"I'm hungry. What's for dinner?"
Theresa glanced up over Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at Arturo towering impatiently over her. "Oh. Excuse me. Do I look like your cook?"
"Yes," Arturo said, not missing a beat. "Don't you?"
She turned back to the book. "I don't know. When does Mama get home?"
"Soon. Are you reading that Harry Potter crap again?" He squinted at the volume in her hands.
"I have enough money to get Book Five next week, I'm preparing. And I'll make you your damn dinner already if you stop making fun of Harry. What do you want?"
"Oh, deal. I dunno. Something..." He squinted and rubbed his stomach. "...Hearty."
Theresa thought for a moment. "Burgers?" She was pretty sure Eva had bought ground beef. And burgers were not only easy, but an easy way to make Arturo happy without too much effort. Which was a win-win situation for everyone.
He grinned. "Harry Fucking Potter is the best book ever."
Theresa tucked her bookmark in and rolled off the couch. "Don't you forget it."
She set to work searching for supplies, as Arturo collapsed at the kitchen counter. "Man, I'm beat."
She stood to glare at him from over the fridge door. "I worked an eight-hour shift today, too, you know."
"I know. Yeah. Eddie stopped by the garage today. Said he saw you."
"Did he." She bent back down so she didn't have to see Arturo.
He waited a moment. "'S everything okay?"
She shoved her yogurt aside. "Sure. Why?"
"I dunno. He seemed pissy."
"Maybe he had a bad day?" She pulled out the ground beef and cheese before closing the door.
"Did you… say something to him?"
She busied herself at the counter, collecting her spices. "Dunno."
"Therese?"
"Turo?"
"C'mon."
She sighed and tucked her hair back impatiently. "He was trying to ask me out. Badly." At Arturo's shocked expression, she snapped, "You can not repeat that, all right? To anybody."
"Wait - hold - he asked you out?"
"No!" She waited a beat. "He tried."
Arturo pushed back in his chair from the table, shaking his head. "I don't believe it. Eddie grew a pair?"
Theresa dropped the cheese on the counter with a loud slap. "What does that mean?"
He was still shaking his head. "C'mon, you know he wants you."
She stared back, shaking her head only once. "No, he doesn't."
"So what, he asked you out for the hell of it?"
"I guess. I dunno." She hadn't really thought about it all that much.
Arturo stared at her, bewildered and amused all at once. "So you two, you're gonna go out then?"
"Of course not."
He whistled. "No wonder he got pissy."
"What was I supposed to do?" she burst out. "He wants me to lie to Ryan about it."
He just stared at her. "Well, no shit, course he does."
She turned back to him in surprise. "Ryan Atwood doesn't own me. I'm a free agent," she said clearly.
Arturo snorted at that.
"What?"
Arturo was saved from having to defend himself by the sound of keys at the door and Eva's timely entrance.
"Oh, good, you got dinner?" Eva asked absently as she wandered in. She looked tired.
"Mama, Eddie asked Therese out," Arturo said right away.
"Turo!" Theresa summoned the angriest glare she could. It still didn't feel convincing senough.
Eva seemed to freeze for a moment. "...Ah."
"I'm not going out with him, so it's a moot point," Theresa insisted.
Eva disappeared into her bedroom. "What about Ryan?" she called over her shoulder.
"What about Ryan?" Theresa countered, and sighed. "You know what? I don't want to talk about this right now."
Eva emerged, having removed her shoes. "You should be patient with Ryan. He means well. He has a good heart."
"I think Mama wants him," Arturo said, his eyes gleaming with mischief. Theresa rolled her eyes. Arturo looked over at Eva for confirmation and suddenly looked concerned. "Ai. Mama, sientate."
"English, Arturo!" Eva snapped. "We speak English in this house! Don't you forget it."
Arturo grumbled something unintelligible either in English or in Spanish.
"You two," Eva sighed, searching for the words. "It's not easy, Theresa, but it never is." She sank down to the sofa and closed her eyes as if in pain.
"What's wrong with Eddie?" Arturo asked, in both directions. He took a step in his mother's direction.
"I don't want to go out with him, that's what," Theresa grumbled.
"I don't trust him," Eva said slowly. "He's too old for her. He has no job."
"He's job-hunting," Arturo pointed out.
