Just One Taste

by C. J. Birch

  “Shit.”

  “You short?”

  She nodded. She was more than short. She’d managed to make another sixteen bucks in tips today, but that wasn’t going to help.

  “Can I spot you some? How much are you short?”

  Hayley looked up at the kind, unfocused eyes staring back at her. This was the second offer she’d had today, but for some reason it meant more coming from Dunne. She knew he didn’t have any to spare. “That’s really amazing of you, but I couldn’t take money from you.”

  “Sure, you can. What else are you going to do? Sleep in the park?”

  She patted his arm. “I owe him three hundred bucks, and I don’t even have a third of that. I’ll avoid him tonight and then think of something tomorrow.”

  “Yeah. He’s removed your stuff from your room and locked you out. I put it in my room, but unless you pay him what you owe, he won’t let you sleep in your room tonight.”

  Hayley groaned. She hadn’t counted on Ed being such a hard-ass. What a naive thing to think. He dealt with people way more cunning and devious than her every day. She couldn’t sleep in the park. It was too cold for that, and a shelter was out of the question. Maybe she could call Kalini and ask to sleep on the couch? The only other people she knew were at the diner, and she didn’t know any of them well enough to ask them to couch-surf.

  Dunne tugged on her arm. “Have you eaten? I know a great little diner around the corner. They have the best bratwurst in this part of the city. My treat.”

  “Greta’s?”

  “That’s the place.”

  “That’s where I work. No offence, but I don’t feel like hanging out there after I’ve already been there since five a.m.”

  “That’s where you work?”

  Hayley let her hands fall to her sides. “For now.”

  “Okay. I have an idea where we still get to eat but don’t have to sit in the diner to do it.”

  Hayley followed Dunne down the street. He had her wait at the entrance to the park while he grabbed takeout from Greta’s. Hayley stood under the giant archway that led to the park. Two large iron gates were pulled open and fastened to two poles sticking out of the ground. The light was just beginning to fade. She watched as Dunne dodged a streetcar and met her under the arch holding a large white take-out bag.

  “Come on. I know the perfect spot to eat these.” He led her through the gates and down the path.

  Trinity was one of the bigger parks in the city. It had tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and a large off-leash dog park at the bottom of the ravine. On Saturdays in the warmer months, there was a farmer’s market on the north side, rain or shine, and so many trees it was almost like entering a tiny forest.

  Dunne led her to a picnic table overlooking the dog park and climbed up so he was sitting on the table with his feet on the bench. He set down the bag and patted a spot next to him. Hayley climbed up and sat with the bag between them.

  From this vantage point they could see the entire north side of the park. It was beautiful this time of year, most of the trees yellow and red, with only a few having lost their leaves.

  Two dogs were chasing each other around the dog park, their owners off to the side chatting. It was peaceful, the perfect spot to take a break from the city.

  Dunne pulled out the takeout and opened the container: three large bratwurst covered in sauerkraut gleamed in the light overhead. Dunne cut one of the bratwurst in half and stuffed the other into his mouth. The juice spilled out, sliding down his chin. “I just fucking love these things. They’re one of the best things about living at the Palace.” He scooped up some sauerkraut and shoved it into his still-half-full mouth.

  Hayley picked up one of the forks and stabbed a bratwurst. She’d had three of these already today, but it didn’t matter. They were so good she could probably live on them.

  Dunne pulled a flask from his pocket and took a swig. He offered some to Hayley, but she shook her head.

  They ate in silence, watching night descend on the park. By the time they’d crumpled their napkins and shoved them in the bag, the lampposts that dotted the path had come on. A twilight mist had invaded the park, making the lights glow like amber fairy lights.

  “Has anyone told you about the white squirrels yet?”

  “White squirrels?”

  “Yeah. This is the only place in the city they live.”

  “You’re messing with me.”

  Dunne hopped down from the bench and tossed their garbage in the bin. “Ask anyone. Or better yet, google it.”

  “Have you ever seen one?”

