“Yeah, right, Preston. Like you could handle al this!” Carly did a shimmy to make her boobs swing back and forth and Preston laughed.
“Preston, can you get me this drink?” Lauren pushed the slip across the bar.
“What’s with you, sourpuss?” Preston asked.
“Why is everyone saying that to me? I’m fine,” Lauren said.
“Clearly,” Preston said.
“It’s just these customers are bugging me today,” Lauren said. “See that table over there? The mom let her son order bacon for lunch.”
“Grody!” Carly said.
“Yeah, grody!” Preston mocked her. “Plus, do you know how many little bacons had to die for that lunch? It’s real y a shame.”
“Shut it, Preston.”
“Here’s your drink, sunshine!”
The man smiled at Lauren as she carried his drink over. “Is that man your lover?” he asked.
“Lover?” Lauren asked. “No, that man is not my
“I do,” he said, and sniffed.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Lauren said.
“You did mean to, and you didn’t, so don’t worry.”
“Oh, okay.”
“I’m a very successful man,” he said.
“That’s great.”
“It is. A lot of people are jealous of me. I make a lot of money.”
“Great.”
“A lot. More than you could probably guess.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes,” he said. “I thought of where I knew you from, by the way.”
Lauren’s heart started pounding. “Real y?” she asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “I used to see you in the park.”
“The park?”
“Yes, Madison Square Park. You used to lie there and talk to yourself.”
“What?” Lauren felt dizzy.
“I used to work right there, and we’d see you on our lunch break. One of my buddies thought you were retarded.”
“I didn’t—that wasn’t me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, come on, Lauren, give it up! I saw you. I saw you every day. Don’t be upset about my buddy cal ing you a retard, he was just playing around.
Anyway, when he said that, I told him, ‘I’d stil sleep with her. She’s stil hot, even if she is a retard.’ ”
“I didn’t” was al Lauren could say.
“So, what were you doing there anyway? You were there every day and then one day you weren’t there. I always wondered what happened to you.
I always wondered what you were doing, lying there and talking to yourself.”
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Lauren said.
“Wel , Lauren, you must have been doing something.”
Lauren wished she hadn’t told him her real name. She didn’t like the way it sounded coming out of his mouth.
Lauren never told her friends how much she went to the park after Preston dumped her. They wouldn’t have understood that it was the only place she wanted to be. She figured she’d just keep going there forever, lie on the grass and look at the clouds, happy in her own world. But then one day she went to the park and it rained. It rained big, thick drops that made noise when they hit the ground. Lauren watched as the white light clouds soiled themselves, turning an army brown and final y a slimy black. She lay there, feeling the people around her gathering their things and leaving.
But she stayed, watching the clouds quiver and final y release. She kept her eyes open the whole time. She didn’t even blink.
One drop hit her chest and stayed intact, a tiny puddle of rain wobbling on top of her skin. Others fel on her face, sliding off the grooves of her nose and mouth. Some hit her eyebal s, and she thought they ran right inside her