"Ryan has a hard time. But he tries," Eva replied as Arturo moved to sit beside her on the couch. She put her feet up and he reached for them, beginning to gently rub them as she visibly relaxed. She spent all day on her feet at work, and she was starting to get too old for it.
Theresa felt annoyed now. "Eddie tries, too."
"You and Ryan, you're just such good friends..."
"Yeah," Theresa said with a nod. "That's just it, Mom. Friends."
"I don't get it," Arturo said, looking back and forth as he temporarily stopped rubbing his mother's feet, a questioning finger in the air. "Are you agreeing or disagreeing with Mama?"
"I'm agreeing with me," Theresa said as she cranked up the stove. "Are we done talking about this?"
Eva put her hands up. "You have to do what you think is right, Theresa."
Theresa glared at the stove. "What I think is right is to stop talking about this now."
"Why couldn't I have been born with an ugly sister?" Arturo asked a little too loudly. Theresa started to turn her glare on him before she realized that it was a compliment and she shook her head.
"It definitely would have made things a lot easier," she said, rueful.
"Life's not easy," Eva snapped, her voice sharp.
Theresa wanted to roll her eyes again as she started to cook the burgers, but as always, she knew her mother was right. Eva was always right. And the only thing Theresa was sure about now was that Eddie had just made her life much, much more complicated.
It was too hot in the restaurant. Even the air conditioner in the window couldn't overpower the heat of the ovens from the back. She brushed her Pizza King shirt over her forehead. There were hours yet to go today, and she wasn't sure she would make it.
Theresa searched the window. "Manny, where's the meatball sub on the Allen ticket?"
"Should be there, Mami."
"No, it's not," she called over into the kitchen. "I got two turkey subs, one with extra cheese. I got one individual garlic pizza, one individual sausage, and three pepperoni, all with the special. I got two veggie subs, but I got no meatball."
Theresa glanced again at the ticket. "Lily," she called over her shoulder, something suddenly striking her. "Lily, did you send the meatball sub order back?"
"Yeah...?" Lily asked hesitantly, winding her way over, abandoning her line for a moment.
"It's not here," Theresa said. "It's on the ticket, but..." She glanced at the second ticket, attached to the large lunch order. "It didn't go back. Manny! I need one meatball, fast. It was due five minutes ago. They'll be here any minute."
"I'm sorry," Lily stammered.
"Yeah, fine, just go back, you got people waiting," Theresa snapped. She finished stacking the order together and studied the rest of the orders. Everything was under control. She had to open up a new register before people started to get snippy. She moved to make sure the second register was working.
"Picking up for Allen and Sons?" The familiar voice at Lily's register made Theresa's head shoot up. Lily started to turn back to the window for the order as Theresa leaned over.
"Lily, you got to wait on that meatball sub," Theresa ordered, tapping the corner of Lily's register. "Remember? That's the ticket it was on." It had been about twenty seconds and already she had forgotten. Just great.
"Right," Lily said, ducking her head as she turned back to Ryan.
"Hi," Theresa said curtly to Ryan. "Your order's running late. Everything but the meatball sub is ready."
He looked amused. "Okay. Should I just wait, or...?"
"That's fine," she said, not looking at him. "Next?"
Ryan moved to the side and leaned one elbow on the counter, watching with a bored look as Theresa and Lily took the next two customers. It was all Theresa could do to focus on the customer in front of her, and not the one off to the side. Leaning. Oh, he was leaning. That was never a good thing. Not when she was trying to ignore him.
"One meatball!" Manny called from behind them, and Lily turned for the sandwich as Theresa cleared the last of her customers.
"Make sure you get the Thursday special on those," Theresa ordered, pointing to the ticket. "The individual pizzas."
Lily nodded, her eyes fixed wide on the register, as she scanned the ticket and started to enter the total. Theresa kept her eyes fixed on Lily's register as well, as Ryan scooted back over, pulling out a fistful of petty cash from Allen and Sons to cover the order for the whole site.
"No!" Theresa snapped impatiently. She reached for the register and Lily scooted aside, looking alarmed. "What did I just say about the special, Lily?"
"I'm sorry, I-" Lily was turning a rare shade of white. Whiter than normal.
"Let me do it. And watch."
Ryan glanced back and forth between them, but said nothing.
