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“Vodka. Straight up, no ice.”
Hot damn, this is one tough woman! Mel thought. He signaled for the waiter. “Rum and coke for me. Straight vodka for the lady, and let me get the buffalo wings and potato skins.”
The waiter scribbled furiously and then looked at Lillian. “Do you need more time, ma’am?”
Lillian closed her menu with a snap. “No. I want the same thing.”
As the waiter turned to leave, Mel told him, “Keep the drinks coming until we finish eating.” Lillian nodded her approval.
“So, Big Boy say you gonna be movin’ soon.”
In other words, was he going back to his wife? Damn, women thought they were so slick! “Yeah.”
She played with the napkin on the side of her empty plate. “You goin’ back to your wife?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he lied. “But I owe my wife a lot. Maybe somehow I can make it up to her.” He turned the conversation away from himself as the waiter returned with the food and drinks. “You ever been married?”
“No. Ain’t never found nobody worth marryin’.”
Mel threw back his head and laughed. “Is that right, Miz Lillian?”
“That’s right. Most men nowadays expect the woman to take care of them. Not this lady!”
Mel took a drink. She had a pretty smile. “Sheee-it, I doan blame you, girl. Fact is, if I was a woman, I wouldn’t work no place. I’d always have a man to take care o’ me.”
Lillian gazed at him thoughtfully. “In other words, you don’t like workin’.”
“Hell, no! Do you know anybody who does? I play the lottery every week. Soon as I hit, I’m gone!”
That response seemed to satisfy her. She shrugged and took a sip of her drink.
“Where do you work?” Mel asked.
“I only been in New York a month. One of Big Boy’s friends got me a job down in the garment center. I sew ladies’ blouses.”
She barely made minimum wage. A man would have to help pay her bills and buy groceries, Mel thought.
“What about you? Big Boy say you a bus driver.”
“Yeah. I work for the city.”
“You got kids?”
“No. Adrienne wants one, though.” Melvin felt a stab of pain in his
chest when Lillian mentioned children, and he took a huge gulp of his drink to make it go away. It wasn’t her fault that she’d hit a nerve. She was new in town. He was surprised that fat mouth Big Boy hadn’t told her about the tragedy. But Mel knew that he would soon enough.
“Is Adrienne your wife?”
“Yeah.”
“Debra tole Big Boy that your wife is stupid—says she always got her head in the clouds.”
Mel didn’t like that. Adrienne was smarter than any woman he’d ever met, and prettier, too. Adrienne’s only problem was that she’d had the bad luck to marry a man who was destined for failure. “Debra should mind her own business.”
Lillian realized that she had said the wrong thing, and moved quickly to restore Mel’s good mood. “I got two sweet little girls, but they down South with my grandma.”
Mel didn’t want to hear about anybody else’s kids. He started to eat and drink a little faster, and Lillian unconsciously followed his lead. They were both slightly drunk by the time the meal was over.
