Gabriel (Rewritten Version) - LGBT, manXman

2

"Evening, Gabriel." Mrs Wadsworth, the owner and head chef of the Roadside Café, smiled cheerfully at Gabe as he stepped through the door.

"Hi, Daisy. Slow night?" Gabe eyed the mostly empty booths.

Only one man was sat beside the window in the corner, staring morosely at his cheeseburger.

Gabe settled himself on a barstool at the clinically-clean counter.

Daisy Wadsworth was a kind and happy person, fastidious about cleanliness and hygiene. Although she disagreed with Gabe's 'profession', she was always ready to help him if he asked. Not that he ever really asked.

She was a great lover of American culture, and had opened the American diner-style café several years before. A row of booths along three of the outside walls provided most of the seating, but there were several bar stools along the counter too. Glass-fronted cabinets housed cakes and pre-made sandwiches, and the open kitchen to the back of the room let Daisy keep an eye on everyone in the café as she cooked.

Daisy employed seven people to help her run the café, so that it could stay open until the early hours.

It was these late hours, and the subsequent late-night customers, that had drawn Gabriel to the café in the first place.

"How're the kids?" She asked Gabe, setting his usual glass of water with a lemon slice on the counter before him.

Gabe shrugged and sipped his drink.

"Pheebs and the twins are fine. They're all doing well in school."

"And Jordan?" She grinned. "Still trouble?"

"Always trouble," Gabe grunted. "He's decided he wants to be a mechanic when he leaves school."

"Why?" Daisy asked. "Not that it's a bad career move, people will always need mechanics, but you said his teachers all expect him to go on to university."

"I don't know where he got the idea from," Gabe said. "But he seems pretty determined about it. We argued about it tonight."

"You're too easy on that boy," Daisy said. "If he knew what you did for all of them every night-"

"He can't know!" Gabe said sharply. "None of them can ever know."

He calmed himself, before he sighed.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you," he said quietly.

Daisy squeezed Gabe's hand and smiled at him.

"You know, you could come and work here. If you ever wanted to get out of..."

"'It'." Gabe smiled. 'It' was what Daisy always called his work. "Thanks for the offer, Daisy, but... unless you're willing to pay me fifty quid for quarter of an hour's work, I'm better off where I am."

"Financially," Daisy said. "But it's taking its toll on you, Gabriel. I can see it in your eyes, sometimes."

"If I could, I'd come and work here in a moment." Gabe told her. "But I can't. I need the money 'it' provides. Jordan's having his growth spurts, and he always needs new clothes. Phoebe needs money for a school trip in December. I had absolutely no idea when I decided to keep them out of care that kids cost so much."

Gabe smiled thinly, and finished his drink.

"I should to get to work."

As was his nightly tradition, Gabe pulled off his long coat and hung it on the coat-stand beside the door.

"I'll collect it before I go home," he said to Daisy, as he always did.

She liked to know he was okay after an evening on the streets, so he left his coat behind to collect every night, proving to her that he was alright.