Competition Twenty-Six Highly Commended: Lunch Date by S.A. Greene
It’s drizzling outside but I’m wrapped up warm in the café’s meaty breath and Dad’s hey-there! hug and I’m thankful he still looks the same and his stubble still feels like a dry wide tickle against my cheek but when we sit down he says what’re you getting to eat, Megan? which is my real name like I’ve grown too big for my nickname so now I’m not hungry so I say you choose and he says I like my girl to know her own mind so I point at something on the menu and the waitress comes and he’s all what’s your name? been working here long? and she giggles and shines her green cats’ eyes at me and I blank her and she wiggles back to the kitchen and Dad says how’s school?
And I’m telling him how Mum’s been acting weird since Wanky Wayne left and it’s scary when she’s drinking when Catface brings my cheeseburger and Dad’s all thanks, gorgeous, wink-wink, and Catface wink-winks back and bounces off with her big jelly boobs and I’m saying how I found Mum asleep at the bottom of the stairs (I don’t mention the vomit) and he’s staring at the air above my head all serious like he’s thinking how to fix this for me and then he writes something on his napkin and says do me a favour, Eggie? which is my nickname. And I relax.
He folds the napkin and says take this over to our waitress? and Daddy likes his girl to know her own mind so I jump right up and he says why’re you taking your coat, Eggie? and I march right out and I run straight towards anywhere else and my boiling cheeks are thankful for the cool steady kiss of the drizzle.
S. A. Greene writes short fiction in Derbyshire. Her work has appeared in Free Flash Fiction before, as well as in trampset, Mslexia, Fictive Dream, New Flash Fiction Review, Sledgehammer, Janus, Ellipsis Zine, The Phare, Flash Flood, Reflex, Funny Pearls, and other fabulous places.
Image ‘Furtively Speaking’ (acrylics and inks, 2020) by Claudia McGill – see more of Claudia’s work here – Claudia McGill and Her Art World
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