“You gonna be okay?”
Mary and Bill were in the storeroom. Mary closed the door behind them and they both sat down, Bill on a stack of canned vegetable cases, Mary on a stack of stewed tomatoes cases. They were next to each other.
“I’m good.”
“Did you know you were feeling her up?”
“Sort of. Not like I was feeling her up.”
“Like what then?”
“Not like this.” Bill turned and reached to Mary. He put his hand on her bosom and intimately touched her, a clearly sexual motion. Then he took that hand and moved it down to where he could slide it up her dress from the bottom.
“We got things to do,” Mary said.
“What are you gonna do when I leave here?” Bill asked.
“When you leaving?”
Mary stood up. Bill stood up with her and kissed her. He held her tight to him.
“Up to me, I’d never leave. I’d just stay here and be with you.”
“And Bea and everyone else.”
“Only you mean something.”
“Then stay away from those new girls.”
“I’m a stay away from everyone but you. I love you.”
“What you say, boy?”
“You heard me.”
“Say it again.”
“I love you. You love me?”
“Yes. That’s the problem. How you think I feel when you go with Bea or Lorraine or them others?”
“I know,” Bill said. “I’m cutting most of it out, piece by piece.”
“I hope so.”
“Dinosaurs dancing,” said Bill.
“You just saying you love me cause you’re on drugs?”
“I’m saying it cause it’s true.”
“It’s not the drugs?”
“I’m on drugs. I know I’m on drugs. I keep telling myself I’m tripping so I know where I’m at and don’t lose it. But I know what I’m saying when I tell you I love you. I didn’t mean to and I didn’t want to and I didn’t ask to come to this place. But like I said, if it was up to me, I’d just stay here with you.”
Mary kissed Bill. She kissed him so hard she thought their lips would stick together. She pressed herself against him, tight, promised herself some things she wasn’t ready to articulate yet, things she knew she would do before boy’s girl graduated and boy was off somewhere where she might never see him again.
“I want you to take me to the Upper Room,” she said.
Bill kissed her more, fondled her as they hugged and kissed.
“We have some stuff to bread and some things to start getting ready for tomorrow and the day after.”
“Dinosaurs still dancing,” Bill said.
Mary starting gathering things, one of them a huge bottle of bread crumbs which she handed to Bill. She gave him other things too and when his arms were full she picked up some things for herself to carry and they left the storeroom.
She followed him up the stairs. As they turned into the kitchen from the hall, Lily was waiting with a dupe in hand.
“Ordering,” she said.
Bill put the things he was carrying in the back on Mary’s station. Then he came around front. “Next time just spear the dupe and hit the bell,” he said to her.
“I wasn’t sure what to do since no one was here.”
Bill looked around. Bea wasn’t in the kitchen either. Only ones there were the dishwashers.
“Next time, that’s all you have to do. If you hit the bell, someone will come. Whoever it is will be able to get you your order going.
Lily smiled at Bill. “Maybe I just wanted to see you,” she said.
“Well, here I am. Every bit of me.”
“Well, here I am,” Lily said. “Every bit of me too.”
Bill looked her over before he read the dupe. She saw him looking her over.
“You like?” she asked.