  “Only once. A long time ago.”

  “Go on. This sounds like there’s a story behind it.”

  Dunne motioned for her to follow him. “I ever tell you about Jill?”

  Hayley followed, shaking her head.

  “Jill was my wife.”

  Hayley couldn’t picture Dunne married, but then she knew only this version of him. According to Ed, he’d had a whole life before becoming an alcoholic and landing himself at the Palace Arms.

  “We met on a beautiful fall day back in the early nineties. I’d just graduated and was at the first adult job I’d ever had. I used to live up on Wallace and would take a shortcut through the park on my way home from work. On this day I was walking through the park, and I looked over, and there it was, a white squirrel sitting on the back of a bench eating a granola bar from a woman’s hand.” He took a swig from his flask. “Fuck, Hayley. This woman was gorgeous. No.” He waved his hands in the air. “Gorgeous doesn’t even do her justice. She was a goddess. Her silky red hair was loose around her shoulders, the wind blowing it. Her green eyes were like emeralds, and her smile…” He held his hand to his heart, a sad, misty smile on his face. “God. Her smile was enough to melt your bones. I walked up to her to ask about the squirrel, and she told me they liked the trail-mix granola bars the best. And that was it. I was smitten.”

  “That was Jill?”

  “Yep. We got married a year later. I’ve never seen another white squirrel since.”

  They walked in silence for a few minutes, looping around the park, taking the south path back. Hayley was afraid to ask what happened. Obviously they weren’t together anymore.

  “It’s okay. You can ask.”

  Hayley kicked a branch out of the way. “What happened?”

  “She got ovarian cancer. It was quick, so I know she didn’t suffer.” He took another sip from his flask and offered some to Hayley, who again declined. “It was about ten years ago now. But nothing’s been the same since.”

  Hayley didn’t know what to say, so instead she took a sip from his flask when he offered it again. This seemed to make him happy.

  She still had her doubts. It wasn’t that the possibility of albino squirrels was fantastical. It was that this was the only place they lived in the city. The city had tons of parks, and this wasn’t even the biggest one, although she hadn’t been to any of the others. Hayley’s world had sucked her into this small neighbourhood, which tended to happen in the city. People rarely ventured out of their worlds. They became too safe and comfortable, and this area was definitely becoming comforting to Hayley.

  She followed Dunne through the park. “Thanks for dinner.”

  “It was my pleasure. I’d like to think I’d introduced you to one of the finer things in this city, but seeing as how you work there, I kinda failed.”

  “Well, the companionship was very welcome.” They came to the edge of the park. The night was one of the milder ones they’d experienced, but still too cold to sleep outside.

  As if reading her mind Dunne asked, “Have you thought about where you’re going to sleep tonight?”

  She shook her head. He said it so normally, like asking where you wanted to go for drinks. He’d probably spent a good chunk of his life in this situation himself. Dunne had shared a few things about himself. A work accident several years earlier had put him on disability, which didn’t amount to much. Mone
y was always tight, and he was one bad decision away from being on the street himself.

  Across from them the diner glowed in the night. It was getting close to closing. Luna and Theo were working. Maybe she could talk Theo into letting her spend the night in the diner. He might let her. Or he might ask her a million questions she didn’t want to answer. Was there a way she could stay there without anyone knowing?

  There was the basement window that didn’t latch properly. If she could sneak in before the alarm was set, she could hide out in the supply closet and wait until everyone left. The alarm system was simple, no motion sensors or anything, so if she was already inside once they locked up, she’d be good until morning.

  Hayley looked up at Dunne with a wicked smile. “Yeah. I think I just might have found a place. Can I grab some of my stuff from your room?”

  He looked reluctant. “Sure. You’re not actually going to sleep in the park, are you?”

  “No. Don’t worry. I’ll be perfectly safe.” She didn’t want to tell him in case he tried to talk her out of it.

