Backroom Three

Jenna pulled her black leggings up and threw on an old grey t-shirt over her skimpy tank top. She had to work and didn’t feel like moving. Instead, she wanted to sleep and get caught up a little on lost sleep. She’d been up studying late into the night the past three nights, and it was hitting her. Going back to college at thirty-one wasn’t nearly as easy as many made it out to be. She splashed water on her face, skipped makeup, except for a dusting of powder, and dashed out the door.

Her car needed a bath, she needed a shower, and the sun was beating down on her hot which meant the kitchen was going to be an inferno. She used to love cooking until she became a cook. Now, at work she did home cooking, and at home, she did microwave cooking. The job had choked the love of cooking out of her. At one point, she’d considered culinary school, that’s why she got the job at the diner where home cooking was the norm and everything was made from scratch. But slaving away making homemade meals for others fifty hours a week had strangled the life out of that desire. Her current focus was nursing. She’d be done in a year and half and find a job easily because there was a shortage of nurses.

Life wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. She was supposed to be done with college, settled into her career,...