And now he was sitting in Dustin's passenger seat, clipboard on his lap, five dollar bill still clutched in his hand like a kid who'd just gotten his allowance.
“You can put that away,” Dustin said.
Greg looked down at the money. “I’d like to contribute, at least.”
“I told you, I'm paying.”
“That doesn't seem fair when I have money.”
“Greg. It's five dollars. You can't even get a decent appetizer for five dollars.”
Greg's face fell. “Why must everything be soexpensive?”
Dustin snorted. He couldn't help it. What got him was the absoluteindignationin Greg's voice, like the entire human economy had personally offended him.
“That’s capitalism for you,” Dustin said. “It's a goodthing the people with the inflatable duck pay me ridiculous amounts of money to throw myself off high places.”
Greg was quiet for a moment, then, “None of the websites I looked at today mentioned jumping off cliffs to make money. How did you even think of that?”
Dustin gave a half-shrug like it didn’t matter. “Maybe I’ll tell you over dinner.”
Greg nodded to himself. “I’d like that, I think.”
Dustin’s gaze slid to the reaper. Why was he considering telling Greg his story?
He wasn’t sure.
The diner was called Ruby’s, and while Dustin had never eaten there before, it looked approximately like every other diner he’d been to while traveling the country in pursuit of new ways to defy gravity.
He expected the coffee to be burned and the burgers to be perfect.
“Pick your poison,” he said to Greg, handing him the menu as they sat down.
Greg quickly seemed overwhelmed by it. “There are more options here than the last restaurant.”
“And it all probably roughly tastes the same.”
Greg looked up. “Really?”
“Really.” Dustin flipped his own menu open. “Unless you get a salad, I guess, but why would you do that?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Greg asked earnestly. He looked down again. “Oh, the salads are expensive. Everything is expensive.”
“This is nothing, sunshine.” Dustin waved him off. His lips twitched. “Maybe one day I’ll take you to a placethat’sactuallyexpensive.” Wouldn’t that be interesting? Making Greg blush at a Michelin star restaurant while he was having a food orgasm.
The thought appealed more than it should.
Before he could linger on it for too long, a perky waitress appeared. Her name-tag read Samantha. “What can I get you boys?”
“Coffee and a bacon cheeseburger,” Dustin said. “Medium. And yeah, I’d like fries with that.”
Samantha turned to Greg.
“Um,” said Greg like someone who worried there might be a wrong answer to the question of ‘What’ll you have for dinner?’
Dustin stopped himself from answering for him. He wanted to see what Greg would pick.
“Can I have the grilled cheese,” Greg said eventually. “And fries. And...” He scanned the menu. “A chocolate milkshake?”
