#fourteendaysinaweek

The diner that Trubel had picked a corner booth in and sat was the closest place with free WiFi to bum off of. Her shitty dell laptop connected as soon as it woke up, set to automatically connect and all.

She stared at the screen, curser staring back at her while she warmed her hands on a mug of mediocre diner coffee.

However long she sat was a mystery to her. Trubel never noticed the other customers coming and going.

Her attention drifted back and forth to the diner waitress. The one that always found herself perfectly highlighted by the natural light flooding from the windows.

Her name was Ruby. It was there right across her name tag. Trubel never really spoke to her, but she was nice enough. Always offered to refill her coffee when it cooled off.

Trubel pulled her attention back down to the notebook in front of her, awkwardly sitting halfway on the keyboard of her laptop.

It was the first time she had actually looked at what she started drawing.

A detailed sketch of Ruby, leaned over to take some menus from an older couple, with shading that somehow conveyed the halo that followed the young woman in the early morning light.

It wasn’t the first, either.

“So are you gonna buy me lunch, or just keep staring?”

Trubel slammed her laptop shut, pulled the notebook close to her chest and backed up against the corner of the booth.

Ruby looked down at her with an eyebrow raised. She seemed amused enough, head tilted and a light smirk.

“I uh-“ Trubel couldn’t gather her thoughts enough to stumble through a coherent response.

The light from the windows didn’t reach all the way into the back of the diner. The halo effect around Ruby’s hair disappeared.