they were nothing but a regular.
yes. a usual one, one that came every day, no matter whether it was during the week or weekend. sometimes, they’d even linger around past closing, & it even got to a point where you’d wave to them every time you saw him. he always waved back, his iconic smirk flashing across his visage.
soon enough, you learnt that they were a gambler. also a regular at the local casino, one run by some guy named don sonnelinno. apparently this guy was on good terms with sonnelinno, so the manager always allowed the regular to often stay after-hours, sometimes get in some early gambling time.
though, he’d always manage to make time to pay a visit to your pizzeria. half the time, they didn’t even order anything, just sit at a table while sipping at a complimentary bottle of water while “reading” a book. it was obviously just a decoy. whenever you looked over at him, they were always already looking at you, a gentle smile gracing their face.
it was sweet.
his name was chance. a fitting name for the gambler, who seemed to be downright famous at the local casino just down the road from the pizzeria you worked at. apparently, the manager of the casino was your boss’ long-long-long-lost great cousin, so he always told you the inside scoop of what chance’s status was at the casino (though you were convinced that your boss was just pulling your leg & making such an excuse for knowing what chance’s every move was at the casino because he actually went there each & every night).
well, never mind. it seemed a bit odd to you, however, why a gambler would come to some random pizzeria down the road each & every night. not on some days, though. those times when chance was absent, your boss told you that chance had crashed out in the casino & had fractured a bone or pulled a muscle because he tried to lift up a slot machine to smash it to some poor wall out of frustration when lady luck wasn’t on their side that night.
the stories your boss always brought to work about chance were amusing, to say the least.
recently, chance had seemed to grow much bolder when he paid his daily visits to the pizzeria. they often lingered around the ordering counter where your primary job was, but every time you managed to catch a glimpse of him when you were boxing up pizzas for delivery in the back, they always had a sort of disappointed look on their face as you retreated into the back of the pizzerias to carry out or tend to other jobs. there were never enough employees at the pizzeria, but that didn’t to bother you.
chance knew this, & it impressed him to no end.
it was another typical day of tuesday. it was currently rush hour, to be exact, but even then the pizzeria didn’t get many customers in. about three were in-line, but a fourth was in the very front of the queue.
it was chance.
they had specifically chosen the cash register that had you manning it, as you had seen him do when they entered the establishment. their face had lightened up as they saw you at a register & had immediately skipped over to it, ignoring the three people already in-line, much to their irritation. he leant his elbow over the counter, his usual cocky side-mouthed grin on his face, though it also had another tinge of… something else in it in this particular day.
chuckling under his breath, chance laid a hand over the screen of the ordering console you used to take customers’ orders, done as if in a show to tell you that you wouldn’t need it. not for them, anyway.
" heya there…. "