Page 9 of So Not My Thing
“You know it,” he said, grinning at me as he filled the mop bucket.
The back door to the kitchen opened, and Chloe walked in, sniffing the air. “Omelet?”
“Yeah,” Miss Mary said. “Whip one up for Chloe too.”
“Yes, ma’am. Grab two more eggs,” I told Chloe, and she slipped into the cold storage to obey.
She handed them to me and grabbed another mop to help Jerome. “Everybody had a good day?”
“Can’t complain,” Miss Mary said. “Good lunch rush. Even ran out of chicken salad.”
Jerome nodded, a man of few words as usual.
When I didn’t say anything, Chloe paused her mopping. “Ellie?”
This was such an old routine for all of us that I wouldn’t get away with silence. But I didn’t want to talk about the day from hell. “It was fine.”
“Uh oh,” said Jerome, pausing with his own mop.
“What? It was fine.” I cracked another egg.
“Uh huh,” Miss Mary said. “That’s the kind of ‘fine’ I give Mr. Douglas when he doesn’t get the yard cut.”
“Bad client,” Chloe guessed.
“Stupid tenant?” Miss Mary guessed, giving her dough another whack.
“Too much work?” Jerome guessed.
There was no use in trying to avoid it. They’d get it out of me now or five minutes from now. I minced my onion the way Miss Mary had taught me but with extra hard thwacks. “Miles Crowe,” I muttered. I thunked a cast iron skillet onto the cooktop hard enough to make Jerome wince.
“You’re kidding,” said Miss Mary.
“Dang,” said Chloe.
“Who?” asked Jerome.
“That dude who wonStarstrucka while back?” Chloe said. “You would have been young. It was a big deal when we were in high school.”
“Can’t be that big of a deal if I never heard of him.” Jerome went back to mopping.
“You see that?” Miss Mary said. “Jerome doesn’t know. It’s not a big deal.”
“I don’t know what?” he asked, stopping again.
Chloe and Miss Mary exchanged looks.
“One of y’all going to tell me?” He’d lost interest in mopping.
I sighed. “You know that meme that goes around with a guy on one side saying, ‘So not my thing,’ and the other side says ‘Rejected’ over a crying girl?”
“Yeah...?”
“That’s me.”
He blinked. “Nah.”
“Believe it,” Miss Mary said.
