Lily told me that her lunch break was in twenty minutes, so I asked her to meet me at the Mexican grill right across the street from the bank. I went inside and ate three hefty burritos while I waited for her. I was still hungry after that, but I didn't feel like she was the kind of girl that would be impressed by watching me eat ten pounds of food on our first date.
She pulled up and I smiled when I saw her get out of her Jetta. I met her at the door and we got in line to get some food. "Wow, you're-" the guy behind the counter started to say.
"Don't mention it," I smiled at him like we were old friends. Lily didn't notice. I got a fourth double meat burrito and she got a bowl which was basically the same thing I got. We sat down and I began trying to find out if I liked more about her than just her great tits.
"So what do you do, Tom?" she asked. "Besides hit on girls at work?" she added with a slight grin.
"I was recently in marketing, but now I'm getting into investing, I put money into or take it out of things I think would benefit me," I sugarcoated what I was really up to.
"Are you successful at that?" she asked. I hadn't let her see my new car and I wasn't wearing the attention-grabbing watch, so it wasn't obvious that I had a bunch of cash. "Or is it a 'hopes and dreams' kinda thing?"
"A little of both," I laughed. "I'm confident I'll end up where I want to be. But tell me a little about yourself, what are you interested in doing?"
She sighed. "Honestly I don't know yet. I was in school for nursing, but I hated it. So I went full time at the store while I figure it out, you know? Lame, but it pays."
"At least you have job security, people will always want the new toys," I nodded.
I noticed Lily recoil a bit at the grating voice of the woman behind her in the next booth. She was talking on the phone very loudly in that exaggerated vocal fry tone that was so fake it was painful to listen to. It was a public place, but man, this chick was being super annoying. "Want me to say something?" I offered.
"No, but yes," she grinned. "I feel like she's screaming in my ear. It's like, just be the least bit respectful of other people. Can I eat in peace?"
I motioned for Lily to lean to the side so the annoying woman would be in my line of sight. "Excuse me?" I asked loudly as I waved. She waved me off with a seriously bitchy glare in my direction. Okay fuck it. I pulled some of the foil off my burrito which I was forcing myself to eat slowly, and balled it between my fingers. I flicked it at the mouth breather behind Lily and nailed her right in the forehead.
"What the fuuucka?" she asked as she looked right at me.
"Hi," I waved at her. "You're annoying everyone in this place. So stop talking for the next hour. And when you resume talking, don't taaalka liiike thiiisa. That's very annoying to listen to and I assure you everyone hates it. Just use your normal speaking voice."
She went to respond, but obviously she couldn't. Lily was blown away and smiled widely at me. "That was great!" she loudly whispered as she leaned forward. "You basically just told her to shut the fuck up and she did!"
This was actually the perfect segue, "People usually listen to me," I smiled. "But you don't have to do what I say."
Her smile didn't dim a bit. The rest of the date went great. Lily was pretty cool and we agreed to meet again in two days on her day off. I slyly reiterated that she shouldn't feel compelled to respond to me just to make sure, but she just hugged me and left with a smile.
After watching her drive away, I got in my car and went to find Doug. He was behind the grocery store collecting trash. He looked much better than the last time I'd seen him, which had only been two days ago. "Hey, Tom!" he greeted me with a smile.
"Doug, I'm moving and I need someone to live in my apartment for the next year. You interested?" I cut right to the chase.
"Wow, man. I am but-"
"Rent's paid for the next year," I assured him. "Just trying to help you out, if you want it?"
"You're serious?" he asked. "For real?"
"Yeah man, I always said I'd help out if I could," I nodded. "And here's me proving it. Come on, I'll take you over there."
He was obviously blown away by my new ride, and asked me a ton of questions I didn't know the answers to on the way to my old place. We were only a few minutes away though, so luckily he didn't have time to question me too much.
I took Doug upstairs and showed him his new place. "I'm not taking any of this stuff," I explained. "It's all yours to do whatever you want with it. The place is pretty stocked up on food, but I left some extra cash on the counter over there for bills and shit."
"Dude," he was exactly as touched as someone in his position would be. "I don't know what to say, man." He started crying. I'm not going to go into anymore detail, but he was happy for the help, I was happy to give the help. We were good. I also gave him my old car which was parked downstairs, setting off another emotional moment. He promised to find a job and show me how deserving he was of my help. I hoped he would, the clarity in his eyes was unmistakable. He would be fine.
My good deed done, I went to a nice hotel and got myself a room for the rest of the time until my house deal went through. It wasn't the most expensive room they had, that seemed like a waste, but it was a nice one. By far the nicest room I'd ever rented.
I sat down to watch TV for a bit and answer some texts while I waited around for the inevitable hunger pangs to strike. I had skipped work with no notice, so I had a bunch of texts from Debra, Eric and Chris.