Benny’s Soup & Taco is pretty small, little more than a hole-in-the-wall, and that earns her a disapproving glance from the woman at the next table over.
“I’m just saying, the guy with the double lightsaber was badass, and the movie was enjoyable,” I tell her, and calmly take a bite of my own taco.
She watches me for a long moment, her eyes narrowed. It takes everything I’ve got not to crack up.
“Are you fucking with me?” she asks, keeping her voice low enough that she doesn’t earn another look from the next table.
“Of course not.”
“Did you even see that movie?”
“Yes, I saw that movie,” I say, trying to keep my taco ingredients in my own taco. “All those movies stayed in heavy rotation at Bagram. There was nothing to do but watch that movie.”
And, you know, fight an ugly, awful war, but I skip that part.
To my surprise, she laughs.
“That explains it.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Of course you liked it if that’s where you saw it,” she says. “Fine, you can have your bad opinion.”
If there weren’t a lady at the next table watching us, I’d flip her off. The taco hides my smile.
* * *
Wednesday, close of business:Walk to Car
Activities:convene in office; sojourn to vehicles
Objective: bother Meckler
“Is it raining yet?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“You can’t tell me whether or not it’s raining?”
I lean back against Meckler’s desk, facing Kat, and fold my arms over my chest.
“You have the exact same view out the window that I do,” I point out.
For the record, it’s not raining yet, but I like it when she gets huffy with me. Gives me a reason to prod back at her.
“But babe,” she says, and she looks up at me, and there’s that slight quiver around her eyes that means she’s deliberately not laughing. “I love it when you tell me the weather.”
“You just love making me do things you could do yourself, babe.”
Meckler’s not here right now, but he’ll be back any second.
“Because you’re so cute when you do them.”
She bats her eyelashes. A week ago I had no idea she could pull that off, but when she looks up at me like that, dark eyes behind her glasses, my IQ drops by about three points.
“Mhm,” I say, and push myself off Meckler’s desk to put my palms on hers and lean in. “When else am I cute?”
“You’re always cute,” she says, sitting behind her desk, also leaning in. Trying not to laugh. “A total cutie.”