"Hey Alex, you've got this, right?" My very large, very sweaty boss asked from the other side of the food cart.

  No, Dave. I don't got this. It's just me back here, man.

  "Can't you stay until the rush is over?" As I glared at my boss, I flipped six patties in quick succession, then pulled out the fries, my muscle memory kicking in as I worked the food truck like I'd done a thousand times before.

  “You’re doing great. You don’t even need me!”

  I was pouring sweat in the too-hot, too-small cart, and my thighs were quivering. I had to squat because the damn food cart was made for dwarves and twelve-year-olds, not a twenty-six-year-old grown man who should be out working a normal job like any other grown ass adult. Not that everyone was six-foot-four, but fuck. Buy a better truck, Dave. Then, I could take over this one and not have to worry about your slacking ass.

  “Give me twenty minutes, man.”

  "Carla said I need to get back to the house right now, or I'm not getting any, and you know how she gets." He grinned with that sleazy smile of his, his greasy, thinning hair making him look like someone's drunk uncle. "It's now or never, man! My life's in your hands!" He put his hands together in front of him like he was praying.

  Fucking gross.

  Outside the cart, a long line of customers was impatiently waiting. They had that hungry look in their eyes. An older lady's eyes met mine. She was eying me down like a vulture.

  "Yeah, alright. Do what you gotta do," I muttered, already reaching for the next ticket.

  God, I was such a pushover.

  "Thanks, buddy." He waddled over and clapped his hand on my shoulder. "You're a lifesaver."

  "Yeah, yeah. You're a lucky man, Dave." The thought of leaving sounded so good. Better me than him.

  He chuckled. "It's too bad you'll never know the joys I'm about to experience."

  "Huh?" I glanced at him. What the hell was he on about?

  "You know, on account of your preferences."

  "What preferences?"

  He looked confused. "You know? Women."

  "I like women, Dave."

  "That's not what I heard..." He gestured at his groin and twiddled his eyebrows like an idiot.

  No, Dave. I just wasn't into your wife, who made a pass at me last month. Had to turn her down. And now, obviously, she was telling you I was gay in retaliation.

  "Well, you heard wrong." I plated two buns without looking, my hands moving on autopilot as I added the burgers, threw on some toppings, and wrapped them up before handing them to the vulture lady. "Ladies are great. I'm just selective..." and also somewhat invested in someone, even if I didn’t know exactly what, how far along, or even if we were a thing yet, but that wasn't something he needed to know.

  He shook his head and sighed. "When you're ready to come out, I'm here for you, kid." The idiot clapped me on the back again, then started getting his shit together.

  “Thanks, Dave. You’re a real ally.” Dumb ass.

  Once he was done, he snagged a couple of twenties from the till, walked over to the cooler, pulled out a six-pack of beer, and said, "I believe in you, buddy."

  "Thanks."

  "And don't worry too much. Devon will be here after she gets out of class. You just gotta hold out 'til then."

  "Got it." I slid three plates through the window, called out order numbers, and moved back to the grill. "Have fun."

  "Oh, I will! See ya tomorrow!" The cart shook as he exited the side door with a wave and disappeared down the sidewalk, leaving me alone in his shitty cart.

  ***

  For the next few hours, I got to work.

  I took orders, and I handled them. Grill, fryers, register. I ran the whole operation, just like I'd been doing for the past year. Shit, for multiple years at this point. This place couldn't run without me, and Dave knew it. Even in this weak economy, that's why he paid me so well. That, and I made food that brought people to us. We were the busiest truck at nearly every festival.

  Still, I was getting fed up.

  I'd been applying to new jobs, and even interviewed at a couple. The problem was, Dave paid me good money, and I had a mortgage now. No one was offering enough for me to leave this stupid truck behind, and without a degree, my options weren’t exactly unlimited. I was, unfortunately, stuck.

  It hadn't always been so frustrating. Back when Tony worked with us, we'd split duties. He'd take orders and help with the fryers while I cooked. We made a good team. But after he left a few months back, it was just me again. Well, we hired Devon, but she only worked part-time. I was practically one with the food cart anymore. If we only hired one more good full-timer, life would get a lot easier.

