waited he decided maybe what he needed to do was something he hadn't yet done: he would ask her. Just flat out, he would sit there and look at her, and ask to know how he knew her. Maybe that was all she wanted, for him to just ask.

"Hi there." He was startled. He hadn't seen her come out of the kitchen, and now she stood just over his shoulder, smirking. "Burger and fries?"

"Actually, I'll have the salad again," he sat up. She gave an 'impressed' nod. "Tomatoes on the side," he added with a nod, and she snorted.

"I, okay, coming," she could hardly keep a straight face, and he couldn't explain it but something in her face told him that this past weekend she'd missed him, too. So when she placed his plate in front of him – and the tomatoes in a separate dish which she kept for herself – he took up his courage, and he looked up to her.

"Can you tell me, please?" She blinked, almost squinted.

"Tell you what?" she tempted.

"You know me," he stated, and she nodded. "And I know you," he went on, and she nodded again. "Except… I don't remember how, and you know that."

"And I don't hold it against you," she shook her head.

"Okay, well then just tell me," he bowed his head. She stared at him, pondering, then took one of the tomatoes and ate it, shaking her head again. "Please? Elsie…" he tried to tempt her with an innocent smile.

"Oh, look at you," she gave a slow nod, just as amused as the first day. "Don't you like what we've got going on right now?" she matched his innocence. "You've got a full service here, lunch and a show."

"I know," he agreed. "But…"

"Okay, okay," she stood up straight. "I'll give you this," she held a finger up. "You think you don't know, but you do. You're just kind of… thinking too hard," she explained.

"I don't… know what that means," he frowned.

"You will," she nodded. "At some point… I hope… Come on, don't you want to find out on your own?"

"Well, yeah…" he couldn't deny that.

"I like that you come in every day like this, it's fun for me, too," she told him, and he looked more hopeful now.

"Yeah?" he asked, and she smiled. "I will figure it out, you know."

"I don't doubt it," she shook her head. They were quiet, looking to one another with this decision made, taken with a smile and an appointment for more lunches, more conversations.

"So how was your weekend?" he asked, and she leaned against the counter once more.

"Uneventful," she admitted, dragging the tomatoes to herself with a finger and eating one. "Reading, cleaning, TV, hang with the dogs."

"You've got dogs?" he asked.

"Mimi and Leo," she nodded with a grin. "They're pretty mellow during the week, but the weekend it's like they know I'll be there so they go nuts," she explained and he laughed.

When he finished his lunch, he was about to hand her his money and say he'd see her the next day when one of the other waitresses called up that someone was asking for her on the phone, so he'd been left to settle his bill with someone else and awkwardly wave at her from across the way.

So things hadn't ended up quite the way he'd anticipated, but then he was starting to take that as part of the deal with her. She was right, he did like this, too, even though he kept on wishing he knew who she was. She said he already knew what he needed to know. He still didn't know what that meant, but she'd extended the challenge to him, and he was up for it.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)