The hightop where we sat had four stools gathered around it. Cassie and I hated booths. Too easy to get pinned in, trapped. Same reason we sat across from each other. This was our lives. This was normal. Fair? No. But normal. So normal we were oddly comfortable with it.
“What do you think?” I jerked my head backwards, indicating Gwendolyn. “A or L?” It was our private code. As a couple. Not Littles. When two people have known each other for close to half their lives, shorthands and in-jokes came easily.
A or L: A for Amazon or L for little. If push came to shove, who would this waitress help? Us or Them? Something Cassie and I talked about. People watching. People judging.
Sometimes, it came up if I ever thought an Amazon could really, truly be trusted. “I really think Mrs. Beouf could come around to the L’s.” I might say.
“She’s a regressor, Clark.”
“She’s helped Littles before.”
“She’s helped you, there’s a difference.”
Rarely, Cassie might use it to describe Littles she didn’t like. “That asshole on the news is such a Helper. Might as well just tattoo a big ol’ A on his forehead.”
Mostly, though, it was in reference to Tweeners. Our own little biased observation of the People Caught Between Two Worlds. In hindsight, this is one of the things I might feel the worst about, but it’s who we were.
I’m getting off track again. Sorry.
“A or L?” I repeated.
Cassie scoffed as if I’d just asked the dumbest of questions. “She’s for the A’s, obviously. You heard how she was talking. I’m surprised our waters aren’t in sippy cups.”
I agreed with Cassie, but I loved to debate with her. “Yeah, but she changed her tone.”
“After you bribed her.”
“All tips are bribes,” I said, smugly. “And she could have taken the money and kept talking down to us.”
Cassie huffed a bit. Not angry, but definitely a little bitter. “Sometimes it feels like everyone just wants us to crinkle.”
“Then isn’t it fortunate that money crinkles, too,” I said.
Gwendolyn and another Tweener came back with a couple of phone books in their arms. “Didn’t think ya’ll would want the booster seats,” she said. “So we brought these.” They placed the heaping piles of paper on the stools beside us. “It’s what we use when we’re on break.”
The stools were close enough that Cassie and I could hop from a flat stool to the phonebook boosted one. Cassie and I exchanged looks. We moved. Not the classiest looking thing, sitting on those phone books but the edge of the table was now comfortably below our chests.
It was a surprisingly decent thing to do “Thank you,” Cassie said. She sounded genuinely surprised.
“You’re very welcome, Ma’am.” Gwendolyn said. “Figured ya’ll would want to be able to see a little more of each other, it being your anniversary and all.” Cassie was good at hiding her emotions, but when she let you see them, it made her all the more beautiful. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with her.
I couldn’t help myself. After the two Tweeners had left. I leaned over the table and half-whispered, “So? Think she’s splitting the tip with the other waitress?”
Cassie’s smile lost a bit of its luster. “Doubt it. That was nice of her, though.”
.”Maybe she’s with the L’s after all.” I said.