There was silence at the table as Franklin stared at me in disbelief.
While he was dumbfounded, I launched myself forward, grabbed the basket of rolls, and then dipped the whole goddamn thing straight into the butter. Then, I shoved that into my mouth, large clump of butter and all, and glared at the man that just ‘had to sit in the inside seat of the booth.’
“And you know,” I snarled through butter and bread. “I fucking despise the fact that you’re not manly enough to know that men are supposed to sit on the outside of the booth so that the woman is protected.”
“You don’t need protecting, darling,” Tide murmured teasingly. “You’re more than foul enough to protect yourself from almost everything.”
I threw my half-finished roll at him, which he caught, then took a bite of.
“He doesn’t open doors for me. He doesn’t walk on the outside when we’re on a busy street. He won’t step up when some man in Target wants to knock my teeth in. He doesn’t do anything that’s protective. Hell, he won’t even stick up for me with his mother.”
“I’m sorry if your mouth seems to always get you in trouble,” Franklin bit off. “But I’m not a fighter. I work with my hands, woman.”
“Tide works with his hands. He’s a surgeon,” I said. “And you’ll never see him back down from a fight. And I’m fairly sure his hands are more important than yours.”
Franklin growled.
And this time it wasn’t cute at all.
“I’m leaving,” he declared. “Move.”
“You drove. You can’t leave,” I disagreed, not making any attempt to get out of the booth. “You can sit there and fume until we’re done with our meal, then you can take us home, then you can never come back.”
Tide had his hands over his face as his shoulders shook in silent laughter.
Franklin scooted over and forcibly tried to move me with his hip.
“You know if Tide wanted out of here, I’d be on the floor right now,” I grumbled almost to myself.
“Damn right you would,” Tide agreed. “You’d be on your hands and knees. I’d pick you up, throw you over my shoulder, and then take you out back and whoop that ass.”
He wouldn’t… would he?
Something in his eyes told me that he would, though.
“Let him out, girl. He looks like he’s about to throw up.”
I did, letting him almost fall out of the booth at the speed in which I moved.
Franklin straightened his lapels and then stared at me. “You’re a vile woman.”
“You’re a pussy.”
Tide burst out laughing so badly behind me that I wanted to rear back my elbow and knock him straight into the teeth with it.
The moment I could no longer see Franklin’s back, I took my seat, buttered up another roll, and ate it in silence.
I was halfway through my second when our food was brought out and Tide sent away Franklin’s salad to be ‘donated.’
I dug into my steak, ate it all, and never once heard any comments about my weight or my ability to put away food.
“She’s always done that,” Ethel commented as I polished off my eleven-ounce steak. “Girl can eat.”
“Tide knows,” I grumbled. “He had to buy me an eighteen-ounce steak when I was in college because he lost a bet.”
“What was the bet?” Ethel asked curiously.
“If I could eat the eighteen-ounce steak,” I finished, grabbing another roll and sucking up the juices from my steak with it before popping it into my mouth.
“That was a bad bet,” Ethel said. “I think she’s slowed down in her older age.”
I flipped her off, causing her to laugh.
That laugh slid off her face when she said, “I’m going to walk to my dad’s. I’ll stay the night there. You can come get me in the morning.”
Her dad literally lived a block over from the restaurant. But I didn’t feel bad for her staying with her dad. She stayed with him at least twice a week.
“I’ll come get you after work,” I disagreed. “I have to be there at five tomorrow morning because I was hired to do some contract work for a shutdown at the chemical plant.”
“Ew,” Ethel said.
“I’ll give you a ride to work,” Tide said. “I have to be at the hospital at five myself. And they’re right next to each other. We can drop her car off on our way past. I can bring you home when you get done.”
“You don’t even know when I’ll get off.” I immediately started to argue.
It was, after all, what the two of us did best.
“Y’all figure it out.” She elbowed Tide in the side. “It’s been fun. You’re a really nice guy. But you and I aren’t meant to be. I have to go or my dad will go to sleep and not let me in.”
Tide got up and let her out, and she was gone before either of us could say another word.