Turns out they were done. When Esserine asked her question about being finished, Bill stood close to Arlene a moment and looked at her. If they’d been alone in the kitchen, or if it had been Marie over on the pantry station, he might have reached for Arlene. He might not have. So he looked at her, studied her, then asked her to go out and ask Tommy if he could close up.
Arlene studied Bill a moment too. She was feeling him out just as he was feeling her out, and turns out they were both deciding whether or not they were going to do anything. At least for the moment it was a standoff, so Arlene turned from Bill and headed out through the front doors into the front dining room.
She came back two minutes later. She carried a beer and walked around the counter onto the line to put the beer down by where Bill stood.
“Tommy says we’re done,” she said.
“Okay,” said Bill. Then, to Esserine, he said, “We’re done, you can go down and change. I’ll come down as soon as you come up.”
When Esserine had left the kitchen, there they were again, Bill and Arlene standing together almost touching. Bill looked at Arlene, wondering if he should kiss her. After all, he thought, they were alone in the kitchen and had a moment, but only a moment because if Arlene stayed in the kitchen too long Tommy would come to see what she was doing.
“What?” she asked.
“I was wondering if I should kiss you,” said Bill. “That’s why I was looking at you. I was thinking.”
“You could,” said Arlene.
Bill leaned in toward her and kissed her once, a gentle kiss on the mouth. Then he put his arms around her and reached one hand down her back to her buttocks.
The second kiss was decidedly more intimate, a feeling-out of tongues. It lasted as a kiss would, and while it lasted Bill slid his hand up under her skirt.
“That okay?” he asked.
“Is it obligatory?” Arlene asked.
“Not at all,” said Bill. “All you have to do is say no. If you don’t want to be touched, I won’t touch you. If you want to be touched, tell me so.”
“I want to be touched,” said Arlene. She stepped in even closer to Bill and kissed him harder than they had been kissing. “But not right now, not right here. Let’s set a time and date.”
Bill fondled her a moment until they stepped away from each other, not hastily but agreeably. He took a sip of his beer and offered it to Arlene.
“You do drugs?” he asked.
“Sometimes,” said Arlene.
“Which ones?”
“Pot. Downers. Acid sometimes. Why you asking?”
“Just want to know what I should bring when we get together.”
“We going to get together?” Arlene asked.
“Maybe.” said Bill. “You’re going to have to be the one to make it happen.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I don’t pressure anyone into anything. I’m not like Drenovis.”
“You find me attractive?”
“You think we’d be having this conversation if I didn’t?”
“Okay,” said Arlene. “Understood.” She leaned in and kissed Bill on his cheek then turned and left the kitchen.
Alone, Bill finished his beer. Then he went around back to make sure everything was properly covered. Seeing it was, he put it away into the ice box.
Even before he was done doing this, Esserine came back into the kitchen in her civvies. She had her coat on and her purse draped over her arm. “I’m out of here,” she said. “Come let me out and lock the back door behind me.”
