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He seems sweet enough, Regina's new regular.
The first time she saw him, he came in in the middle of the night. He sat down in a booth in Emma's section, where he stayed for approximately five minutes in which their eyes met twice while Regina served another table, and then when she turned towards him again he was gone.
Okay, it happens.
Sometimes customers look at the menu and decide the prices are too high, they realize they're not quite as hungry as they thought, or they realize they're more hungry than they thought and can't wait for their food to be made fresh and instead seek out the Burger King around the corner. There's many reasons why someone might get up and leave without ordering, so Regina didn't question it.
He came back a few nights later, this time sitting in her section.
A warm smile plays on his lips when he orders coffee and a donut. There's something off about him. Nothing that makes her feel uneasy. There is just something about this man that makes her feel. He exudes sadness like he bathes in it, seeping out of his inner, most fragile core and spilling over onto everything surrounding him.
Regina gets these customers from time to time.
She sees plenty of lonely people that come out in the middle of the night when the diner is empty but still open. They want the company but can't handle the crowd of people, the noise of the day. This little diner in the middle of the night gives them a glimpse of what normality might be like. They get to talk to someone that isn't themselves or an employer, they get quietness outside of their own suffocating apartments.
Regina likes these customers. Likes being their angel of mercy when things are hard.
He drinks his coffee black and after that first donut he never orders any food. He even leaves the free biscotti she sneaks onto his table untouched. He drinks exactly two cups before he pays and leaves her a tip way too generous for what he spent on his order.
For about a week he comes in every single night. He doesn't talk. He just smiles at her, orders his coffee, chokes it down (it's subtle, but Regina can tell by the twitch of his eyebrow that he does not enjoy the bitterness of the coffee, and the first time he came in he pulled a face so atrocious she thought the coffee was burnt and offered to make him a fresh pot. He declined.) and then he leaves.
At some point during the week he stops staring down at the wood grain of the table, and she feels his eyes start to follow her as she moves around the diner. They linger on her, and every time their eyes meet he ducks his head again, his face scrunched up as if he is struck by sickening guilt.
Regina doesn't mind his eyes on her. He is cute, and it's somewhat endearing that he can't seem to hide that he has a bit of a thing for her.
He must be about 10 years older than Regina, give or take. She'd place him in his late twenties, early thirties. His smile is bright with adorably crooked teeth, his eyes — vibrant green unlike anything else Regina has ever seen — are framed by thick, long lashes, and one day when he pulls off his cap, pretty black coils show themselves to her. He's fine and polite. And he tips well.
Every night, like clockwork, he comes in shortly after she does. He sits in the same booth every time, the table seemingly always available just for him. A few times he's brought a book that he stares at while drinking his coffee, taking too long to turn the pages.
Something tells Regina that it isn't because he is a slow reader.
Like every night, she refills his cup and asks if she can get him anything else, and like every night, she expects him to say no and leave it at that. But the handsome stranger goes off script.
"It's awfully quiet, isn't it?" He grins at her, a crooked little thing. "Don't you get bored?"
His voice is rich and smooth and for some inexplicable reason the first comparable thing that comes to mind are the cream and butter loaded mashed potatoes on their menu. Or strawberry cheesecake. Maybe she's just hungry.
"Yeah, it can get pretty boring around here. But I like the night shift and the people I meet. You don't have the same clientele during the day."
Regina holds the pot of hot coffee close to her chest, almost hugging it while the man picks up his cup and takes a slow sip, nodding in approval even though she can see his brow twitching again.
"You sure you don't want creamer or something sweet with that? I could get you some biscotti to dunk, free of charge."
She doesn't know why she winks at him. She curses herself for winking at him. It's cringe.
But amusement paints his handsome features. He chuckles and shakes his head while he tells her "Nah, I'm good. But thank you." and it's a good look on him. Much better than the grave expression he usually wears while nursing his coffee.
If the man doesn't want to make his coffee more enjoyable she won't force him to do it. Let him drink his bitter bean juice.
