City That Never Sleeps

Portobello Mushrooms

"Alright guys, where did I leave off?"

"You were at the dating matching thing," Renée said. "And you still haven't met dad yet," she said under her breath.

"Ah, okay sure. So this one takes place during my first Thanksgiving in New York."

A few weeks had passed since I submitted my profile to Love Solutions and I had surprisingly been matched up with several different people. I had gone on a few different dates with these people but I wasn't really clicking with any of them.

Thanksgiving had quickly approached but instead of going home to Michigan for my family, I was stuck here working until the last minute and decided I would volunteer at this soup kitchen I've been at since I came here.

As I entered the building, I was approached by Kendall who was holding a light blue shirt in his hand.

"Lori! Just in time! I've been beating these waves of volunteers off with a stick all day. I need you on dishwashing duty, for now, Jenna decided today would be just the perfect day to go into labor." He said as he pushed me to the kitchen.

"I'm sure she didn't want to go into labor during the busiest holiday of the year. Besides she told me she was looking forward to eating some stuffing." I set my purse down in the corner where we kept our stuff.

"Well regardless of whether or not she wanted this to happen just to spite me, which she did, she's out and you're in, kid."

We walked to the dish station and saw a small pile already forming. I turned to ask Kendall a question but he was already out of sight. Pulling the shirt over my head I noticed how roomy it was and was grateful for that since I still had my other shirt on underneath.

A half-hour went by before I was able to leave my assigned station. I walked over to Kendall who was turning away even more volunteers claiming we were too full already when in reality they just wanted to keep as much "good stuff" for themselves as possible.

"If you knew they were taking stuff from the less fortunate, why didn't you say anything mom?"

I looked down in shame. "I was younger back then, more naïve, more scared of being judged. I planned on telling someone, but I had to gain trust first before I went around accusing people of things."

"Anyway, we're psyched to be here, Kendall. What do you need us to do?" Asked one of - oh wait a second! That's that one guy from the Love Solutions place - and that's the news anchor with him!

"Go home. We're full." Kendall coldly told them while checking off something on his list.

"What? We're volunteers we're unpaid help. Can you ever really have enough unpaid help?" The guy said.

"On the biggest volunteer day of the year? Yeah, you can."

"Uh, Kendall?" I interrupted, "One of them could help out with the dishes or something else, I'm sure a few people here could use a break."

"Kendall, they're cool." Said someone in the back.

Kendall gave a heavy sigh. "Fine, but I'm not promising anything. Lori, I'm putting you in charge of one of them if one does end up at dishes." I nodded at his orders and he left to the other side of the kitchen.

"Okay, well, I'd better get back out there, there's a lot of food to give out. And a lot of smiles." The creep told the two and looked my way. "Oh, hi Lori! Nice to see you again." He said winking and left the room as well.

I turned to them. "I do not like him. First, he flirts with me at this bar, then again at this completely different place, and now he's here too?"