Page 5 of The Nutcracker

He was done.

It only happened the once.

After that he never looked at me in class again, not even a glance.

Not until now.

Danny Fontaine looked up from his car window. “Hey, don’t I know you? Don’t we know each other from high school?”

From the passenger seat a woman leaned across to get a look at me. “Oh yeah, I remember him,” she said to Danny, pointing at me like an animal in a zoo. “He became an accountant or an electrician or something.”

“Engineer.” I couldn’t help but set the record straight. “I became an architectural engineer.”

“Oh yeah.” Danny looked at my name badge. “Eddie, right? You don’t look like you’re doing much architectural engineering now.” He laughed at his own joke and I wonderedwhat…?

What the fuck did I ever see in this guy?

He didn’t even remember who I was.

“Actually, this isn’t my name badge. I left mine at home. This is someone else’s badge.”

“It’s Jordan,” the female passenger said. I was yet to place her myself. “Jordan Donovan, right?”

Danny knew she was right. The penny dropped as did his eyes, his gaze unable to meet mine now. “Maybe we should just get our burgers and go.”

“What’s the rush? Hey,” she called through the window, leaning across Danny. “Do you remember me? It’s Kathy. Kathy Kincade. You’re the guy whose Grandpa died in my family store, right? Do you remember that?”

Of course I fucking remember that. He was my grandfather!

She laughed. “Jesus, for the longest time I thought that aisle was haunted. I always used to look behind me when I was packing the apples and oranges, checking for his ghost.”

As she continued to laugh, all I could say was, “It was lemons. He died beside the apples and lemons.”

“Just give us our fucking meal, would ya?” Danny demanded, shoving Kathy back into her seat.

I bagged up their burgers.

I handed him their shakes.

He wound up the window and the car’s tires skidded on the icy drive-thru.

I took a deep breath, then jumped when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I spun about to see Gracie-Ann, my fifteen-year-old shift leader.

She was tonguing her braces, something she only did when she was nervous. “Kevin told me to take over. He wants to see you.”

I sighed.

I suddenly missed the high-rise view from my old Chicago office.

I glanced back at the view of the interstate from the drive-thru window.

“He’s gonna fire me, isn’t he,” I said to Gracie-Ann.

Gracie-Ann said nothing.

She simply shrugged and kept tonguing her braces.

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