Great. The final nail to the coffin carrying my Nesto afterglow had arrived.
I sighed and looked in the direction of the door and saw her walk in. She was in her usual workout-chic attire. How she got away with wearing yoga pants to work seventy-five percent of the time was a mystery to me. Today she was wearing a top in a particularly vision-searing shade of orange.
Misty was in her fifties, with skin so fair you could see the veins. She was one of those women who fought a hard and bloody battle against aging, and it showed. Her face wastight and stretched from all the work she’d gotten done, and she was always talking about her workout routines and beauty treatments.
She was married to one of the big real estate developers in the area, and as she regularly let us know, she worked for the library as a favor. She was good at her job, I gave her that, but it came at a cost because she antagonized everyone.
“Hi there. Working hard I see.” She flashed us both with a smile that made my entire body shudder. “Carmen, I was surprised I didn’t see you getting lunch with Jude yesterday at the new ‘ethnic’ truck he seems to like so much.”
She used air quotes for “ethnic.”
“It looked like it was doing a lot of business. Too bad there are like three Mexican places in town already. They should enjoy the business while it lasts.”
Carmen immediately objected. “It’s not Mexican food, Misty. It’sCaribbeanfood, which is nowhere near the same thing. Have you even eaten there yet?”
She made a face like Carmen just asked her if she liked eating dirt. “Oh no, I’m not really into foreign foods. I like more authentic American fare.”
I spoke up, trying to keep the edge out of my voice. “OuNYe’s foodisAmerican, Misty. It’s made in this country, by people who live here. That’s what American is.”
She produced another one of those shark smiles.
“So inclusive,” she quipped, her voice dripping with condescension. “You two are certainly well-informed. I tried to talk to the man who works there when he first came to town. Being on the city council I need to make sure everything is above board with people doing business here.”
God, she pissed me off so much.
She knew perfectly well Nesto was the owner of the truck. He hadn’t mentioned she’d asked about his documents. How thehell did she think that was okay? She probably justified it to herself because he was brown, and to her, all brown people were “illegals.” I knew I shouldn’t get in her face because of the mobile library project, but this was too much.
I got up so we were at eye level. “If you mean Nesto, he doesn’t work there, heownsthe truck. As far as I know he has everything in order to operate his business. Actually, the truck has been doing great and he’s already getting requests to work the summer festivals. You saw it yourself at the market yesterday.”
Her eyes widened when I mentioned the festivals because her son probably hadn’t gotten a single invitation.
“You certainly seem to know a lot about him, Jude,” she said, giving me a sour look.
“He’s a friend, and also very serious about making his business take off here in Ithaca, so I expect you’ll be seeing his truck around for a while.”
Behind me Carmen said, “We’re trying to work here, Misty. So unless you have something you need.” She moved her hands in a shooing motion in the direction of the door.
“Oh no,” she said, still glaring at us. As she started for the door she looked at me. “Just checking in. I saw you sent out a draft of your proposal first thing this morning. Hopefully it’ll work out for you this year. It’s so hard for the board to figure out what to prioritize; they need a lot of guidance.”
She was threatening me. She was letting me know she wasn’t above interfering with my project.
“I’m pretty confident in what I sent them. I’m looking forward to hearing their thoughts.”
“Of course,” she interjected, her voice heavy with animosity. “Well, I have to get going. I’m meeting with Martha. I need to remind her we need to be cautious about the new projects we take on this year, with so many of these funding cuts, andall.” Our Executive Director was not gullible enough to shelve a project just because Misty told her to, but the way she looked at me when she said it sent a chill down my spine. “See you guys later. Don’t work too hard.” With that, she turned around and left.
“Damn, but that woman is a bitch. Is she actually threatening you about the project because she saw you hanging out with Nesto? What the hell is her problem?” Carmen asked exasperated.
I shook my head, stunned by how vile Misty could be. “You know she thinks she’s living in aSurvivorepisode. She’s probably scheming how to fuck with Nesto, too, because he’s ‘competition.’” I went back to my desk, feeling out of sorts from the confrontation with Misty. “The level of privilege of that woman is unreal. She’s pissed because people are doing better than her son, yet he opens the truck when he feels like it, and when he does, serves shitty overpriced food. But in her mind, he’s still entitled to do better than people who are working their asses off. How do people even get like this?”
Carmen sighed wearily. “Being rich and mean certainly doesn’t help matters. It’s typical,” she said, crossing her arms, her face sullen. “Misty is at all the fundraisers, talking about the plight of this minority or that vulnerable group until her tongue falls out. But only as long as those people stay in their place, as her ‘good person’ talking points. As soon as she personally has to make space for any of them, all of it goes out the window and she’s back on her homestead guarding her shit to the death.”
I nodded, feeling exhausted. “Too true.”
“Black and brown people causes are extremely nice on a tote bag, or for making you feel better than your country club friends on Facebook. But actually seeing them as human beings who should get to have the same things you do? Oh no, fuck that shit, there’s not enough to go around.”
I let out a long breath. “This all makes me so damn tired.”
Carmen just looked at me sadly. “Babe, at least you still get to walk into all this in your white skin. The rest of us have to go out there in our melanated armors and suck it up while working five times harder to get a tenth of what she got just for breathing.”