The sound of her grumbling stomach makes heat rise to her cheeks. She should've at least grabbed a protein bar before running to catch her train. All Regina can do is pray that he didn't hear it. It's embarrassing enough that she winked at him.
"Uhm… Do you need anything else, sir?"
Maybe she can convince whoever is back in the kitchen tonight to spring some fries. Anything hot and salty would do. And a slice of that strawberry cheesecake. She might even be able to sit down to eat, with how quiet it is tonight.
When she looks down at her new regular he is looking at the menu with furrowed brows. He's biting his lip, chewing on it like a nervous tic when he closes it and looks back up at Regina.
"What would you recommend to eat 'round here?" And when she opens her mouth to tell him the items they're always told to push he holds up his finger. "And I don't wanna know what y'all are told to tell customers. What do you, Regina, order for yourself?"
Right now she wants to order the entire menu. Everything sounds good, except for the scrambled eggs. The thought of eggs makes her somewhat queasy. Regina cannot tell this man that the entire menu is good. That's not exactly helpful when he is specifically asking her what she would recommend, what he should order.
She's still dreaming about fries and cheesecake, so that is what ends up leaving her mouth. He smiles at her warmly and asks for exactly that, and Regina leaves the pot of coffee on his table before she makes her way to the kitchen, because if he wants to chat and to eat he might also want a third cup of coffee tonight.
While Henry, the cook, drops the potatoes into the fryer, Regina grabs a plate and makes her way over to the cake stand. She gets the man the biggest slice. He deserves it for many reasons. Like the fact that he's always so sad, and that he leaves her such big tips, and that he is so nice to her. Giving him the biggest slice she can offer is the least Regina can do.
On her way back she picks up a bottle of ketchup, and the man looks like he might enjoy mayo with his fries as well so she also grabs that. Many people frown at the combo, but she likes to put people onto it. He seems like someone that might be able to appreciate these things.
"Here's your cake," She puts the plate and a fork down. "and here are your condiments. I'll be right back with those fries!" Regina sees that his cup is refilled. Good thing she left the pot.
The fries are piping hot and she can see the salt glistening in the oil. God, the smell is mouthwatering. She should've asked Henry for that portion of fries immediately. Why didn't she?
Her fingers brush his when she hands him the plate. They're colder than she expected them to be. Not that she has thought about his fingers before.
"Thank you."
He smiles again. There's something in his eyes that she doesn't like. It doesn't feel good. Regina tries to shake it off.
"All good?" She asks, when he looks down at his fries with a frown. Then at his slice of cake where a forlorn syrupy strawberry is sliding off the top. Then he looks up at Regina again.
Fuck, did she get his order wrong?
"This is gonna sound strange, but I am actually not hungry at all… must've gotten something mixed up in my head before." He bites his lip again. "Would it be totally weird if I offer this to you? I mean I could hear your stomach growling earlier. Better than to throw it out, wouldn't you say?"
It is a weird offer, yeah. Who orders food at a diner just to decide that they don't want it after all? But he seems so apologetic and his offer reads as sincere. He pushes the plate towards her.
"I'm like the only guy here. You can't seriously get in trouble for sitting with me if you have no one else to tend to, can you?" He nods at the chair opposite to him with a little smile, but it falters. "Please tell me if I'm being weird, I don't mean to freak you out. I'm just thinking you deserve a little break."
It's cute. Sure, a little pushy and maybe crossing a few lines, but Regina isn't gonna say no to free food and those green eyes. She puts her hand on the back of the chair to pull it out, but doesn't sit down yet.
"I will take you up on that offer. But first, tell me your name at least?"
Pretty green eyes smiles bashfully and lets out a little chuckle.
"Yeah, that's fair." He holds out his hand to her, and when she takes it in her own he has a comforting, firm shake.
"I'm Louis."
Louis. It's a pretty name, it suits him.
He watches Regina when she pulls the plate of fries closer to herself and pops one into her mouth. They're good. Hot, greasy, salty. Comforting. A little ketchup joins the fries on the plate.
"So, what brings you here every night, Lou?"
