The windows were frosted. The cold came out of nowhere. Larry liked frosted glass. Not fog. The two had a similar opacifying effect, but the latter felt unhygenic while the former felt quaint.

Larry thought decades past when people would sit and talk for hours after eating their food. Laughter and switching topics and sighs as they got refill after refill of

coffee

.

People didn't eat like that anymore. These days people just didn't have

time

. They had places to be. Things to do. Nobody was willing to 'waste' an afternoon catching up the old school way.

His job was less enjoyable without those long conversations. The

diner

was feeling more and more like just a place to eat as opposed to a place to stay and relax.

Maybe his grandkids were right. It was time to retire. He didn't enjoy running a diner anymore without the whole neighborhood feeling so why do it? Deep down, Larry still thought it might come back. He was holding out for it. But also, he didn't know what he would do if he wasn't running the diner. It's all he knew.

Larry had long since stopped ranting about how nobody liked to hang out at diners over long meals and coffees. People didn't want to listen to that kind of stuff. So he kept his mouth shut for the most part. Didn't have much to say it turns out around these youngsters. The world was changing. Passing him by.