  Thirty minutes later she was peering down at the basement window. Hayley didn’t have to worry about making too much noise. Theo would be in the kitchen with music blaring and wouldn’t hear a five-piece band if it were playing in the basement.

  The window, located down a side alley where the garbage cans were kept, looked smaller from the outside. If she couldn’t squeeze through, she was out of options. The bell from the front door of the diner dinged. It was the same alley Luna used for smoke breaks. Hayley pushed all her nerves deep. This was the perfect time to sneak in, while she knew Luna was occupied out here. If Luna spotted her, would she know what Hayley was up to? Probably. Luna wasn’t dumb. Even Ezra begrudgingly agreed she was one of their best servers. She never forgot orders or missed substitutions.

  Before Luna could turn the corner, Hayley opened the window and lowered her backpack in, then turned and fed her feet through the opening. On her stomach she pushed herself backward through the window. Before she could drop out of sight her shirt got caught on a sharp edge of brick. At the front of the alley Luna stopped to light a cigarette. Hayley yanked her shirt as hard as she could, tearing the fabric as she dropped to the basement floor, landing with a loud thud on her ass.

  The tear had completely destroyed her Bob-omb T-shirt, one of her favourites. “Ugh. That sucked.” She opened the top of her backpack and pulled out a sweater.

  Now that she was in the basement, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. When Theo and Luna were done, they’d lock up and set the alarm, and because she was already inside, she didn’t have to worry about it because there were no motion sensors. But she should get out of sight before they left.

  The basement was dark and dank. She pulled out her phone and turned on her flashlight. There was a washroom and a storage closet, and that was all. She wasn’t sure what was in the storage closet because it was always locked. She couldn’t risk hiding in the bathroom in case one of them came down to use it or clean it, although the latter was unlikely.

  The only place left for Hayley to hide was in the small space between the back wall and the stairs. If she moved a couple of boxes aside, she could squeeze in beside them. As it turned out, it was perfect. From her vantage point she could see the hall and the bathroom but wasn’t visible. Now she just had to wait. Hayley checked her phone—nine twenty-five. It didn’t usually take more than forty-five minutes to close up.

  She settled her things around her and laid her head back against the wall. Dunne had lent her a small blanket and an old backpack to keep her stuff in. It was better than lugging a giant suitcase around. When she came into some money, she’d have to take him out to dinner to pay him back for all this.

  Hayley let the music upstairs wash over her and snuggled into her sweater, glad she’d thought to grab an extra one when she was selecting what to bring with her.

  What felt like seconds later, Hayley jerked forward. Everything was dark and quiet. She must have fallen asleep. She pulled herself up and grabbed her backpack, listening for any sounds from upstairs. Nothing. The place was closed for the night.

  When she reached the top of the stairs, she pushed open the door. The place looked different at night. For some reason it reminded her of Christmas and sneaking down to have a peek at the tree. The clock above the counter read ten fifteen. They’d been gone for a while. She was reasonably confident that no one would be coming in until early the next morning, but she selected the back booth just in case.

  Hayley pulled the blanket out of her bag and wrapped it around herself like a cocoon. She used the backpack as a pillow and settled in with the help of Gary Numan drifting through her headphones.

  The sounds of the city floated into the diner, lulling her further—the clank of the streetcar going past, a fire truck and ambulance several streets away. Someone across the street yelled something and smashed a glass. These should be scary sounds, so foreign from her upbringing in Casper Falls. But they didn’t scare her. In the short time she’d been in the city, they had become familiar, and it had become her home. She couldn’t imagine moving back to Casper Falls now. Besides, the only thing there was the reminder of a horrible breakup. Okay, and her future niece or nephew, but that’s what the Greyhound was for. She hated that she would be missing this big moment for Hannah, but for once in her life she needed to be selfish.

  Hayley had always done exactly what her family wanted. And while they may have loved living in a small town, knowing the same people their whole lives, Hayley was bored. You could hear the same stories about the same old people only so many times.

  When she’d told her parents she was leaving, they’d been upset. Not angry, just sad. That’s what she loved about her family. They’d support her, she knew they would, but they would miss her, and that felt good.