She kinda wants to soak up some of the cheesecake’s strawberry syrup with her fry, but she doesn't because it might gross him out. It's impossible to not notice the sad upturn of his lips when she calls him 'Lou', and Regina fears she might've stepped on some toes, spontaneously using a nickname like that for a man she does not know.
"Can I call you Lou? Or do you prefer Louis?"
It's perfectly clear what brings him in. The same thing that makes so many other people walk through those doors in the middle of the night. The loneliness is loud and the sadness dulls his pretty eyes. The poor man wants company, and Regina will gladly give it to him.
"Either is fine, I don't mind. You enjoying the food?"
He's asking her questions while she eats. Polite small-talk like how she's enjoying her work, did she grow up in the city, oh she's a student? What's her major? Things like that. Regina first notices that he didn't answer her question when she sinks her fork into the soft cheesecake.
It's fine. She doesn't need the details.
Louis' face lit up while they sat and talked and that is all that matters. Doing something to make his night a little better, even if that something is as simple as sitting down with him and eating his food, feels good. And his smile is worth it.
It becomes a Thing. Louis comes in, sits at what Regina has started to think of as his table, orders whatever she recommends to him that night, and then claims he isn't hungry after all and offers it to Regina, who gladly takes it. They talk and then he pays for her meal and still leaves her a considerable tip.
It's weird and charming and Regina doesn't remember the last time she enjoyed working this much.
Louis is easy to talk to. He isn't very talkative, prefers hearing Regina hold the conversation, but sometimes she manages to coax something out of him. For example, she knows he has a brother named Paul and two sisters, Grace and Claudia. He hasn't outright said it, but she knows that they're no longer walking this earth. It’s tragic and part of her wonders what happened, how three siblings managed to die, but she’d never ask. Regina also knows that Louis is from New Orleans, but spent some time outside of the country. She knows he is a businessman which is a statement so vague that she has to laugh.
Louis is an open book, but the pages are written in code. She knows absolutely nothing about the man despite him telling her these things.
The night Regina comes in wearing blue eyeshadow, Louis walks out before she even has a chance to say hello to him.
It's nice to have Louis as a regular, but from time to time he does these things that make her skin crawl a bit.
When Regina is sick and had to call in, Emma sends her a sneaky picture of Louis forlornly sitting in his booth, and she tells Regina that he left without ordering anything. When Regina goes back to work the next day Louis grabs her wrist as she passes by and asks her where she'd been, he was waiting for her he says, she'd never missed a shift before.
His tone is drowning in concern, but there's something else buried underneath it. Panic almost. Fear.
When Emma makes a joking little comment about Regina's stalker she feels a need to defend Louis, but she does ask her friend to elaborate. Emma confides in her that Louis does not come in when Regina isn't working. He is only here during Regina's night shifts, he isn't a nightly customer like Regina thought he was.
Louis cares for Regina, that much is clear. He's a little pushy with it, but Regina can live with it.
"You really shouldn't be smoking those."
Louis' voice is scolding like a father’s and he pointedly looks at the pink vape Regina slips into her apron pocket. She quickly glances around, but Louis seems to be the only one to notice, so she puts her hands on the table and leans down until their faces are inches apart.
"You gonna tattle on me?"
She grins at him and he frowns, but she can see the corner of his lip fighting to not move.
"It's not that you're doing it while working that I'm concerned about. It's more the whole lung cancer thing. Smoking isn't good for you!"
"Lou… You smoke at least one, sometimes up to three cigarettes before you come in here. You roll them yourself like the old man you are. Don't deny it, I see it with my own two eyes every night. You're a little hypocrite!"
Regina looks around again, but the diner is mainly empty, her coworkers all hiding away in the kitchen to gossip. She pulls the vape out again and holds it up, offering the mouth-piece to Louis.
"Come on, it won't kill you any more than your cigs will. Give it a try."
Regina challenges him with a raised eyebrow and he stares her down with an unimpressed look. She's about to pull the pen back when Louis finally leans forward and wraps his lips around it (and in Regina’s book this counts as a kiss), breathing in the artificial raspberry vapour. He holds it in his lungs for a few moments before blowing it up into her face, causing Regina to honest to god giggle.
