Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Gary (Ravi); "Two Strikes Against"

I've only been here about a week but I can sort of understand why the original Gary was perhaps not all that driven to pass the bar and join the other family business - his father's law firm.  Working at this place is some long hours - Isaac and Isaiah may be there before me to make the bagels every morning, and they're pretty spry for octogenarians, but they do run down fairly early in the afternoon, even if they do schedule themselves for the whole day.  They lean on me - Gary - a little more than they like to admit to themselves, I think; even though they've got a number of capable people working for them, this is still a family business that they started with Gary's late grandfather, and as the only member of the family who works here, I'm the one they prefer to trust when they can't oversee things personally, which often means closing and receiving deliveries.

It's not a bad gig, though.  I compared it to the electronics-store customer service job I had back in New York when I first started examining the life I had inherited, but there are some pretty important differences.  You don't really have regulars doing tech support, for instance, and the guys who come in every Tuesday for new records and movies (who grow fewer and fewer) don't exactly chat much; they just take what they want from the front shelf and go straight to the check-out.  Here, though, I've seen a few people multiple times even though I've only been here a week and the place is closed Saturdays, and unlike the guy with the computer that won't start, they like talking.  Folks come here expecting to leave happy and wanting to come back, and that's a huge deal.

And while I didn't know any of them a week and a half ago, it's not like they expect any sort of depth to these running conversations.  When people do find it strange that you don't remember their names, "I was away for a while" usually does it, and if that doesn't work, "my fiancee dumped me so I have a lot on my mind" does the trick.

Most of the time.

Last night, just as I was getting ready to close, a girl comes in.  From the ground up, she's wearing three-inch heels, a tight miniskirt, a top that shows equal amounts of belly and cleavage, and plenty of jewelry and makeup.  Objectively, it's kind of tacky, but she's got what it takes to make it work.  I'm just paying her the normal sexy-girl-in-the-shop attention when she saunters up to the counter and asks why I haven't called, what with the ginger bitch being gone a couple weeks.

Maybe don't stammer and grimace quite the way that the original Gary would, but I do the same sort of thing.  "Kristina."

Kristina, you may guess, is the psycho ex that I was told about, and she sort of gives off that vibe.  From what I can tell, she and Gary dated in high school, broke up when he went to college, reconnected for a summer and then she wouldn't let go, either thinking this was destiny or realizing that her best chance at landing a lawyer or the like, and that this future lawyer was working in a deli didn't much phase her.  She apparently scared a few girlfriends off, at least until Deirdre outlasted her.

Not that she really announced herself as nuts beyond disparaging Deirdre.  She certainly seemed reasonable enough, although maybe she was giving me a skewed recounting of their high school days.  It was kind of fun and instructive, though; she mentioned some places that I probably should check out to learn more about Gary's life.

She hung around to close, which was kind of surprising; she didn't really seem to be overstaying.  I passed on getting a drink with her, and she didn't get nuts or anything.  I'll obviously be passing - between original-Gary saying that getting involved with her would be out of character and me already having someone, it would cause everybody trouble.

I've got to admit, though - the idea that Jordan could have wound up looking like THAT had things broken a little differently is making my head spin.

/Gary

1 comment:

Jordan said...

Why? What's making your head spin about it?