  Sleeping on a diner bench wasn’t a warm bed in Casper Falls. She should be depressed right now. She was homeless and broke, but she wasn’t depressed. All she could think of at that moment were the good things. She had a dry place tonight that wasn’t the park or a doorway. She had a job, so this homelessness was only temporary, and she had people like Dunne in her life who were looking out for her. This situation sucked donkey balls, but at least it would pass.

  Everything in her life had led her to believe that if you worked hard enough at something and trusted in yourself, things would smooth out. And they were. Sort of. She might not be where she wanted to be at this exact moment, but sometimes you had to slow down and enjoy the journey. It was like Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

  Well, that’s all this was, an excuse to stop and have a look around. And when it was over, she’d appreciate her success all the more because she’d worked her ass off to get there. She remembered the first time she’d passed Super Mario 3—back before you could save games. She’d put her sweat, tears, and frustration into that game. It took her three months, but when she’d finally done it, the high lasted for days. This wasn’t exactly comparable, but she knew if she just persevered, she’d be all the prouder when she made it. Besides, her life could be so much worse. She could be stuck in Casper Falls dealing with the fallout of her breakup with Violet.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lauren was five minutes late for her shift. She was never late for her shift. Living above work made that easy. Currently, Lauren’s head was stuck under the sink dismantling the drain of her garburator. She’d thought she was disposing some eggshells, but when she’d flipped the switch, she’d heard a loud crack, followed by a grinding noise that had probably shaved years off her garburator.

  “I shouldn’t have started this before my shift,” she said, her voice muffled by the cabinetry. Her phone was balanced on her knee playing a how-to-take-apart-your-garburator-if-you-accidentally-grind-something-​you-shouldn’t video. The man was saying you should never reach into a garbage disposal, because even if it wasn�
��t sharp enough to rip your fingers off, it would still hurt.

  “Gee, thanks for that bit of useful advice.” She scrubbed forward with her finger until he got to the part about removing the unit from the sink. He demonstrated placing an Allen key in the hole at the base and turning it to loosen the unit. She did the same with hers. When she had it loose enough to stick her hand in, she reached up and pulled out a mangled ball with crumpled bells inside. As soon as it was free, a heavy ball of fluff and hair landed on her stomach.

  “Ooof. God, you’re heavy. One of these days I’m going to stop feeding you.” The cat stared, his yellow-green eyes unrepentant. “How did this get in here? Huh, Jerkface?” She held the ball up a few inches from his nose, and in answer, he swatted at it. She huffed, shoving him off her lap to get changed for work. She was still in sweats from her morning off. She’d been experimenting with cake pops all morning. Halloween was coming up, and she was playing with making them look like ghosts. So far, her attempts had been passible, but not where she wanted them to be.

  She rushed into her bedroom half out of her T-shirt and kicking off her pants and grabbed a fresh uniform out of the closet. Only after trying to zip it up did she realize she wasn’t wearing a bra. Jerkface sauntered into the room and claimed his place at the head of the bed on the pillow next to hers. His hair took a few more seconds to settle around him.

  “It’s because of you I’m late.”

  Jerkface stretched a paw out and proceeded to lift his leg and groom his nether region. Lauren turned away in disgust. Sometimes she felt like she’d been had. She’d found him as a kitten between compost bins behind the diner and couldn’t resist. His adorable little eyes had stared up at her with all the sweetness the little fur ball could muster, and she was a goner. That sweetness had lasted until the door had shut behind him. Then, as if he knew it was too late for Lauren to do anything, he claimed his domain with all the hauteur of a king claiming his throne. Hence the name Jerkface.

  He was a menace to anything on a flat surface. He would go out of his way to knock things off shelves, especially if they had liquid in them or were made of glass. She’d had to install a child lock on her toilet because he somehow figured out how to open it and would drop random things he collected around the apartment into the basin. She was convinced he was sent to test her patience.