“Really?” I dipped down to look at the receipt for one of my tables. “Durk! Thirty-six’s been waiting on fries for like forty minutes!”
Milan stroked her braids. “Are you surprised?”
Durk dropped a plate of Tater Tots in front of me.
“What? They didn’t order Tots!” I touched Milan’s shoulder. “No, I just wouldn’t have guessed he was your type.”
Durk stormed back to the grill. “Tell them we outta fries.”
“How are we out of fries?”
Milan said, “He doesn’t remind you of Benjy?” Benjy was the only boyfriend of Milan’s I ever liked.
Eric walked behind the bar. “Milan, stop running your mouth.”
“Be quiet, Eric! No one was talking to you.”
“They already paid for fries, Durk.” I plucked the receipt from the counter. “I dunno… that’s cool that he asked you out, I mean. What’d you say?”
The grill smoke cast a cloud over Durk’s face. With the bone of his wrist, he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. “Open the fucking window, Moe!”
The new dishwasher opened the window. Traffic horns blared, the city wailing.
Milan said, “We’re going out next weekend.”
“You know I’ll spin the block if he hurts you.”
She smiled. “I know.”
“So, what’re you wearing?
This made her light up. “Remember the top I wore to Renaissance? So—”
“Would y’alldosomething?” Eric snapped. “Here, run Tanya’s food.”
“I want my fries!” I cried.
Durk slammed a pan on the stovetop. Customers turned. “We don’t have no fucking fries!!!!”
I took my break on the fire escape after Milan went home. Jay picked up the phone, already talking, “… in class scraping slime out of the sink, it hit me: The election’s in almost exactly a month.”
I tugged my eyelashes until a shiny black hair appeared on my thumb.
“The good news is our democracy is strong. It’s been tested, but it’s still standing.”
“Did Obama tell you to say that?” I asked.
Jay had a 2008 “Yes We Can!” Obama poster above his bed that he sought advice from.
“So what if he did?”
“That man didn’t save us fifteen years ago and he’s not gonna save us now.” I didn’t really know, since fifteen years ago I was nine.
“You don’t mean that!”
“I do look forward to his reading list every year.”
Jay mentioned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, how the Democrats were going to have a tough time reaching voters because of their lukewarm response to the violence. I said, “Wait, wait, you mean Palestine?” He said, “No, no, Lebanon.” Fourteen hundred killed, one million displaced. All of this had happened last week. I didn’t know how I missed it.
