She walked away, still cradling the toolbox to her chest, and Barney and I exchanged a grin.
“I betcha five bucks she uses it,” he stage whispered. “She has a hidden girlie side she doesn’t like people to know about.”
Hmm, that was interesting.
Sam didn’t say a word about the toolbox for the rest of the day, but when I went into her office for something it was sitting on her desk, right next to her phone and water bottle, a few items already stacked inside.
I noticed that her water bottle was beat to hell, all chipped and dented. I made a mental note to order her one of the specialwater bottles everyone talked about. She deserved to have nice things, and it was easy for me to provide them, but I had a bad feeling that Sam wouldn’t see it that way.
I’d have to find other ways to woo her. Like more of Marta’s cupcakes.
On Friday of my third week, I planned a surprise for the whole crew.
“Don’t bring a lunch tomorrow,” I told them the day before. “I have a surprise for you.”
The guys had all seemed thrilled, but Sam had just rolled her eyes, muttering aboutspoiled princesses.But she was right there alongside the rest of us when we heard the noise of a vehicle coming up the gravel road right at noon.
“Is that a food truck?” Barney asked.
“Wait, that’s Manny’s isn’t it?” Jose said, recognizing the distinctive decorations on the food truck. “You got us Manny’s?”
“Surprise!” I said, making ata damotion with my hands. “Tacos on me. Or whatever you want.”
“Damn it, Manny’s is my favorite taco truck,” Sam said as she walked up to me.
We stood side by side in front of the living room window watching as the guys rushed out to the truck like a swarm of locusts.
“I know, that’s why I picked them.”
She gave me a surprised look. “How did you know?”
“You mentioned it one day when we were all talking about our favorite food carts. You were saying how the best gig you had was when you re-did some condos near the food cart pod and that you ate Manny’s almost every day for a month.”
She seemed surprised that I’d remembered.
“Well theircarnitasare like crack,” she said. “Have you tried them?”
“No, I’ve never eaten at a food truck before,” I admitted.
Sam shook her head, then grabbed my wrist, pulling me towards the door. The heat of her fingers seared my skin.
“You’re in for a treat then, my friend.”
Sam
“Okay, I understand why you were so excited about these street tacos,” Livi told me, delicately wiping a dribble of sauce off her lip. “This food is exceptional.”
The crew from Manny’s had made us a veritable feast, and the picnic table was loaded with street tacos,elotes,tamales, and tortas. I couldn’t believe Livi had rented the entire truck just for the eight of us to have lunch. It was extravagant – and totally sweet. And that pretty much described her in a nutshell.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be hard to work after all this food,” Barney said. “I’m going to be in a food coma.”
Livi gave him a pleased smile then turned back to me. “This corn is so delicious. I’ve never had it prepared like this.”
“Yeah, I’m partial to theelotesmyself,” I said, picking up an ear of the Mexican corn.
As uncomfortable as it made me for Livi to throw her money around, I had to admit she was an exceptional gift giver. That toolbox was ridiculous, yet somehow I loved it. A new water bottle appeared on my desk another day, one of those expensive insulated ones that people lined up at stores to buy, my name somehow emblazoned on the outside in a way that looked like it was custom made. And now the taco truck lunch.
I wanted to hate it all, but of course I couldn’t. The sweet thing about Livi was that she listened and did things for people that had meaning. Sure, she probably had some assistant who took care of all this, but everything was clearly her idea, and that had to count for something.