"I prefer my cigarettes, thank you. That was disgusting."
Louis lifts his hand and uses his index finger to tip the pen away from his face and towards her own. Regina hits it a final time before dropping it into her apron pocket again. She got what she wanted.
They share one of his cigarettes the next evening when Regina catches him before he steps into the diner. She wordlessly holds out her hand and he places his lit cigarette between her fingers, lets her take a deep drag before plucking it back. They pass it between them and the entire time Regina smokes Louis' gaze is glued to her as if she's the most stunning thing he's ever laid his eyes on.
Regina pulls on the hem of her yellow dress, the mandatory uniform, while Louis lights another cigarette for himself.
"I'll go put on a fresh pot of coffee, just for you, yeah?"
He smiles at her and nods.
Another night she comes in, cheeks flushed. The first thing Henry does is needle her about her date and she barely manages to wave him off before she makes her way to greet Louis and tell him what she'd like to eat tonight.
"Date, huh?"
He grins at her and leans back, his arms crossed over his chest. There's a twinkle in his pretty green eyes and Regina's tummy swooshes with something.
"Uh-huh, a cute guy from my European History class asked me out for coffee, and it went pretty good I would say. He even brought me flowers!"
It feels weird telling Louis about this, but he's just her work crush. She sees him four times a week in the middle of the night, and he's older than her. Of course she's gonna date other people. He might be bad at hiding his crush, but he hasn't asked Regina out yet. The cute guy from her class did.
"Good… Flowers are good. Does he have good grades? And what about a job?" Louis asks and he seems entirely sincere. They're ridiculous questions, something she might expect to hear from her father.
Okay, Louis is jealous. But if he doesn't ask her out he doesn't get to be weird about her dating life.
And then come the gifts.
First it's small things like her favourite candy bar, a lucky guess. A book on the current topic of her classes, and she doesn't remember talking to him about it, but she must have.
He brings her earrings one day and says they were his sister’s, he found them in a drawer somewhere and he's not gonna wear them and he doesn't have the heart to sell them. Would Regina just please take them?
It takes some convincing, but with a heavy heart she accepts them and tries to wear them as often as possible. They are beautiful. Tahitian pearls set in gold. She doesn't want to know if they're real or not.
A few weeks later he brings her a matching necklace and his voice threatens to break when he helps her clasp it around her neck and tells her the set is beautiful on her.
The jewellery was a lot already. And then Louis outdid himself.
Regina is a bit of a snob when it comes to stationary. She's been religiously keeping a journal since she was twelve years old and there's just something so satisfying about writing with a nice pen on nice paper. The week started out bad when Regina's fountain pen broke and she had complained to her friend Killian about it. Her hands had been stained with ink for two days despite scrubbing them relentlessly, and she was forced to continue with a cheap ballpoint pen.
Regina is shoving pancakes into her mouth when Louis clears his throat.
"So, I saw this and I thought of you. You don't have to accept it, but it would make me very happy if you did."
He slides a little black leather box across the table and when Regina looks down at it she chokes. It's a Caran d'Ache Fountain Pen. Louis saw a Caran d'Ache Fountain Pen, thought of her, and bought it. For her. A girl he barely knows.
"Lou… I can't accept this." Her voice is hoarse when she speaks, and her eyes are glued to the box. She's itching to open it and look inside, but she fears she might die if she does.
"I want you to have it. Just take a look and see if you like it? Please?"
When Regina makes no move to touch the box Louis reaches across the table and opens it for her. Beautiful rose gold and ebony wood stare back at her. Her eyes flicker between the pen and Louis, who is watching her with a hesitant little smile on his lips.
One and a half grand.
Regina knows exactly how much this pen costs, because she's spent countless hours looking at it longingly. It is a frankly disgusting amount of money to drop on a pen. And Louis did it for her.
"It's already bought. I could of course return it, but Regina, that'd be a lot of work. I'd really like it if you just accepted it." He sighs and gives her another one of his little smiles. "And if you really don't want it you can always sell it."
