Bill called home at quarter-past-one. He was surprised when there was no answer, especially after the way they’d left things this morning with his fiancé expecting him to hurry home after work. Only two reasons there could be no answer, he thought. First was she was asleep. Second was she was in the shower. But neither of these were the case. He would learn that Tim was having another crisis moment. He would learn this several moments after he’d called when Tommy came into the kitchen to tell him he had a phone call. That’s when his fiancé told him she would be staying over at Tim’s.
In the scope of things this wasn’t so bad because Marie made sure to hang out after she’d finished her work. She had called home and spoken with her husband, told him they were swamped and she would be home as soon as she could get there.
Bill did not change the grease. It wasn’t a change-the-grease night, but he still should have done it since the volume had been so great. He told Tommy he would take care of it in the morning and that he would come in early to do so. Instead, he spent his time making sure the line was perfectly clean and all the food that was left over—not much of it, to be sure—was well-wrapped and stowed away properly.
Everything done, everything settled, Bill rang the bell and asked Lorraine, who was the first waitress in the door, to ask Tommy if the kitchen were done. She returned a moment later saying he could close it up.
Marie met him down in the meat room. She jumped up on the counter and sat the same way Mary did with her feet crossed at the ankles. Bill brought down two bottles of beer and handed one to her. Then he went into the bourbon drawer and pulled out the opened bottle. He took a long pull and passed the bottle to Marie who sipped at it more genteelly. When she’d handed him back the bottle and he’d tucked it away in the drawer, he stepped up to her and forced her to spread her legs so that he could step between them. He leaned in aggressively and kissed her forcefully reaching up her legs as he did so.
Marie let him know in no uncertain terms that she liked him being forceful with her. Her kisses responded to his and she moved herself so that he could feel her the way both he and she wanted. Bill asked her if she wanted to smoke a joint. She said yes, definitely, and so they lingered only a moment more while they played with each other and kissed each other. Then Bill pulled away from her and helped her down off the counter.
“Let’s go into the ladies room,” he said. He reached into the bourbon drawer and pulled out a joint. He also took out two Quaaludes from a pill bottle he’d put in there, one for him, one for her. He handed hers over and she swallowed it with a sip of her beer.
“You better be able to drive home,” he said.
“It’ll be what it’ll be,” said Marie.
Bill swallowed his Quaalude with another drink of bourbon and then followed Marie into the staff ladies room. He locked the door behind them and made sure the fan came on. That’s when he lit up the joint.
Marie sat on the counter in the ladies room but did not cross her legs. Bill messed with her while they smoked. She helped him unbuttoned his kitchen pants. Bill was dead-set on doing exactly what she’d whispered to him upstairs on her station. That meant she would certainly need the clean, dry panties she’d brought along.
“You one crazy white boy,” Marie said.
