Page 75 of A Future To Remember

And I think Levi wanted that exact same thing.

“Are you not getting enough to eat, Levi?” I asked. I was trying to order us both enough to live on.

He pocketed his phone and offered me a look filled with gratitude. “I am now, Maddy. Thanks to you. And the fact that Gus used to spray down the trays of leftovers at the end of the night with the shit he uses to clean the grill with. But he’s stopped doing that, so lately I’ve been eating better.”

“Why was he spraying cleaner on the trays with the leftovers?”

“To prevent me from eating any of it.”

I turned my gaze away, staring hard out the window. Goddamn that short-order cook. I wanted to punch him. Sometimes it killed me to watch him be so mean to Levi and yet be so sweet to me. I was beginning to really dislike Gus.

“Hey,” Levi said. My gaze returned to him. “Like I said, he’s mostly stopped doing that. Last night I had almost half a pan of lasagna. I’ll put some meat on me soon. Don’t worry.”

But I did. I worried because I didn’t know if I could stop myself from pulling Gus aside and giving him a piece of my mind about the way he treated Levi, and in doing that, in allowing my temper to get the best of me, I was potentially risking the free meal plan both Levi and I were currently benefiting from.

To change the subject, I pointed to Levi’s pocket where he’d just stashed his phone. “Gonna post the video you took to social media?”

To my surprise, Levi shook his head. “It’s insurance. We need evidence that they left on their own power if they decide to go to the sheriff and make up some bullshit.”

“Smart,” I said. “You think like a lawyer.”

He snorted derisively. “My dad’s a lawyer. It’s where I get it from.”

I knew, after talking to Cash about Levi’s past, that his dad was a sore spot, so I changed the subject. “Come on, bud. Let’s head back upstairs.”

The adrenaline took a long time to wear off, so Levi and I chatted with each other until we both began to feel sleepy. I think he nodded off first, but I wasn’t far behind, and for the very first time since waking up in the hospital, I slept through the night without having a nightmare.

The next day was Sunday, which had a flow to it that was far different than any other day at the diner, and everything revolved around church.

There was the pre-mass 7:20 a.m. church crowd, the after-mass 9:00 a.m. crowd, and finally, the noon after-11:00 a.m. mass crowd.

It was madness with all the crowds flowing into each other without a moment’s pause. And, as good of a waitress as I’d become in my short time working for Wanda, I still needed her help to cover all the tables. Levi ended up both clearing tables and seating the next guests in line.

The only good part was that the place nearly completely emptied out by one o’clock and Wanda let me know that closing time was at two. There’d be no dinner rush, thank God, because seven hours of hustle on my feet had me aching to take a nap.

Not a single person came into the diner from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00, and I had all my side work done by then, so Wanda and Gus were ready to leave by ten after.

“Enjoy your day and a half off,” she told me, bundling up the day’s receipts in her handbag. “You can have anything you’d like in the walk-in. There’s plenty of cereal and oatmeal, all the fixings for a salad and some lasagna and a pan of meatloaf next to the mashed potatoes in there. The lasagna’s homemade, my grandmother’s recipe, so help yourself to any of it.”

“Thank you, Wanda,” I said. I was really looking forward to trying that lasagna after serving it all week, and there’d be more than enough for Levi too.

“Lock up after I leave, okay?” she said.

I got up from the booth where I’d been eating my lunch and counting my tips. I’d made an absolute killing that morning, and the tally was already over fifty dollars, with another bundle of change and dollar bills still left to count.

“Gus!” Wanda called as she paused at the door. He came out from the back, wiping his hands on a dish towel before pulling out a pack of Marlboros from his back pocket. “I’m comin’,” he said.

As he passed me, he smiled and winked, and I offered him only a curt nod in response. I was still so angry at him for being so mean to Levi, who’d clearly been starving when he first came to work here. Making sure to spoil the leftovers he sent to the washroom so that Levi had to wash the pans knowing he wasn’t going to get a single extra crumb of food infuriated me. It was unnecessarily cruel.

I saw Gus’s brow furrow, but he didn’t pause to ask me what was wrong, thank God. I doubt I could’ve held back.

“Make sure to let Levi out the back,” Wanda said to me once Gus was out of earshot and right before she followed him through the door. “And let him know the to-go container on the counter is for him. I made Gus cook up a double cheeseburger with fries, and there’s a chocolate milkshake for him too. He worked hard today.”

I stared in surprise. “Levi works his butt off every day, Wanda,” I told her softly.

She studied me for a moment while I refused to look away. I watched the guilt seep into her eyes and then she glanced over my shoulder toward the washroom, where the sound of running water reached our ears.

Focusing back on me, she seemed to soften. “Pack up some cereal and milk for him, Maddy. And maybe a slice of that lasagna. He can heat that up at home tomorrow. Oh, and tell him the envelope in the bag has his weekly pay in it.”