Louis pushes the box closer to her until it brushes against her fingers, forcing her to touch it.
"Pick it up, see how it feels in your hand."
He seems to be whispering directly into her mind. As if possessed, she reaches out for the box and carefully picks up the small treasure inside it. Louis leans over, his hand reaching into her apron pocket and pulling out her notebook, laying it out in front of her. Regina pulls off the cap, and starts writing.
She slides the thank you note across the table and wipes away a stray tear.
Louis starts showing up on her free nights.
The first time she spots him outside her friend's building she thinks she's just mistaking some stranger in the dark for him. It wouldn't be so far-fetched, she sees him most nights of the week while she's working, and his face is something Regina thinks about a lot.
She sees him again a few nights later in the corner shop she frequents after getting off work. Sometimes she comes to it even if she doesn't have a shift because Killian gives her a discount on cherry cola. Louis is browsing the newspaper section, but when Regina turns to talk to him he's gone.
She could swear that she sees Louis in the crowds of the subway station as well. Standing still in the crowd of never stopping people, just watching her.
She brings it up one night, just because it's starting to get so bizarre that it's funny.
"I've noticed the strangest thing! I think I keep seeing you around town when I'm out at night!" She places her bowl of tomato soup on the table, her grilled cheese next to it. "Or maybe I'm just so used to seeing your face between midnight and 3 A.M. that I start hallucinating you when I don't have night shifts. Looks like I just miss you so much, Lou!"
He stiffens in his chair, but the smile remains on his lips.
"Huh, that's weird. But I do live near here, so maybe we just frequent the same places." His fingers fidget with his bracelet and he's silent for a bit while he watches Regina dunk her grilled cheese into her soup.
"Come say hi next time, yeah? I don't think I've really noticed you." He winces. "Wait, that sounds bad. I just kinda zone out when I am in open spaces, freaks me out."
And that's that. It is a perfectly good explanation, Regina doesn't live far from the diner, and with Louis being here so often he must also be close, just like he says.
Regina tries to shake the weird feeling she has and continues eating her soup. However in the process of reaching for her spoon she knocks her empty glass off the table, and it shatters.
"Fuck!"
She falls to her knees and starts picking up glass shards, and then pain shoots through her hand.
Blood wells up and runs down the side of her palm, threatening to drip onto the floor, so Regina sticks out her tongue. She licks a broad stripe up the side of her hand, gathering the blood in her mouth and swallowing the salty metallic taste, before sticking her finger in her mouth.
Louis scrambles to grab a handful of napkins which he shoves at her and Regina wraps her finger in it, and then Emma is there with a dustpan and a rag, telling them it's fine and to go get some fresh air.
Louis lights a cigarette, which he tries to pass to Regina before remembering that she can't grab it. He holds it to her lips and lets her take a drag. The bleeding has slowed down, but not yet stilled, so Regina lifts her arm into the air to help it stop.
Louis stares at her with a look so soft it makes her nauseous.
"It's just a small cut, don't worry. Fingertips always bleed like hell because the skin is so thin and veins end, but fuck I don't think I ever managed to nick myself this bad." She laughs, but Louis just keeps staring at her.
"Are you okay, Lou? Oh shit, do you have a problem with seeing blood? Fuck, sorry!"
But he shakes his head. He swallows and reaches out his hand, and Regina freezes when his thumb finds the corner of her mouth where he wipes something away.
"Sorry, there was some…" He looks down at his own thumb. It's red. "Blood."
Regina is ripped out of her sleep by someone seemingly trying to break down her door with their knocking. In the dark she stumbles through her room trying to find a pair of pants, and the noise doesn't let up.
She doesn't know who or what she expected on the other side of the door, but it's not this.
"Louis?"
She isn't sure if she's dreaming or not. She took a gummy before she went to bed, so maybe this is some freaky weed induced vision. Because Louis is standing in the hallway in front of her apartment door, and he should not be here.
He should not know where she lives.
Unless she told him? Did she give him her address?
"You're so beautiful."
