Mary was sitting up on the stainless steel counter when Bill got down into the meat room. She held the bottle of bourbon in her hands and was drinking from it. As usual, she had her legs crossed at the ankles and she was swinging her feet.
Henry Lee was cutting steaks, top sirloin butts, the steaks they used most in both stores. He already had a pretty decent supply, he told Bill, enough for the day and almost enough for tomorrow for both stores. In the morning, he said, they would make the hamburgers and bleus and bring all the rest of the meats up to inventory.
“I’m going home drunk,” said Mary. “I’m gonna smoke another joint with Henry Lee and I’m gonna finish this bottle of bourbon. So if you want to do any drinking, you can go steal a bottle off the party room bar.”
“You better take it easy,” said Bill. “Sounds to me like you’re already drunk. You got kids at home to take care of.”
“You ain’t my mommy.”
Bill started toward Mary from where he stood but she put her hand up in front of her and told him not to come near. He said “Whatever” and did a near about-face, opened the walk-in door and went to start getting the meat trays.
Just before his last trip, he noted that Mary had finished the bottle. Purposefully, he paid her no mind, took the last two trays of meat and went up the stairs. He did not go back down. Instead, he went through the line a last time and made sure everything was in place and set the way he wanted. Then he went around back and made sure everything there was okay. Satisfied, done with all he had to do, he lit a cigarette and went out into the hall where he sat on his milk cases to smoke it.
It was a quiet time. Waitresses were in and out of the kitchen. He could hear them, but there was no need for him to be in the kitchen since whatever they were doing had nothing to do with him. They were busy making sure they had everything they needed on their stations, that the dining rooms were completely set, that everything was clean and neat and ready to go.
Bill was thinking. He was considering popping a black beauty. He was considering smoking a joint and getting himself a beer, or actually having one of the waitresses get him a beer. He wasn’t doing much of anything and he was happy about that. He was feeling tired and the feeling of tiredness convinced him to pop a black beauty.
So he was just kind of sitting there peering out the back door when Lorraine stuck her head in from the kitchen and told him he had a phone call. He went out into the side dining room and took the call from the waitress station there. It was his fiancé telling him she was going to be out late, going to a mime workshop. He told her he would be home soon as he could after work.
He was just getting back in the hall when Mary came up the stairs in her civvies. He could see her wobbling and she was visibly inebriated.
“What you looking at?” She stared him down angrily, put her hands on her hips. “Don’t you be looking at me like you’re judging me.”
Bill reached out for her but she moved to evade him. The hall was not wide to start with and less wide with the things that lined the walls on both sides. She didn’t have much room to avoid him so he was able to grab her up and hold her to him. She struggled but he was younger, stronger and not drunk. He pulled her tight against him and forced lips on hers.
“Goddamn you,” she said.
