aloof

LUNCH MATES

Estelle and Ethan had a regular encounter at the counter of The Corner Cookpot…lunch mates on daily dates, sharing stories, splitting plates. Neither inquired about mutual mates. It was lunch break, after all, but from which they were sometimes late, each caught racing down the halls, back to the desks, dress slightly disheveled, hair a bit messed. Smiles, sly and private, once they catch their breath, both most productive and feeling elated with the risk.

Each day a Daily Special. Sometimes a common favorite between them like beef stew Tuesday, then a separate plate on other days. Her’s was Thursday with the franks and beans or, the mac and cheese… and his?  Friday, with the fish. Most often they shared.

'He’s tracking me,' she confessed on the first night as they shared a pint of Seagram’s in the sedan's back seat.

She was on the run from a guy that scared the b-jesus out of her. But she seemed to desire him just the same. Some Destructive lust simmering to the surface on random occasion. They would talk on the phone. He swore he’d find her, and she dared him to stop.

Why?….why would he track you? And why so hostile?

Oh I don’t know…maybe because I had his baby and gave it away.

That would piss me off.

It did. But where does that put me if I keep it? Some tit for this prick's illegitimate seedling? I will not spend my life in the tow of some vicious freak, dragging me down to the bottom, bound to kill me once the kid can mind his own.

It was your seedling…child, too.

Not now. Gone. He’d take it, kill me, take it.

And yet you call him. You sick?

I know…I…

You thinking with your...?

Pussy? Yeah, kinda…

You just outlined your own boundaries. Dangerous decision. You decide.

I know..I can’t…I…”  interrupted by ringing

That would be your call. I just might say goodnight.

(Yeah right, you might. G’night)…..Hello? What do you want?

As he took the stairs her voice echoed louder down the hall and highly heated as he descended, stopping only when he hit the street and the door whispered shut behind him. Light from a full moon. He walked home remorseful, knowing he was getting involved in a troubling situation between two volatile and unstable people. Two months ago he was so bored he wanted to end it. Now? If he could keep it at arms length…