2019-11-14 - Getting Our Bearings

This particular diner does have a certain ambiance that you really can't find anywhere else outside a deranged person's hunting lodge. Maybe that's why Lalo has found himself in here tonight -- he certainly seems to be taking it all in. He hasn't even gone to seat himself yet. Instead, he's just staring at a giant bear statue with a porkpie hat on its head. "What the fuck," he murmurs, shaking his head as he leans back, squinting, tipping his head to the side, closing one eye, then the other...as though any of this could help him to understand just what, precisely, the fuck. But whatever the fuck, he's obviously enjoying it.

Beth Lawson enters the Grizzly Den Diner without reacting in the least bit. It seems she has been here at least enough times to not find the decor worthy of what-the-fuckery. She has the appearance of someone who rolled out of bed and decided they wanted a diner breakfast. She is wearing athletic leggings with mesh cutouts, a tank top, and a zip-up hoodie thrown over that. Her long dark hair is piled on top of her head and held in place with a scrunchie. Her face is bare.

She sits down at the counter and flips over one of the bear stenciled coffee cups to be served, and reaches for a menu to begin searching for something for breakfast.

Lalo barely notices Beth come in, though he does spare her a brief glance as she passes, perhaps contemplating whether she can tell him what the fuck. He does not ask, though, and after a few more seconds whatever he'd hoped to find from his intense scrutiny of that bear, he has either found it or not. Whatever the case, he does eventually turn away to actually go get some food. He takes a seat next to Beth, and he looks over at her with a nod. "Hey," he says. "It's unbearable, right?" The grin he gives her here can only be described as shit-eating after that paternalest of Dad jokes.

Beth is still struggling to wake up. When Lalo sits down next to her and says hey her head turns, and she gives him a lazy but still friendly smile. When he makes his pun her lips twitch upwards briefly. She is clearly charmed, but trying to play the Cool Girl. Or maybe it really is just too early. "It really is too early in the morning for all that." She tells him, and she reaches for her mug when the waitress comes to fill it.

"Come on. It's never too early in the morning for a pun." Lalo's expression shifts just a little smugly, though, because he can see he's gotten her, even if she's too cool to admit it. He reaches for a menu and starts to look it over then, moving it a little further back, and then closer. "Shit, I need glasses. Getting old." He sets it down then, and lifts a hand for a waitress. "Coffee," he says, "with lots of sugar, yeah? Just all the sugar. Bring a couple containers."

"You're one of those super perky morning people, aren't you?" Beth retorts as she takes a sip of coffee from her cup. She may be hiding a little bit of a smile behind the rim. Maybe. She makes no comment regarding the sugar, but her well-shaped dark brow raises ever so slightly. When the waitress comes over she orders a stack of pancakes with a side of bacon.

"You know it, mama," Lalo replies. "Gotta get going, right? I'll sleep when I'm dead, all that stuff. I've already been up for an hour, how about you?" He gets his coffee relatively quickly, and he's actually received two sugar containers, which clearly makes him happy. "And thank you," he says with a smile for the waitress, before he takes them both and tips them into his coffee. Okay, so he doesn't use the whole thing, but still, he did use both the containers. "What's got you down today?"

"Had a call last night to come and do a delivery." Beth says, and she makes a little bit of a face. "Problem with my job is I just can't not go, you know. So I was up pretty late." She lifts a sleeve-covered hand to yawn in it, and gives Lalo an increasingly skeptical look when he uses so much sugar. "what's got you so up today?" She asks, and she looks away to smile again.

"A delivery, huh?" Lalo takes a sip from his coffee, pausing for a moment as he considers it, before he nods once, internally pronouncing it acceptable. "Yeah, I get that. I can't really just not go to my job, either. Good thing I love it so much." He grins over at her again, not attempting to hide his smile in any way. In fact, it's like he's gotten even more aggressively cheery just on principle. "Life," he says. "It's a beautiful day," -- it's not -- "the sun is shining," -- it's not -- "and I'm happy to be here drinking coffee in the middle of a fucking bearstravaganza." Okay, that one's true.

"As my grandpa says do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life." Beth comments before she takes a swallow of coffee. Her head turns a little to watch him speak, and her brows creep upwards with each statement. "You new to town? Most people are..." She waves a hand. "Used to the bearstravaganza."

"Your grandpa's a smart man." Lalo takes another sip from his coffee, his eyes scanning the various bears that are in view, lingering on a particularly exciting one. So all of them, basically. The question brings his gaze back to her, though, and he nods. "Yep," he says. "How'd you know? Because you'd definitely remember me if you'd seen me before, right?" He laughs, setting the cup down and leaning back a little bit on the stool, enough so that the front two legs come off the floor for a moment. "You a local?"

"Sure is." Beth says before she laughs outright at his question and turns her head to look at him. "I just said. Because you aren't used to the bearstravaganza." She faces forward then, wrapping her hands around the mug in her hands to absorb the warmth from it. At his question she nods her head and puts her mug down. She turns a little to face him again and holds out her hand. "Beth Lawson. I own the funeral home in town on Spruce Street."

