“I don’t think we can keep on meeting like this.”
“I know. What would happen if people found out.”
“I’d never be able to go home again …. Well not for 14 days at least.”
“You would have to sleep in the car?”
“Nah, my parents have an RV in the driveway.”
Rachel snorts with laughter. “Mine too. I wonder if they’d banish me there. They’re absolutely freaking that I still have to go to work. They don’t understand why we’re not shut down.”
“Drive through service, baby,” Elliot toasts Rachel with his coffee cup. “Do you have to wear a mask yet?”
“We’re still waiting for official word from corporate. Some people do already especially if they’re working the drive through window.”
“Man, I got a $20 tip yesterday just for handing someone lunch.”
“I’m just glad the bars are shut down. I would hate to be coming to work every day if I knew my co-workers could still go out and get drunk …because they would!”
“Gary said all his roommates are having a big bonfire Saturday night. With college online it’s like a big party at their house.”
“Are you going?”
“Nah, I won’t get paid if I get contact traced and have to quarantine for 14 days. And my parents would lose their actual shit. They are so pissed right now. They were really pressuring me to move out and now they feel like they can’t force it because of the lockdown.”
“You’re paying rent. What the fuck is their problem?”
“I dunno. They wanna walk around naked all the time or some shit like that.” Elliott takes another sip of his coffee. “I guess now is a good time to be working for a chain instead of an indie,” he nodded toward the bistro down the street. “How are they gonna pay the rent if they can’t sell $5 coffee all day?”
“Nobody’s thinking this shit through. The rules are all over the place. I’m just glad I didn’t go into nursing. Can you imagine working at a hospital right now?” Rachel shuddered.
“I was never that into people dying.”
“Me either.”
Rachel and Elliott stare down the empty street. No people, no cars, just errant snowflakes floating through the air. They are sitting on a bench conveniently placed in the central boulevard. In the summer the pots are filled with flowers and two young trees planted nearby will provide dappled shade but today there is just last year’s dead growth peeking out from snowy blankets over the pots and barren tree branches are trying to catch snowflakes as they whirl past. Rachel and Elliott are wearing quilted down coats over their work uniforms. Rachel has brightly colered knitted mittens with a matching beret and scarf while Elliott just has fingerless gloves.
“They’re talking about laying off most everybody until this is over,” Rachel said softly, watching her breath join the steam from the coffee cup.
“Yeah, I heard the managers talking. No shows are automatic quits the first time now, no more three strikes. I think they just don’t want to have to choose.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I dunno. Apply at a grocery store? They’re not closing or reducing hours.”
“Do you think the customers there are any less of assholes?”
“Nah.”
“Discounts on groceries?”
“Nope. But we’ll be employed.”
“Breaks over,” Rachel finished off her coffee, tossed her signature white and green paper cup into the decorative trash barrel near the bench and stood up.
“Tomorrow?” Elliott asked, as he added his pink and orange Styrofoam cup to the barrel’s collection.
“Tomorrow,” Rachel replied.
Together they turn, walking in opposite directions down the empty street to their competing coffee shops.