Completely (New York 3)

“It’s a vegan ‘steak’ burger with vegan cheese, mayonnaise, and butter. And it comes with fries. I’m going to order it. Do you want anything?”

“No, I’m good.”

She left him at the table while she ordered from a sour-faced older woman who seemed to be the only employee onsite.

They’d stopped at a drugstore. Kal had popped inside and returned with a plastic bag containing a pregnancy test, which she held in her lap the rest of the drive. It sat inside her purse now. She didn’t want to take a pregnancy test in a hotel room shared with his mother. That left taking the test in the restaurant’s unisex bathroom—a delightful prospect Rosemary would save for after dessert.

She paid for her food and sat down with Kal. The restaurant was brightly lit by banks of fluorescent bulbs, the blackness outside so complete that the window served as a mirror, reflecting back to Rosemary a clear and beautiful image of Kal doing that thing with his face again.

The nothing face.

He’d done it in the car, too, as they cruised around looking for somewhere to eat, the stereo blaring the blues too loudly for them to have a conversation, which Rosemary had to assume was deliberate.

“Are you simply waiting for the clock to run out?” she asked.

“Huh?”

/> “Between the two of us.” She gestured back and forth between them. “Because you don’t have to. We could end it now, save you the trouble.”

“Don’t pick a fight.”

“I’m not picking a fight, you are. Sitting there with that look on your face, driving me around, humoring me, but you don’t seem to want to be at this restaurant any more than you want to be in Wisconsin. I’d like to spare you the pain of enduring my company on top of all the other things you have to put up with.”

“It’s not like that.”

“What’s it like?”

He looked away, toward the door, and sighed.

“You’re infuriating,” she said. “This entire day has been infuriating.”

“I thought you were enjoying yourself.”

“I thought I was meant to be interviewing your mother. I don’t know if you could hear us from the driver’s seat, but every personal question I asked she evaded. I tried to talk about childhood, and she talked about my fertility. I tried to talk about marriage and she steered me into an hour’s digression on wedding ceremonies. I mentioned the scenery in the United States in comparison to Nepal, and she got me talking about training hedgerows into animal shapes. It’s like trying to get the Queen to discuss her sex life. Your mother is an impenetrable fortress.”

“She does things her own way.”

“You know what she told me at dinner, when you went to the bathroom? In case you were wondering why I got drunk? Your mother informed me she wants me to meet someone in Milwaukee tomorrow.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know who. I tried to pin her down, but she wouldn’t say more, so now I’m meant to zoom up the road to Manitowoc to see Beatrice bright and early—”

“I’m meant to zoom two hours up the road. You’ll be passed out in the back, sleeping off your fake cheeseburger.”

“Yes, well, after I see Beatrice, we’re to get right back in the car and go to a strange woman’s home in Milwaukee where I may or may not get a chance to interview your mother, quickly, before I rush to make my flight.”

“Before I drive you to the airport, you mean.”

“You’re completely hung up on your role in this plan.”

“I just want credit where credit’s due.”

“You’re a magnificent chauffeur. Thank you for your incredible service.” Rosemary meant it to be funny, but the words tasted bitter in her mouth, she felt bitter, and Kal looked away from her. “I’m sorry. I’m knackered, but it’s no excuse.”

“Apology accepted.”

Kal sat with his hands folded on top of the table, his eyes far away. The woman from the counter banged around in the kitchen. Rosemary had chosen a carbonated ginger drink from the refrigerator. She twisted off the bottle cap and tore the paper from her straw.