Becca by Dean Krystek Read Free Book Online Page A

the
girl said.
    The woman seemed unsure
and then turned her back and walked them to a booth where she handed them both
a menu.
    The girl ordered coffee
and Bert asked for a Coke. Then they sat in silence for a few moments. Bert
drummed his fingers on the table and then looked at them. They were dirty, and
it was then that he became self-conscious of the smell of gasoline. He looked
around and saw some diners avert their eyes.
    “Excuse me,” he said to
the girl and went to the restroom where he scrubbed his hands the best he could,
and washed his face. He paused as he dried it. He understood why people stared,
and in the same moment, he understood why the girl had brought him to this
restaurant rather than the one next to the gas station.
    He still carried the aroma
of the gas station, and he felt self-conscious as he walked back to the booth. The
girl had gone. He looked around the restaurant and did not see her, and sat
down as the waitress arrived.
    “Where did she go?” the woman
asked.
    “I don’t know. I was in the
restroom.”
    Bert sipped his Coke and
saw the girl walking toward him from the restaurant entrance.
    “Sorry about that,” she said
as she slid into the booth opposite him.
    “I thought you’d run out
on me. Abandoned me penniless and lost in a strange town surrounded by strange
people.”
    That drew a smile from
her. She said, gesturing with her hands, “This is an Eat ‘n’ Park restaurant in
Harmarville. You go that way a couple of miles and you hit the Hulton Bridge
and you cross that to Oakmont and then you’re just a mile or two from the gas
station, and from there you’re fifteen minutes from your home. Seriously,
Alexander, did you think I left you here?”
    Her calling him Alexander
surprised him. “I thought you couldn’t handle the pressure so you split.”
    “What pressure?
    “The kind you get from
the people looking at us.”
    “People are looking at
us?”
    “You didn’t notice?”
    “No.” She sipped her
coffee and then dumped sugar in it and stirred it. “Well, if you must know. I
saw one of my friends here.”
    “Ah,” he nodded.
    “What’s that mean, ah?”
    “You came to this
restaurant because you were afraid somebody you knew might see your car at the
other one and if they dropped in to say hello they’d see us and…well…I
understand how that could look.”
    “How would it look?”
    “Awkward.”
    “You think so, huh.” She
leaned forward, resting her elbows on either side of her coffee cup. “I don’t
know what you’re talking about.”
    “People look; they wonder
what we are.”
    “We’re nothing.”
    “Ah, but they don’t know
that. They see a pretty girl who turns heads with her perfume come into a place
with a guy who smells like he’s wearing gasoline aftershave—that’s got to be
embarrassing.”
    “Well, I’m not
embarrassed. Why would I be embarrassed?”
    “You saw your friend and
ran out on me.”
    “I did not run out
on you.”
    “You didn’t stick around
to introduce me, either. It’s okay. I understand.”
    “Do you?”
    Bert said, “We’re a
mismatch.”
    “So?”
    “People don’t like
mismatches. And the next time we do this, give me a warning so I can change my
cologne. But it’s not about how I smell.”
    “What’s it about then?”
    “How I lo—”
    “Stop right there,
buckaroo.” She pointed at him. “That’s not the issue.”
    “No? So next time you’ll
introduce me?”
    “Naw, probably not.
Before you get yourself all riled up there, this is a one-time shot. There’ll be
no next time.”
    “This is it, then?”
    “Absolutely. I wanted to
get out of the house and just talk, I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
    “I don’t mind. I’m glad
this is the only time we’ll do this. I won’t have to change my cologne.”
    She shook your head. “You
are something else, Bert—”
    “It’s Bert now?”
    “Yes.”
    “What happened to
Alexander?”
    “You’re acting like a
Bert.”
    “How does