The couple walks in and I greet them by name. They smile at me and go to the seat by the window. The man helps his wife sit down and drapes his jacket over her shoulders. He walks to the other side of the table and sits down.

I walk over with a notepad and a pen. “The usual?” I ask them.

“Yes,” replies the man. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” I say. I write down their orders on the notepad on my way to the kitchen and hand it to Rodney.

“Grandpa and grandma again?” Rodney asks as he takes the paper from my hands.

“Yup,” I reply.

Rodney makes a plate of pancakes and a full English breakfast. He puts two extra strips of bacon on the breakfast. I take the food and place it in front of them.

“I want some syrup,” says the woman.

“You can’t have syrup,” says the man.

The woman pouts. “Just this once?”

The man covers his eyes and shakes his head. “I can’t hear you!”

The woman kicks the man under the table, and he groans in pain. He waves a hand at me. I grab a pitcher of syrup and give it to the woman.

They eat while they smile at each other. I watch as the woman steals two strips of bacon from the man’s plate. The man says nothing. He cuts his hash browns in half and gives it to the woman. The woman cuts her pancakes into pieces and gives the ones without syrup to the man.

The man finishes his food. He wipes his mouth with a paper napkin and fists it into a ball. He looks at his wife, who is looking at her food, and throws the paper napkin at her. The napkin bounces off her head and onto the table.

“Ow!” the woman shouts.

The man sticks out his tongue at her and she reaches to grab it. He leans back and laughs. She smiles and kicks him under the table. He watches her as she finishes her pancakes.

After their meal, the man calls me over. I grab the coffee pot and refill their cups. The man opens his mouth. “A slice of chocolate cake for your wife?” I ask him before he could speak.

“Yes,” he says with a smile. He smiles make him look like he has curved lines for eyes.

I go to the kitchen and take out a chocolate cake from the fridge. I cut a slice from the cake and place it on a plate. I give the cake to the woman.

“Thank you,” the woman says. She pulls the plate to her and eats half of the piece. The man takes the plate and eats the rest.

The woman smiles. “You don’t have to finish it if you don’t like it,” she says.

“It’s not good to waste food,” the man replies. He drinks his coffee and asks me for some water.

The man puts money on the table, and I help his wife up. He shakes his head at me when I walk over to him.

“See you tomorrow,” I say to them.

“See you tomorrow,” the woman replies. The two of them walk out of the restaurant, hand in hand.