Burger (Part 6)

”Dude, are you okay? You look kinda pale.” Steve put the wrench down and looked up at me.”Why don’t you go downstairs and get a coke or something? Maybe get the kitchen to make you something to eat.”

I couldn’t wait to get away from that bird, and everybody knew Steve was a partier, so I said maybe I drank too much beer watching the game last night.

“Oh, yeah? What’d you think of that OT play in the end zone? Can you believe the ref didn’t throw a fucking flag?”

“I know! It was total bullshit.” I had no idea who played or what the score was, so I figured it was best to just agree with Steve.

“Get on downstairs and get a burger before Daniel gets back from that meeting over in Raleigh.

If Daniel wasn’t on the property, Steve didn’t make us clock out for breaks unless we were in danger of getting overtime.

I went down the elevator to the second floor, then took the back stairs, by the banquet rooms, down to the wait station and into the kitchen. Jamie was back there watching something on his phone, and I told him that Steve told me to come down and get something to eat.

I got myself a Coke while he started my burger, then I went back to the wait station and sat down on the stairs. I pulled out my phone to play some Candy Crush while Jamie made my burger. I’m really, really good at Candy Crush.

Then Mike came down the stairs and asked if I wanted to smoke a blunt in the parking garage. We went down the kitchen stairs and out the kitchen door to the garage.

"Did you get a load of boss man's new cupcake?" Mike waggled his eyebrows at me.

“Nah, man. But I met her creepy bird."

"What? Birds are cool." Mike pulled the blunt out of his pocket and fired it up.

"Yeah, if they're outside. I don't dig outdoor creatures inside. Like I used to have this dentist? And he had this huge salt water aquarium with a fucking octopus. Man, it freaked me out." I took the blunt and hit it kinda soft so I wouldn't look like a jackass coughing my ass off.

We were in the stairwell because everybody takes the elevator and knew nobody would walk up on us. There was some old graffiti on the wall, like twentieth century shit with phone numbers and who does what and how good. Some smartass had even written "Jenny 867-5309."

"Rich, man, hit that again. You seem kinda wound up today."

"Thanks, Mike. " I hit it harder this time, and sure enough, I coughed like a little bitch, but Mike was cool and didn't bust my balls about it. We passed it back and forth a few more times before he put it out. Mike's a valet, and he's been here forever, like 25 years or something. He's probably my favorite person at the hotel. You'd think the front desk chicks and the servers would be the snooty ones, but, no, it's those housekeeping ladies who'd as soon cut you as look at you. Ain't no telling what they see, cleaning up after all these rich folks and wannabe rich folks.

I took my burger and Coke down into housekeeping, to the break room. Three of the housekeeping ladies were at the table when I came in, but they got up and left before I sat down. Fine by me. I didn't feel like making small talk or listening to them bitch about their men and children.

My burger was super delicious and I ate every bite, then I got back to work on the Candy Crush level I'm stuck on. After I used up all my lives, I put my phone in my pocket and turned on my walkie-talkie.

Steve got the air conditioner working, so I didn't have to go back around that creepy bird, but there was a whole bunch of stuff acting up on the ninth floor, where some of the ghosts live, so I headed up there to help get things under control.

Daniel and some of the suits from Raleigh were in the lobby when I clocked out, so I didn't even try to get a drink, just headed out to the garage, got in my car, and went home. I didn't have to go in the basement or tree fort if I didn't want to.

Thank you for reading!