"You enter the price, then press the button over here," Theresa said impatiently. "See? I got it from here. Lily, can you make the sodas for him?"
"Fine," Lily muttered, reaching to count off the cups.
"So you're the errand boy, now?" she asked Ryan, entering the last of the order. "Your total's sixty-eight fifty-three."
"That's pretty much what I do." He counted off the bills. "No tip jar?"
"Talk to Gary and suggest one. He won't listen to us." She shrugged and took the money from him. "Okay, your change is one forty-seven..." She counted out one dollar bill, a quarter, two dimes and two pennies, dropping them into his open palm, which was still dirty from the construction site.
"Number 156 is up!" Manny called.
Theresa glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, that guy went outside," she said, reaching for it. She turned back to Ryan. "Don't go anywhere, I'll be right back." She picked up 156 to carry it out to the waiting customer.
The guy was waiting impatiently by the picnic tables, where she plastered on a fake smile and dumped his lunch on his table, then promptly dropped the smile as she turned back to the restaurant.
She opened the front door and saw that Ryan was now leaning over by Lily's register as she lined up the sodas she had filled.
"...sometime?" Ryan was asking.
Lily looked somewhat embarrassed. "I don't know, I mean..." she stammered. Theresa felt the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
"You done with those cokes yet?" Theresa snapped. Lily straightened up, shocked.
"Just... just three more," Lily murmured, not looking at either of them. Ryan, too, was avoiding her gaze.
"Make sure you put them in a holder. He's got to get like twelve of them by himself."
"I can handle it," Ryan said. He jerked his thumb at the parking lot. "I got the company truck, I think I can manage." He offered a slight grin at Lily, which caused Theresa's heart to turn a somersault.
"Everything look all right?" Theresa asked abruptly.
Ryan blinked at her. "Yeah, no, sure."
"The sausage pizza, that's yours, right? I mean, to eat?"
His eyes flitted quickly. "Um. I actually got pepperoni today."
"Oh," she said, not quite sure what to say. "I didn't even think you liked pepperoni."
Ryan blinked, looking somewhat perplexed. "Well. I do."
Theresa started fitting the sodas into a tray. "Well. Enjoy it."
"I'll just get this load out to the truck – be back in a sec." Ryan picked up the first two bags of food and beat a quick path for the door, eager to get out.
Theresa shook her head as she took the last soda from Lily.
"You don't have to be such a bitch, you know," Lily said, putting a hand on her hip.
Theresa's head shot up. "Excuse me?"
"I don't like him. I told you that. So get a grip."
"I'm not being a bitch because I think he's flirting with you. I'm being a bitch because you should know how to do your job by now."
"We're busy! You make mistakes, too."
"I got you this job. I went to bat for you. The least you could do is step up to the plate."
Lily frowned. "I think you're mixing your metaphors, Theresa."
"Fuck my metaphors!" Theresa shouted, just as Ryan walked back into the store. He froze in the doorway and glanced back and forth between them, hesitating in the doorway, looking anxious.
"I'm going to the bathroom," Theresa muttered, and she charged off for the back, leaving a very puzzled Ryan and Lily in her wake.
She hesitated in the small hallway outside the bathrooms. The sounds of the dining room were still making their way back, ever so faintly. She could hear Ryan's tone, at first puzzled, then low and joking. She wanted him to come after her. But of course he wouldn't. She knew better. She moved to the pay phone on the wall between the men's and women's rooms.
Theresa took a deep breath and picked up the receiver. She dug in her pocket for a quarter, dropped it into the phone, and then entered the numbers she had memorized.
"'Lo?"
"Eddie... hi, it's Theresa."
"Oh," he said, his voice sounding wary. Defensive. Guarded. "Hey."
She licked her lips, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. She glanced back towards the dining room, then looked away.
"Listen... what are you doing tomorrow night?"
There was silence on his end for a long moment before he spoke. "Tomorrow night? Why?"
She leaned forward, resting her forehead on the wall. "I was just wondering if you were busy is all." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Because I'm not."
His response was a jumble to her. She felt the speed of everything picking up, she felt her life slipping away. She felt the cliff receding beneath her feet, throwing her off before she was ready to jump. She was in midair now, and there was no telling when she would land, or what would happen when she did. But one thing was certain: Theresa was no longer standing still.