3 AM, Anywhere

He looked like he was older than he looked like, if you know what I mean. Sad as hell, too, but used to it. I refilled his coffee and gave him an extra donut.

"On the house."

"Thanks," he said.

I shrugged. He was the last customer of the night or the first of the morning, depending on how you looked at it. I didn't care either way, I just run the damn place while the owner was out there cruising for hookers. A good part of town for that.

"You looking for action?," I asked. It wasn't my thing, but I knew everybody around.

"No." For the way he said it, you could tell he hadn't been laid in forever, and had even gotten used to it. Weird, that, 'cause he was good looking. Classy, you know? And then he went and added "Hard to, when everybody around is your grand-grand-grand-something-daughter."

Creep.

"Never mind me," he said. "Just old age talking." He looked through the counter. "Could I trouble you for that apple?," he said, leaving a few coins over the counter and smiling like he had just said something very funny to himself and maybe God.

"Sure." If I didn't serve creeps, I'd have no business during my entire shift.

"Thanks." He took a bite out of the apple and looked at it. "Had forgotten how they taste like."

"Really?"

"Not since my father kicked me out. My fault, really." He was chewing it slowly.

"Sorry to hear that. I guess life sucks for everybody, right?"

"That's actually my fault, too. Sorry."

I didn't understand what he was saying, so I left him alone eating his apple. He looked tired, like he had all the sins of the world on his shoulders.

.finis.