  The thing was, I didn’t exactly hate the work. I actually rather liked it. It was just the management. I was good at the job, I liked busting my ass, and it was relaxing once I found a rhythm. Plus, I hated the idea of doing office work. I needed to work with my hands, but I didn’t have the time or money for trade school.

  Even if I did, service work was more fun. The trades also didn’t exactly connect you with a wide range of people. I liked people, and I especially liked training them to excel at their jobs. I'd trained most of the employees who came through this place. Hell, who was I kidding? Over the past three years, I'd trained everyone who'd worked here. And I was good at it.

  Too bad being good at it didn't mean shit when Dave made it clear a few weeks back that he didn’t really plan to make me a co-owner, and he definitely didn’t plan to buy another truck anymore.

  All that talk about partnership?

  Bullshit.

  He needed a manager he could pay well enough to keep around, but not well enough to have any real stake.

  "Are you even listening to me?" A nasally voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

  Looking down, I saw an older woman glaring up from below. Her hands were on her hips, and her pig nose was twitching. She looked vaguely familiar. Wait, had I already taken her order?

  "What was that, ma'am?"

  "When will our order be ready?" The woman asked with the snottiest voice I'd ever heard.

  "Uh..." I looked through the open tickets. "Which order was yours?"

  She pointed at a nearby picnic table that was absolutely covered in food wrappers and stray fries. There were five more pig-nosed people seated around the table. Every one of them was glaring daggers at me.

  Shit.

  They were the ones who had ordered the last round of burgers that crushed me. One of 'em even ordered three, and they'd come back again for a second round. I'd been so focused on my thoughts that I’d completely forgotten about them.

  "Uh, give me a sec." I had ten open tickets. Looking down at the grill, I only had six cooked patties left. The others were all half-frozen. "Dave, you fucking fuck," I said under my breath.

  "Excuse me?!" The woman's nose flared. She had ears like a rabbit!

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "I was just talking to myself." In my head, I continued cursing Dave with every word and phrase I knew, then I made up more of them. Cock goblin was my favorite.

  "I heard you say—"

  "One second, please." I looked the patties over again, hoping that I'd miscounted or something, but I hadn't. Throwing a dozen more frozen patties on the grill, I wiped my sweat-and-grease-drenched hands on my little pink apron—Dave's present to me last Christmas—and said, "I'll have everything ready for you folks in ten."

  "Ten? Ten minutes?! We ordered fifteen minutes ago!" The piggy was getting oinky.

  I shrugged. "Well, it's gonna take ten more."

  She huffed. "Just exactly how incompetent are you?"

  Ohhh, that burned me up. "Excuse you?"

  "You heard me." She turned her chin up so high I could see the insides of her nostrils.

  It would be so easy.

  I could throw the spatula at her.

  Disappear.

  Move to a new country.

  Start a new life.

  No one would ever know.

  I snorted at the thought.

  Yeah? With what money, Alex? It's not like you had any help. Your folks split and don’t have a dime to either of their names. Not that they would have helped anyway. And it wasn’t like you had any other family…

  My sister’s face popped into my head.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, "Look, my line is ten deep right now, and my boss took off a while ago to plow his cheating wife. This line is going to go as fast as I can manage on my own. So, I’m telling you, it'll be ten more minutes, okay?"

  She squinted, her face went red, and she began sputtering.

  I thought she was going to say something.

  I wanted her to.

  Try me, Miss Piggy.

  My spatula lifted without my direction or consent.

  Instead of sassing me, she sniffed, grabbed a handful of mustard packets, and stomped away. As she marched away, I could just make out her words.

  "This is why they pay you the big bucks, loser."

  I gritted my teeth so hard that they creaked.

  "...Wow…"

  "...Such bad customer service..."

  "...He's an asshole..."

  "...I'm leaving a review…"

  That's when my spatula found itself flying at the far corner of the cart. It hit the ceiling with a loud splat.

  The customers' eyes went wide, and they shut up real quick.

  Fuck 'em.

  ***

  A few hours later, I’d managed to clean the mayo off the ceiling and was just starting to fish out the beef charcoal from the grill grates when Devon walked up to the cart with a big smile on her face and her headphones in her ears. I watched as she pulled her headphones out of her ears, grabbed an apron, and got herself situated just outside the cart's side door.

