Order up yells the cook. Spattered shoes pinching toes scurry from table to table, pouring coffee, delivering fake smiles painted with morning lipstick.

She scrapes seventy-five cents in quarters, nickels and pennies into her apron. An eight-fifty breakfast should have been a dollar-twenty-five tip. She majored in math in college.

Jeff Switt is a retired advertising agency guy who loves writing flash fiction, some days to curb his angst, other days to fuel it. His words have been featured at Dogzplot, Boston Literary Review, Flash Fiction World, Nailpolish Stories, 50-Word Stories, 100 Word Story, A Story in 100 Words, 101 Word Stories, and Shotgun Honey, and have appeared at lots of places that take whatever you send in.