Mr. Ballin

Once he got inside, James took his usual seat at the counter where his friend MJ was already sitting.

MJ was in his 60s.

And like James, he was also a fixture at this Waffle House.

And so the two immediately began chit-chatting about the weather and their kids.

And then at some point, James ordered his coffee and used that as a chance to catch up with some of the wait staff that he spoke to every morning.

then eventually more regulars began filtering in and out and james made a point to chat with them and laugh with them as well i mean again this was like his second home and in fact on this particular day there were so many people that he wanted to talk to coming in and out of the restaurant that he decided you know what my dog's fine out there you know i've only been in here for a few minutes i'm gonna order some food as well however right after james ordered his food

He turned and he looked out the window into the parking lot, and even though he couldn't actually see his Corvette, he could see that it was extremely sunny and very hot outside.

Like he knew that when he showed up, but I mean, he's looking out there and it just looks like a desert out there.

It's so hot and like there's nobody out there.

It's just cars getting blasted by the sun.

And he's thinking, like, Leia's out there.

And even though he had had the AC on when he pulled up, and so, you know, likely his Corvette was still a little bit cool, there was no way that it was particularly comfortable in his car right now.

And so before his food showed up, James turned to MJ and just said, hey, I'm going to be right back.

You want to just, like, hold my seat?

I'm going to go out and check on something.

And MJ, who was kind of busy talking to other people, he's like, yeah, go ahead.

I'll save your seat.

And then James left the restaurant to go check on Leia.

And so James, after leaving the Waffle House, he sort of ran around the corner out of view of where he had been sitting.

And he went over to his beautiful dream car.