What Separates Me and You

What Separates Me and You

Chapter 24 He Doesn’t Want Us Anymore

Mr. Casio sighed. His heart ached for the young lady in front of him. Pushing the food to her, he urged, “Go on, tuck in. We don’t want the food to get cold.”

Josephine wiped her tears away and forced a smile.

She picked up a fork and ate hastily, stuffing her mouth.

From Mr. Casio’s point of view, she must have been starving for days.

As Josephine wolfed down the stroganoff, her tears kept falling into the plate and mixing in with the food that she ate.

The diner was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Casio, a middle–aged couple in their forties. They used to have a child, but the child had passed away due to a traffic accident.

They ran the diner and did what they could by trying their best to help people who couldn’t afford their meals.

Josephine sat in the diner for the entire afternoon and stayed on until after dark.

Mrs. Casio was quite worried about her, so she asked her husband, “This poor child, looks quite pitiful. Has she nowhere to go?”

“She can’t speak. I guess she’s looking for a job here.”

When most of the diners left for the night, Mrs. Casio approached Josephine. “Young lady, where do you stay?”

Josephine shook her head. She didn’t have a home. She hadn’t had one since she was five.

Mrs. Casio sighed. “Why don’t you stay here and work for us if you don’t have a place. to go? We have a storage room in the back where you can sleep. All you have to do is wash the dishes and keep the place clean during the day.”

Josephine was stunned. She looked at Mrs. Casio in wonder.

Mrs. Casio chuckled. “But we don’t make much too, so you’re not going to get any wages.”

Josephine nodded in agreement, and even though Mrs. Casio did not understand. sign language, Josephine still signed her a “Thank you“.

Mrs. Casio looked at her dazedly. She seemed to look past Josephine to a faraway place. “If my daughter was still alive, she’d be around your age.”

Josephine’s gaze was downcast as she kept silent.

They cleared out the storage room which had a metal bed frame in it. That was where they usually took a break after a long day in the diner.

in the cramped storage room, and though it wasn’t as spacious and

caressed her belly and thought to herself how nice it would be if Lewis didn’t come for her and she

night. He looked down at his wristwatch. to find that it was almost midnight. And…the

and then to the bedroom upstairs, all to no avail. As he searched

wardrobe, pushed open the door, and found Josephine’s clothes still inside. His expression lightened

went back to the living room and gave his

Alvarez

cigarette and took a long drag. With a laugh,

that something wasn’t right, so he immediately agreed and

to check the CCTV outside Playtime to

down at the last

part

of

that Josephine

was fixed on the footage. displayed on the monitor.

cautiously, “Should I bring Mrs. Alvarez

all her cards. Lewis shut off the CCTV footage

when she’s had enough of a hard time.”

not seem to go as

with customers after work hours. However, as they did not charge much for food, they did not make

Not only did she wash the dishes

she would also clean the tables after diners

pleased with her work, and they even felt bad for

back because she

had their meals and went grocery shopping together. She had never

that she finally had a home.

her how to cook basic meals, but Josephine already knew how

dish, so Josephine was always practicing her culinary skills after marriage. She trained herself to cook everything to suit his tastes.

Josephine showed them what she could cook, Mrs. Casio was impressed. “Josie, you’ve

nodded as she smiled brightly.

by having you wash

nauseous at the smell of food these days, so she was worried that she might just throw up

to say something, Josephine felt her stomach churn. She immediately rushed over to a corner where the rubbish bin was and

while, but all that came out was

pat her on the back at the sight of that. “What’s

to steady herself before she straightened up and wiped her mouth. She touched her belly to gesture that she was