I Want to Die in New Orleans // $uicideboys

9: Mothers Po-Boy's

I was greeted with a tight embrace, "how are you?" Ruby cheerfully asked me.
"You know, I'm doing pretty good now," I said as tears dribbled from my face.
It had been so long since I'd seen someone who truly knew me, who really wanted to interact with me, it felt good to know I wasn't completely alone. It could have also been me rolling my ass off.. but we'll keep it as, I'm grateful to have someone around.
"You must not be doing well.. if you're working here," I poked, as I backed up, my eyes meeting his.
He looked confused for a second, then jolted, "ohhhh you think I work here?" He asked.
My brow raised as I dramatically looked around, then pointed out the fact he was wearing an apron.
"Yeah, no," he chuckled, "owed someone, taking their shift as payment," Ruby explained.
"Don't you have to work at the same place to take someone's shif-," I questioned as he abruptly hushed me. My eyes widened.
"It could be worse," He said sternly.
I slowly nodded, making my way back around the counter, "What do you like from here?"
"The shrimp po-boys are pretty good," He replied with a little head shake.
"Okay i'll take that as well, with everything else I mentioned earlier...If you remember," I teased.
"I remember everything," He winked. I made my way to a table, pulling out my phone, scrolling through Instagram.
Once again.. Ruby was right. About twenty minutes later I had everything I ordered sitting in front of me, the bread pudding, the jambalaya, the po-boys.
"I don't know if I have an appetite for this anymore," I told him as he stood by the table, "but I need to order one more thing," I finished saying while taking sips of my tea.
"Whatever you need," he instantly replied.
"Good customer service," I smiled, "Okay the last thing I want is for my waiter to eat his shrimp po-boy and help me devour my food."
Ruby stood in front of me in awe, which coincidentally had me in awe. Did he not expect me to want to talk to him after such a long time?
"I can't," he said quietly.
"Why not? You're not for real on the shift, and it's late, no one's coming. Just sit," I insisted.
"Don't try to persuade me too much, woman," he strikes back with a smile, though not looking at me. He begins to pull out the chair, sitting down right across from me.
"No limits, what's mine is yours," I said, unwrapping my po-boy.
We began chatting about what's changed between school and our home lives. I told him about the bummy graduation and my current job being a caterer to nightclubs and parties.He agreed that it wasn't a horrible job to have compared to other things. As we munched on our... dinner? breakfast? We both stumbled upon the fact that we both moved from Marrero to New Orleans.
"You know, you're the exact person I needed to run into," Ruby said.
"Is that so?" I questioned.
"Mmmhm," he hummed, trying a bite of the bread pudding.
I laughed a little, feeling his eyes meet my face, "lonely out here?" I asked playing with the rice and sausage in the jambalaya cup.
"No. Got my cousin here. You just been blunt about shit, so I think it's good we ran into each other," He said, picking up the empty plates, leaving the bowl of pudding to sit in front of me.
"Y'all got to-go boxes? Be a doll and put the rest of this in one so you don't have to clean any of my dishes later," I offered. He nodded, grabbing the bowl as well, disappearing into the kitchen.
He wasn't wrong, but I didn't totally get what he meant. I got out of the chair going to the bathroom, the tea just ran right through me. I washed my hands, walking out to see all the lights shut off besides the one at the register. I walked towards it, taking my credit card out of my phone case.
"Still keep your cards in there?" He chuckled from somewhere around me in the dark.
"Yepp," I said, reaching the counter, swiping my card in the machine. I retried it again but it still didn't work, "Well when you're done playing disappear, wanna magically make the computer read my card" I said staring at the machine.
I felt a hand creep from behind me onto my waist. I froze as my stomach dropped, not being able to move, my legs tightened. The hand reached from one side of my waist to the other, embracing me close to Ruby's body, as he grabbed the card with his other hand. He inserted it as a malfunction happened again.
"I have cash if you need," I mumbled.
"What?" He asked, leaning down, sensing his lip not far from my collarbone. His cold breath brushed my right shoulder. The drugs mixed with lack of physical attention had my body going wild, wanting to hop on the counter wrapping my legs around him to pull him into me until he couldn't resist like I barely could. Though with all intrusive thoughts, the only thing I could do was stand there and let him do whatever he decided.
"I have money if it doesn't work," I said again, turning my face towards the right, almost meeting his instantly.
"Nah, but as I was saying, the right person to run into," he said, putting a pin into the little computer then swiping the card again. I felt oddly aroused at the statement, there were various emotions, most of them sexual sad to admit.
"Yes," I said, trailing off, trying to hint that I didn't know what he was meaning by that phrase. I typed my pin then yanked my card out, putting it back in its original place.
Within that second Ruby spun me around to meet him, backing up and bowing, "Take a ride with me? For old times sake," he smirked, with a hand out.
"Anything for an old friend of mine," I bowed too, taking his hand and he shut off the lights, leading me to the memorable car sitting in the empty parking lot.