Accidentally, On Purpose

A Romantic Comedy, Chapter 2

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Cara sat on the stool at the lunch counter inside Three Sisters Diner. A chocolate malted milkshake with a long pink straw was clutched in her hands. She nursed it like a baby bottle. It was the Cara Delavine equivalent of a shot of whiskey.

“Slow down there, kiddo.” Faith Louise Millhouse stood, hand on hip, watching the young woman attack the shake. Concern filled her voice. “You’re going to give yourself a brain freeze.”

Cara glanced up at Faith Louise. The older woman had gray hair which was piled up on top of her head in an old-fashioned bun. Wispy strands hung down around her weathered face, softening it. At sixty-two, she was the oldest of the three sisters of whom the diner was named. After Faith Louise came Hope Margaret, and Charity Rose, both equally gray-haired and weathered from a lifetime of living in a northern climate, all three never once caught without a mischievous grin, a bit ‘o gossip, nor a finger in the business of everyone living in their small town. Faith, Hope, and Charity Millhouse were community elders and icons in Moose Ridge, a tiny town in northeast Oregon. The ladies knew the town history by heart, passed down by their parents and grandparents all the way back to its founding in 1848. They also knew everyone in town. They’d known Cara since the day she was born, and had watched her grow up, tripping over her own feet every day from then until now.