Weird opener… Regina is barefoot, wearing an old band-shirt, a pair of shorts inside out, and her hair is wrapped in a pink silk scarf, curls spilling out.
But Louis is looking at her like she is the most beautiful thing in the world.
His hand is warm on her cheek. When did he reach for her face? His thumb is tracing her cheek and he raises his other hand to brush one of her strands of hair out of her face. It's a gentle touch filled with care, and Regina isn't thinking clearly, because she is getting on her tippy-toes.
He shouldn't be here, but it is a nice surprise. And it has to mean something, doesn't it, that he is here? Kissing him on her doorstep is kinda romantic. His hands on her face. He smiles at her.
"My Claudia. You've come back to me."
Regina recoils like she's been punched in the stomach. She misheard him, surely. Because she could've sworn that Louis just called her Claudia. The name of his sister.
"I can't blame you for hiding yourself from me for so long, I deserve it. I stayed with Armand, but Claudia, you must believe me, I didn’t know what he had done! The minute I learned of his involvement I left him. Is that what you were waiting for? Is that why you show yourself to me now?"
His clutch on Regina's face is painful, and she can't pull out of it. Louis' eyes are wild, they don't seem to see the discomfort in her expression. They don't seem to see her at all.
"I was doubting myself, thought I was losing my fucking mind, that you were nothing but a fragment of my imagination. But you're real. I can feel your love for me when I look into your mind. You're real and you're here and I will never let anyone hurt you again."
Regina is thrashing in Louis' hold, trying to break free.
"Louis, what the fuck?! How are you here, what the fuck are you talking about?!" She feels like she's about to burst into tears, helpless in the hands of the man she spent so many nights with and trusted. He shushes her, a sweet little noise, and pulls her closer.
"I'm sorry, Claudia. Please forgive me, because I can’t forgive myself."
It probably hurts her more than it does Louis when she kicks his shins. He doesn't even react despite Regina kicking as hard as she can. Her foot throbs and now tears do fall.
"Let go, please." Her voice is small, and Louis just keeps babbling on and on, calling her Claudia and caressing her face, telling her how beautiful she is, how she hasn't changed a bit. Her soft pleading doesn't help.
"Louis! Get the fuck off of me!"
Regina's voice echoes through the hallway, and the screeching doesn't seem to reach Louis, but it does reach her neighbours, because suddenly the door across the hall is thrown open.
Regina doesn't know the man that lives there very well, thinks the name on his doorbell might be Gold. But he is holding a walking cane in his hand, which he threatens to swing like a bat.
"Get your hands off of that young woman! I will call the fucking cops on you, you bastard!"
Louis stops in his ramblings. His eyes stay fixated on Regina for a few moments, before he turns to look at Mister Gold. He's trembling and his hand reaches for Regina's.
"No, she's my daughter, it's okay. My Claudia."
Daughter. Not sister this time.
"Sir, you have the wrong girl." The man's voice softens while he talks to Louis. "That poor thing's name is Regina, and it looks like she's barely ten years younger than you. She's not your daughter. Look at her, she's terrified."
Louis falters when his eyes meet Regina's. He shakes his head and squeezes her hand.
"No… Claudia’s come back to me, I just needed to prove myself to her." His voice is thin and he's still trembling. He seems like a kid, broken and scared.
"Louis, I am sorry, but I am not Claudia. My name is Regina, I work at the diner."
Regina tries to make her voice firm, but kind when talking to him. He hasn't tried to hurt her, doesn't seem to want to. But Regina is scared.
"Regina…." He looks at her, lightly tugs on the strand of hair he brushed away earlier, stares into her eyes. "Fuck."
A sob breaks free from Louis, and he drops her hand.
"Christ, I am losing it, aren't I? Regina… Yes. Fuck, I'm so sorry, please forgive me."
And then he bolts.
The cops Regina's neighbour called aren't much help. Regina stays with Emma for a week, and doesn't go to work. She arranges to move as quickly as possible. The necklace and earrings disappear from her jewellery box and Regina decides to not think too hard about it. She doesn't see Louis again, he doesn't come in anymore.