4. I only had twenty dollars in my pocket.

I had only twenty dollars in my pocket.
Right there was a restaurant called Thunder Road. I liked that.
"Why don't we go here?" you said.
"Sure," I said.
Inside there was long bar and above it there was the front grille of a Chevrolet sticking out of the wall. Guitars were stuck on the
brick wall on the other side. A Roy Orbison song was playing. I felt good, even though I still felt hot.
A waitress said she was sorry the air conditioner was not working. She seemed upset. She asked if we still wanted a table. You said okay.
We sat by the big glass window.
"It's hot," I said.
"Yeah," you said.
"It's really hot," I said.
The waitress came by, and you ordered an ice coffee. I got a Coke.
"So," you said.
"So," I said.
You did not have your glasses on. Your eyes were bright brown in the light. I was still sweating a lot. You did not look sweaty at all.
"So, you work with Bill. Do you do design?" I said.
"Yes, I'm a graphic designer," you said. "I do children's book collateral designs. That means, ads and catalogues. It's a lot of fun. I really like it. So much fun. Are you a designer too?"
"No," I said. "I do computer stuff."
"Oh, what do you do?" you said.
"I design presentation graphics and multmedia," I said.
"Where do you work?" you said.
"Well," I said.
"Oh," you said.
"Well," I said. "I worked at Stern-Beardsley, you know, the big stocks company. I worked in their marketing department doing presentation graphics and multmedia. But they outsourced the department to another company."
"Oh," you said. "So you don't have a job?"
"Well," I said.
The waitress came with our drinks and asked for our orders. I had not looked at the menu. The waitress stood there. I felt like having a cheeseburger deluxe but the cheeseburger deluxe was ten dollars. But I thought you would get a salad and the salad was eight bucks. Maybe I should not have gotten the Coke.
I told the waitress I would get a burger.
"Deluxe?" she said.
"No, just the burger," I said.
You said you would have a cheeseburger deluxe. Well done.
"So," I said.
"So," you said.
I told you how I was looking for a full-time job but that in the meantime I was taking jobs from an employment agency.
"What kind of jobs?" you said.
"Office stuff," I said.
"Web design?" you said.
"Office stuff," I said.
We both looked out the window. I could feel my shirt sticking to my back. Outside a homeless man was sitting on the street. His eyes were wide open, and he looked kind of lost.
"So where are you from?" I said.
"Oh. A little town upstate called Willoughby. The kind of town where everybody knows everybody," you said.
"That's nice," I said.
"I guess so," you said.
"So where did you go to school," I said.
"SVA," you said.
"SVA?" I said.
"School of Visual Arts," you said.
"Oh yeah," I said.
By the time the waitress came I was really hungry. I finished my burger fast. It was a good burger. But I looked up and saw that you had only eaten half of yours and had not touched your french fries. I think you caught me looking at your fries.
"Have some fries," you said.
Your fries were delicious.
Then you ordered a second ice coffee. I knew I did not have enough money to cover that. I tried not to think about that. Your hair was shiny in the light from the window.
At 1:55, you said, "It's two o'clock. I better get back to work."
"Yeah," I said.
And just then the waitress came by and put the check on the table and before I could ask if they took credit cards, you put a ten dollar bill on the table. I felt a hurt in my chest though when you did that. But it was a good hurt. I took money out of my pocket and realized I only had seventeen dollars and fifty cents. But that was enough to cover the rest of the bill. Those ice coffees were pricey. I would have liked to say it was my treat. Maybe next time.
"Do you want to do this again?" I said.
"Sure," you said.
"How about next week?" I said.
"Sure," you said.
"Want to have dinner?" I said.
"Lunch is good," you said.
And then we made plans to have lunch on Tuesday.
"Bye," you said at the corner and left.
"Bye," I said and stood there. I would have sung a song for you then, but I cannot sing. Besides, I was in public.

Next: I was watching TV when my friends called me.