"Oh, right. Well, there you go. I'm gonna live in here, I think." Lalo looks around again, because he just can't not admire that bear with the aviators. That is class right there, folks. He reaches over to shake her hand, though, when she offers it. "Funeral home, huh? No wonder you're a creature of the night," he says, still with that same smile, his tone a little teasing but not sharp. "Lalo Martinez. I'm a nurse over at Addington Memorial. Just started a couple days ago so I'm trying to look around. Meet people, you know. But I've barely gotten anything done so far." Cue the emphasis on barely, and another wide grin.

"Oh yeah. I'm real dark." Beth jokes, lifting a hand to push her glasses up her nose. "Well welcome to town, Lalo. I hope you like it here." Just then the waitress returns to sit her plate of pancakes, syrup, and side of bacon down in front of her. She reaches for the syrup to drizzle it lightly on before she cuts out a small section of pancake and takes a bite. "What made you take a job in Gray Harbor?"

"Thanks," Lalo replies, and he might have said more, but just then, Beth's food comes. He tips his head to the side as he considers, and before the waitress can quite leave, he says, "I think I'm gonna have that, too. But extra bacon." His breakfast ordered, he turns back to Beth, picking up his coffee again, but he doesn't drink from it, just holds it. It makes an excellent hand warmer. "Well," he says, "the pay was decent, and I was looking for a change of scene. I definitely got it. I'e never almost drowned just by walking outside before."

"It's gloomy." Beth agrees nonchalantly as she takes another bite of her pancakes. "Rainy. Takes some getting used to. I think some people find it hard to adjust to the lack of sunshine." She picks up a piece of bacon and gazes at it thoughtfully from behind her glasses before she says, "You should invest in some vitamin D. Heard everyone in town is deficient." She has a bite of the bacon and puts it down to reach for a napkin to wipe grease from her hands before she pushes her glasses up her nose again.

"Yeah, I bet." Her advice, though, has Lalo letting out a little amused snort. "Vitamin D, huh? Thanks for looking out. I'll pick that up along with my cheaters." He taps his temple, squinting at her as though he can't see her, either. "Think I can get the senior citizen's discount?" He finishes off his coffee then, letting out another little sigh, and he smiles. "That's good coffee," he adds.

"Why? Are you old?" Beth asks with a little twist of her lips. "You don't look it, but it's not polite to assume a gentleman's age." She has another bite of her pancakes and lets out a sigh that often accompanies getting full before one's meal is complete. She pushes the plate away reluctantly before picking up her mug for another sip of coffee. "Where did you live before this?"

"Well, I'm gonna assume I'm older than you." Having said that, Lalo looks her over a little bit more critically, before he nods once, as though he's confirmed it for himself. "Yep, definitely." It's then that his meal comes, too, and as soon as it's set down he's staring at it like a bear stares at a beehive. Yes, that was just said. He grabs a piece of bacon and takes a bite, and his eyes roll up in his head as he lets out a sound that can only be described as rapture. "That is some good bacon."

He finishes it off as she asks her last question, and once he's swallowed, says, "Grew up in LA. But I haven't been back there recently. Been making my way north for a while now."

"What if I just look young?" Beth asks with a little raise of her brows behind her glasses at his critical look. Still, his reaction to the bacon earns a little laugh. "You really do enjoy your food, don't you?" When he says he is from LA she nods her head softly. "So you've gradually acclimated to the gloom of the Northeast instead of immersing yourself in it right away. Smart man."

"I really, really do." That is, of course, in response to her comment about the food. Lalo doesn't address whether she's actually young or just looks young -- he just smiles a little bit slyly, tapping the side of his nose and then pointing at her. He grabs another piece of bacon, taking a good-sized bite from it as he nods. "Yep, that was the plan. I don't know if anyone's ever called me a smart man before, though, so thank you for that. Handsome man, yes. Smart man, no."

"Well I do enjoy brightening other's days." Beth says amusedly when he thanks her for calling him smart. She finishes off her coffee and pushes the cup towards the edge of the counter before she reaches into the pocket of her hoodie to withdraw some cash from her wallet and put it down on the counter, enough to cover her breakfast as well as a tip. "Nice meeting you. Hopefully I'll see you around again. Just not at our jobs."

"Yeah, that would be kind of a downer, huh?" Lalo lifts a hand to her, before he reaches for his fork. "Nice meeting you, too, Beth Lawson. Enjoy the day. Do something fun, yeah? Run around in the rain and jump in puddles or something." He grins, and reaches the hand not holding his fork up to poke it into his cheek right at the edge of his smile to make it even wider, as though he's demonstrating for her how it's done.

Beth just laughs. "Yeah I don't know if I'm that free-spirited or twee, but I'll think about it." She tugs the zipper up on her hoodie then before she starts towards the door.