“He was cute, Sully-doo. A little too flaky, but eager to please. And nice ass.” Lori gives me two thumbs up.
Randy is cute, but he doesn’t make my heart race and my palms sweat at the sight of him—like someone else.
Lori takes me to the café again and sits at one of the white tables. I flop down on the chair too heavily and almost tip it over. The high-pitched screeching of the chair’s feet on the floor is deafening.
The little conversations around us start bubbling again after a moment of silence filled with scrutinizing eyes aimed at me. The place is almost full. It’s because of the relaxed vibes—all the furniture came from local thrift stores and markets, great coffee and food, the ingredients are bought from a couple of organic shops in the area, and reasonable prices. My brother did an amazing job. He really turned his life around. I want to do the same. I want him to be proud of me just as I am of him.
“Barista, please, the usual.” Lori’s drink order takes me back to the present.
“Coming up, Lori.”
I want to talk to him about my odd belief that someone is watching me. But I need to find the right place to do that, certainly not here in my brother’s café.
“So, are you going out with him?” Lori asks.
“Who?” I lost the plot for a moment.
He purses his lips. “Ro-bert? Roger! No? The cute waiter.”
I shake my head at him. “I’m not sure he asked me out.” He was drooling all over Lori a moment later.
“He certainly did. Aww, Papa Lori is so proud. My Sully-doo has dudes and dudettes hitting on him.”
“Lori, stop calling yourself Papa.” The daddy vibe is not for me.
“It’s gross.” My brother agrees with me, appearing near our table. “Are you done for today?” He looks at me.
“Yes.”
“Lori will give you a ride back. I have to wait for the plumber to come fix the faucet in one of the apartments. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. And I can take the bus.” As I always say after I finish my shift here. The bus stop is only a block from here.
“Come off it! I have so many things to tell you,” Lori lets me know.
“I wouldn’t want to be you,” Oliver jokes, giving me a pitying look.
“Just go wait for Mario and Luigi and leave us alone, bozo.”
Ollie flips him off and puts a bag filled with containers of food from Rague on my lap. Then he lowers his forehead to mine until they touch and stays for a couple of seconds. “Be safe. Call me.”
“I will.”
He nods and walks away.
“Okay, I think you should go out with the cute waiter,” Lori goes back to the previous conversation.
“I’m not sure I’m into him, or him into me.”
“Who cares? It’s just a fuck.”
“Look, Lor, I am not like you, I’m not so…”
I’m looking for the right word when he says, “Slutty?”
“Well…” Loose and easy was what I was going for.
“I look at slutty in the rearview mirror, mate. Fun days…but gone. Now I have my boys satisfying me thoroughly.”
