“He’s so intelligent,” Christopher says as he watches him. “He could be an accountant for the mob or some shit.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Basil agrees.
I get the giggles as I imagine Eduardo working as an accountant for the mob.
He finally comes back to us. “Miss Hazen, you work in a hotel.” He slides me over a card with the address and time I start tomorrow. A split shift, morning and night.
“Eddie, really?” I smile as I stare at the card. “Thank you so much.”
“Mr. Basil, you work on a boat.”
Basil takes the card from Eddie and stares at it. “A boat?”
“Yes, yes. Very good job.”
He slides a brochure over the counter to Christopher, and we all frown as we stare at it. There are pictures of slippery slides and fake mountains on it. “What’s this?” Christopher asks.
“You working at the fun park,” Eddie replies.
“The what?”
“The fun park, with all the children.”
Christopher screws up his face in disgust. “I fucking hate kids, man . . . blah.” He fakes a shiver.
I look at him deadpan. “Aren’t you a teacher?”
“Yes.” He rolls his lips. “Yes, I am.”
Basil studies the brochure intently. “Glad I’m on the boat.”
I smile as I imagine Basil on a boat in the sun all day. “So this is the time I start?” I ask Eddie as I point to a time written down on the back of the card.
“Yes.” He turns to Christopher. “You have twelve-hour shift tomorrow. You start at eleven.”
“Twelve hours?” Christopher gasps. “Isn’t that illegal?”
“You’re lazy,” Eddie replies as he wipes the bar.
“I am not lazy . . . twelve hours is just a very long time.”
Another person walks up to the bar, and Eddie serves them, once again drifting in and out of languages.
Christopher stares at the brochure in front of him. “What the hell would I be doing here for twelve hours straight?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe you’re in the gift shop or something?”
He nods as he thinks about it. “That would be okay, I guess. Sitting down in the air-conditioning for twelve hours, I could totally do that.”
Kimberly bounces in. “Come on, Hazy.”
“Where are we going?” I ask her.
“Bernadette is meeting some guy, and we’re her wingmen.” She pulls me out of the chair. “Catch you boys later?” she says as she pulls me from the bar.
“Bye,” the boys call.
It’s 3:00 a.m. when the girls and I are walking home. Turns out Bernadette’s new friends from Sweden are funny as all hell. It was a great night.
“Hey, you,” Kimberly calls to a group of guys walking in the opposite direction across the street. I glance up to see Basil and Bodie talking and laughing with a group of men I haven’t seen before.
Christopher is in the middle of the group. He has a girl sitting up on his shoulders as they walk along.
She’s wearing light-blue skimpy denim shorts and a tiny black bralette top. She has a baseball cap on and two long dark braids in her hair. She’s gorgeous and sitting on his shoulders with her legs spread around his head like the queen of fucking Sheba. His two big hands are on her calves as he holds her tight.