She had been accepted at Princeton and offered a scholarship, but had so far failed to convince herself that the intense study of difficult texts was a worthwhile or even defensible pursuit. It was one of those rare periods when she was without a boyfriend, having dumped Tim Veldhuisen in April. Tim had started to say “I love you” and give hints that he was working up the nerve to ask her to move in with him. The thought of waking up every day beside him had filled her with dread. The truth was she hadn’t been in love with any of her boyfriends, a nagging secret that she had kept from even her closest girlfriends. She did miss Tim for a couple of weeks, but she took the measure of her happiness and decided that she had made the right decision. The diner was at Yonge and Wellesley, before that part of town had begun to change. The customers were tourists walking down to the Eaton Centre, strippers on their way to work in the nearby clubs, provincial government office workers, and those who Liana, the owner’s daughter, lumped under the category of “freaks.”