  When she noticed I was looking at her, she said, "Hi, Alex!"

  "Hey."

  I hated Devon. And by hated, I meant I absolutely wanted to get freaky with.

  Again.

  My mind wandered back to that one night when we'd gotten stuck late at night a few months ago. There was a cold snap. I’d invited the shivering girl to share my coat. Then…

  “I’ll be right in!”

  “Take your time.”

  “Don’t tempt me too much, now.”

  I laughed. Devon was twenty-one and one of those girls who was too pretty for her own good. Not only pretty, either. She was cute. Funny. Sassy. Flirty as hell. And she was smart. Really smart. Far smarter than I was. And shrewd. The girl always had some angle she was working, and I was as big a sucker as they came. She could play me anytime she wanted, and we both knew it.

  "What the hell happened in here, Alex? This place is a wreck!" The cart shook as she climbed inside. The smell of lavender, her favorite scent, flowed in behind her.

  Looking around, I could see what she meant. Half-thawed patties sat stacked on one of the freezers, condiments coated just about every surface, and the grill was smoking.

  "Dave fucked off at the beginning of the rush, so I had to run the cart alone again."

  She glared at me, her little hands on her wide hips. Her lips, painted some bubblegum pink color like the cheerleader archetype she was, were scrunched up, making her look like an angry duck. She looked like she wanted to tell me off, which was another common dynamic between us, but after a few moments, her face softened.

  "You deserve better than this, you know?" Her voice was genuine for once. Kind.

  “It’s not so bad.”

  “You’re too nice.” She reached down into one of the coolers and grabbed two bottles of water. Handing me one, she added, “And loyal. I’d have walked by now.” She hopped onto the little prep table and patted the spot next to her.

  When I didn’t move, she turned her lips down into an exaggerated pout.

  “You not gonna keep a girl company?”

  “Fine.” I stepped forward and hopped onto the table beside her. When I did, our fingers brushed and stayed connected for slightly too long.

  For a few minutes, we sat like that, saying nothing and connecting through our fingers. I was fine with it. Despite everything that was rattling around in my head, I didn’t have much that I wanted to talk about

  “When are you gonna do something new?”

  “Until something better comes along, I'm stuck." I opened my bottle of water and took a swig. I'd just figured out that Dave had been dangling the keys in front of me for years, and I'd been dumb enough to chase them. I was still figuring out my next move.

  "Things don't just change on their own. You have to make change hap—"

  A sharp crack drowned her out.

  Without thinking, I shot to my feet and covered her with my body, protecting her from whatever that noise was.

  For an instant, the air seemed to be sucked away. Everything that wasn't tied down in the cart fluttered, and every single napkin flew out the window.

  However, when nothing else happened, I looked over my shoulder and caught sight of a small storm cloud out over the park's small lake. The cloud flashed, and a streak of lightning cut through the sky.

  “Lightning,” I whispered.

  “T-thanks.” She was digging into my forearm with those artificial talons of hers.

  “Would you mind loosening your grip?” Our eyes met.

  She gave a small cough and let go. "It wasn't supposed to rain." She pulled her phone out, and those long talons of hers began tapping at her screen.

  I always wondered how girls could do that. I couldn't press the screen with my real nails, and she was here tapping away with an extra half-inch of nail on every finger.

  I grabbed my own phone and pulled up the weather app.

  Clear skies. No storms. No warnings. Nothing.

  I looked back outside. The sky was already back to looking like its typical afternoon blue, and all traces of the dark storm clouds were gone.

  "What the fuck was that?"

  "Don't know, but it scared me." She sidled up to me and wove her fingers through mine. “You were kind of heroic, though.” She batted her eyes up at me. “Kind of.”

  A couple of the festival-goers walked by, dragging their screaming kids behind them.

  It was like nothing had happened.

  "That was...weird, right? Like… that actually happened?" I asked. “Right?”

  "Yeah. Super weird." Devon looked unsettled, but she was shaking it off better than I was. Letting go of my hand, she smacked her cheeks and said, "Alright, that's enough weirdness for one day. Help me get this place put back together before the dinner rush."

