The Kings Of Cool

88

Stan and Doc meet at the Harbor Grill.

Kim is their waitress.

“Do you ever go home?” Doc asks her.

“I wanted extra shifts.”

Charles Jourdans.

$150.00.

Money she isn’t going to make no matter how many extra shifts she works. She takes their order and goes to the kitchen.

“Have you thought it over?” Doc asks.

“Diane and I talked about it,” Stan says.

“And?”

Stan hesitates.

He’s more than aware of Diane’s (irrational, unfair) contempt for him. She despises him for not wanting to have sex with another woman? Not even a woman, but a teenage girl?

It’s crazy, but he does feel emasculated.

He knows that money would make it better, money would give him his balls back, the kind of money Doc is talking about…

“We’re going to say no,” Stan says.

“That’s cool,” Doc says.

Stan can see he thinks it’s anything but cool.

He thinks it’s pussy.

But Stan has weighed the pros and cons. The money would be great, but you have to weigh it against the risk of getting busted, spending years in prison, maybe a Mexican prison, and then there are the ethical issues…

“Not that we don’t appreciate the offer,” Stan says.

“Sure,” Doc says.

The waitress brings their food and they eat pretty much in silence, with forced, desultory conversation.

Doc is relieved when Stan gets up and says he has to open the store.

“I’ve got the check,” Doc says.

“No, let me-”

“Nah, I got it.”

Stan thanks him and leaves.

The waitress comes over with the check, lays it on the table, and says, “ I’ll do it.”

“I’m sorry-what?”

“ I’ll do it,” Kim says. Just one time, but I’ll do it.