Honk! Honk! Honk!I beg Derick with my eyes, but he won’t give in. Just like I don’t settle, he doesn’t give up.
“Tonight, after the second showing,” he hedges.
Vexation rolls through me. “That’s too late.”
“Fine. I can sit here all night. No problem.” He fastens his hands behind his head and leans back in his seat.
The honk from behind becomes a steady, relentless trill, tightening me to the point of snapping.
“Fine! A quick talk. Somewhere quiet.” The words have to fight their way through my gritted teeth.
The man swerves out from behind Derick and flies into Mateo’s lane. I don’t even wait for Mateo’s frantic tap out. I instruct him to switch with me immediately. He’s not ready to handle a berating patron just yet. At this rate, maybe not ever.
“I’ll find you after,” Derick calls before closing his window and cruising off.
I take care of the burly, agitated man and his pregnant wife. I apologize with a free voucher for a return visit, which seems to satisfy them. The line tapers off as the dancing-popcorn-bucket video begins to loop on the screen. The old, familiarLet’s all go to the lobby!song plays.
Mateo lets out a deep, dramatic sigh and slumps against the wall. “That was stressful as hell.”
“You’ll get used to it,” I assure him.
We’ll need to wait a while before we head back to the snack shack since there are always a few late stragglers who need assistance. I give myself a second to catch my breath too.
“Sounds like somebody has a hot date tonight.”
“It’s not a date. It’s not even a hang. It’s a quick conversation before I come home, curl up in my sheets, and sleep forever.” I decide right now that I’m setting a timer on my phone. If we don’t finish hashing it out in the first thirty minutes, I’m hightailing it back to the apartment and not looking back.
“On your birthday, you said you were hoping to meet someone at the drive-in. Doesn’t it seem like fate that he just happens to be here?”
“The key word there was ‘meet.’ I was hoping to meet someone new. Not get reacquainted with someone old who hurt me.”
Ouch.Admitting the hurt out loud makes it fresh. To mitigate the sting and redirect my thoughts, I count the novelty paper tickets people love to keep as souvenirs that I stacked up for Mateo earlier. There’s a surprising number still left.
“Mateo, did you not hand these out?” It’s not like we did terrible business tonight. If he forgot to issue them but took the money, no harm done. I can always do a quick walk-through to see if any of the families missed out.
“I did. One per car. Just like you said.” He’s half talking to me and half posing for a Snapchat he’s going to send to Brandon. They are joined at the hip these days. I’d be happier for him if it wasn’t interfering with his work.
“Mateo, I said one perperson. Not per car. Everyone needs a ticket.”
“I…don’t remember you saying that.” His voice rises.
“Mateo!” I yell. “There were SUVs full up with six people in them tonight. Are you telling me you let them in for ten dollars total?”
“Maybe I misheard you? I don’t know, babe. It was a little hard to focus when a love connection was happening inches from where I was standing!”
“It wasn’t a love connection! And,ugh, we’re not running a buy-one, get-five-free promotion!” We need that money. Even though concessions is where the big bucks are, Earl had to raise the admission prices right before I started here to offset the astronomical costs associated with going fully digital.
I snatch up the stack of tickets and head out. I don’t know what the policy is for a mistake like this, but the drawer can’t be that light when I count it out and report it back to Earl. He’s going to think I’m embezzling or something.
“Should I come with you?” Mateo calls timidly to my backside.
All I do is shake my head and begin myPlease, sir, can I have some more?tour.
***
Around thirty minutes post-closing, I hear a gentle knock on the open door of the office. After an evening of canvassing cars, asking for the missing admission costs, and comforting Mateo for an honest (albeit concerning) mistake, I’m elbow deep in an incident report, writing quickly in red pen.
Being manager is already far more work than I assumed it would be.
