[Specifically Dedicated to "My Gus." She can share my cake anytime.]
"Why don't you let anyone call you by your full name, Justine?"
"Jay." I growled my retort at everyone who had ever called me that, including Gus.
"Exactly," Gus responded through her half chewed apple while turning the roundabout way too quickly for my taste. "Justine is a pretty name. I don't understand why you refuse to let anyone call you that. " She barely took a breath and leaned into the curve as her car expelled itself from the other side of the roundabout. My stomach sloshed over with the centripetal force. My stomach also lept into my throat when she said my name, whichever one she used, because that "new crush" feeling never seemed to go away. Gus drove at speeds and angles as if being chased by the entire metro police force yet that night, the streets were nearly empty. The only thing chasing her was the second hand of the clock in her head that steadily clicked toward seven in the evening and the mall closed at nine and there was a flash sale on hiking boots. It was Friday, March 13th, 2020...the night before the first quarantine and the sales were unbelievable.
"Justine sounds like a chemical." I responded, "A paint or varnish. Something Bob Ross would put on a brush and wipe on a canvas and suddenly a mountain would appear. I don't like it. Everyone calls me Jay. 'J' for short." I held onto the sides of the seat as the Riverfront Mall came into view as we flashed through a green light. I wanted to lean over and kiss her but I didn't want to spill the ice cream cake that was freezing my thighs. Another bargain that was way too good to pass up tonight. This one said, "Happy Birthday Derick." Apparently Derrek didn't want his name spelled like that on his ice cream cake so he refused to pay for it and we agreed to buy it at a steep discount...along with the other two at my feet. COVID-19 would have to try much harder to ruin our future celebration plans. Just one more quick trip to the sporting goods mega-store at the mall and these three sheet cakes of misspelled creamy goodness would store in our freezer ad infinitum.
The Riverfront Mall was about 7 miles from the closest river. Its original location was to be right on the river but the indigenous people in the area reminded the local Eurocentric government that they had indeed forgotten that folks were still buried there and it would be off putting to construct a shopping mall on sacred ground. The Eurocentric local government decided it would be magnanimous to move the location to a hillside populated only with poor people who's buildings were bought for pennies on the dollar and knocked down. There was a big celebration with members of the Tribe meeting with members of the Local Eurocentric government where they shook hands and held on to a gold painted shovel and there were lots of signs and everyone took pictures. There were protesters as well but no one took pictures of them. The mall, who's design included a beautiful view of the river front now looked out on a complex of storage facilities. At least the name would be pretty. The poor folks often can be seen in tents on the sacred ground near the river. We can assume that where they enjoy the river view, it is no consolation for their homelessness.
Gus drove at an angle counter to the layout of the painted parking spaces in the Riverfront Mall parking lot. This made me nervous.
"I mean, you have a beautiful, name." Gus continued. "Sure it isn't very common, but you could sing it. It rhymes with lots of stuff like, 'queen' and 'keen' and uh..."
"Obscene?" Jay inserted.
"Yeah...and uh..."
"Martin Sheen?"
"Stop it, Jay. Fuck. I'm just sayin' that you have a pretty name just like your face and your body. You don't give yourself enough spotlight. You should put yourself out there. You're an adult woman. It's ok to use your adult woman name." Gus sometimes talked like a coach right before a big game. At least that's how I thought it would sound. I've never been in a big game except for Science Games and our coach couldn't pronounce his 'S's properly. He called me "Juthteen." I thought he was dreamy regardless.
The car slowed to a halt in the mostly empty Riverfront parking lot. Gus was already out of the car and adjusting her jacket and her stocking cap as I figured out how to stack the ice cream cake on the floorboard with the others.
"You don't think they'll melt, do you?" I asked, shivering in the night air.
"It's like 40 degree's Jay...besides, we'll be quick. I wanna get you home." My stomach flipped again because I love it when she flirts with me. At least I think she was flirting with me. Maybe she wasn't.
"Were you flirting with me just then, Gus?" But Gus didn't say a word. She just came over and kissed me, drawing my bottom lip into her mouth as she always did when it was more than a kiss. And all billion and a half little hair folicles on my body bumped up at once.
"What do you think, Jay?" I must have blushed.
"Yeah...you were flirting with me." I took her hand and checked my bag to make sure my wallet was there. Gus kept talking about me using my full name. Finally, once inside the mall with its bright lights, warmth, smell of fried foods and echoing pop music, I interrupted her.
"So, Gus...if you think I should go by MY full and given name, then I should start calling you by your full name, shouldn't I, L'Augustiana?"
"Naw. Too hard to say. Plus, if my Grandmother is around, everyone will get confused." and at that, nothing more was said about it.
The Riverfront Mall was nearly empty in many ways. As we walked to the Sporting Goods Megamart for Gus's hiking boots, we passed the darkened store fronts. The stores were moving from the malls and into the palms of people's hands where they kept other things like their brains, memories and personalities. The few people that were in the mall stared at their palms where their devices told them things like what to think, what to buy and who their friends were. We went right to the store and found her really cheap boots.
"We could tramp around in the woods for hours in those and I'll bet your feet would never get wet." I observed as she modeled for me...one foot with that big plastic security tag on the tongue. I liked how she looked in boots. Especially the black ones that went to her knees. I liked those a lot. But these were practical and it fit the practical jeans and the grey college hoodie she wore. That night she adhered to her hip adult lesbian stereotype dress code. But, like me, she wasn't much for conformity.
"Yep...I think these will do."
I walked slowly behind Gus as we began to make our way back to the car. She walked with purpose, faster than I did. I liked to watch her walk. Her hips swayed confidently and I liked to think she did that for my benefit. I was dreading the cold and I began to re wrap my scarf and tighten my jacket about me when she stopped to look toward the children's play area near the Dillards department store.
"Looks like they closed the kids area."
"Yeah...a place crawling with children would surely be a hotbed for contagions."
"Let's check it out, Jay." Gus's eyes twinkled which was her version of a smile. I pointed to a sign that was on official Riverfront Mall stationary and printed in a font without serifs and it read, "Closed. Keep out."