  I glanced at my phone one more time. Still clear skies. What the hell?

  “Come on! We have work to do!”

  She was right. We had work to do. I shook off the unease and turned back to her. "If we get done with everything, I might just call it an early night."

  That made her eyes sparkle. “Really?”

  “Yeah.” Offering early closes was one of the rare perks of basically running someone else's business, and I needed that perk today.

  "You got it, boss." She bit her lip.

  Fucking yes. She knew I loved it when she called me that.

  ***

  The rest of the night went smoothly with two people, even with the never-ending line.

  As I handed out the last plate, I shut the window and turned to Devon.

  "We did it." I wiped the sweat and grease smoke out of my eyes. “We actually sold out."

  Devon nodded before throwing herself over the edge of the cooler. “Of course we did. It’s us.”

  “Yeah…” I had to give it to her; she really was a hard worker.

  “Ready to clean this place up?” She asked. “I want to get out of here.”

  “Let’s get on it.” Without hesitation, I started cleaning the grill.

  ***

  By the time I finished everything I needed to finish, I turned to find her still going at it, organizing the patties and hot dogs in the chest freezer in the corner. That, and her butt wiggling in the air in that short skort thing she always wore to work.

  It was the small things.

  After admiring her for a few moments, I turned the gas off, hooked my pink apron on the wall, and pulled my filthy shirt off. Replacing it with a fresh one from my backpack, I noticed that it had become eerily quiet outside. Opening the window a crack, I watched as a flash of lightning lit the sky in the distance. It looked like a storm was coming, and it was in the direction of my house.

  “You can take that shirt off again, if you’d like.”

  I turned to find Devon leering at me. “I’m sure you’d like that.”

  “I would, actually. So do it.”

  That made me laugh. “Not tonight.”

  She pouted again. “Why not?” Devon was pretending to be innocent, but she knew what she was doing. Nothing good would come of it.

  “I…” I was twenty-six, working a food cart, with no degree and few prospects. She was headed to some Ivy League law school next year and was already scheduled to attend law school there. She deserved someone who actually had their shit together. “I’m tired.”

  Lightning flashed outside the cart.

  Her little innocent facade fell into a real frown. She knew I was lying.

  “Alex?”

  “Yeah?”

  "I want you to meet my parents sometime." The words came out quickly, like she'd been holding them in. She smiled, but there was something nervous in it. "They're both pretty strict. They probably won't approve." She laughed, but it was shaky. "But I'm ready to be a big girl who makes big girl decisions."

  I froze. That was...that was a big step. That was a relationship step. I wasn’t unwilling, but… I wasn’t quite ready… was I? “Maybe we can cross that bridge sometime.”

  “When?”

  “Sometime.” I could see it in her face. It wouldn't be as easy as she was saying. Her parents wouldn't like me. Why would they? Their daughter was some superstar, and I was just some guy.

  “Fair enough.” Her mask returned. Grinning, she pulled back and twirled. Her hazel eyes were doing that thing where they got all soft and intense at the same time. "Do you think that I should have worn a shorter skirt today? I've been doing my squats every morning, and I think my legs are looking extra good."

  I tried and failed to look away. All her hard work paid off, from what I saw. Very much so.

  When she finished twirling, the little devil stared at me, biting her lower lip as she waited for a response. She'd tied up her shirt in one of those front knots girls tie. Her abs were glistening with sweat. She also knew I liked that.

  "Well, yeah..." I stammered, my eyes unable to leave her abs.

  Goddamn, she was hot.

  "Yeah, what?"

  “Yeah, you look great.” I stepped toward her. Another.

  "Go on."

  I stopped. "We shouldn’t.”

  She grinned and stepped closer. "I can do whatever I want. I'm a big girl."

  "You know I’m… I’m not ready for anything yet." Another step closer. My hands found her hips.

  She pressed her hands to my chest, looking up at me. "I know." Her lips found my neck. “But you will be.”

  If I didn’t stop this now… "This is a bad idea."

  She grinned wider and shut the side door. "I love bad ideas."

  In a flash, our lips were pressed together, and our clothes were flying off.