Frank and Lily

Burgers ‘n Burst was in the same strip mall as Trader Joe’s.  It was either that or Shanghai House of Dumplings.  Lily felt the need for a milkshake, so they ended up in a booth at Burgers, that’s after ordering at the counter, then grabbing plenty of napkins and cups of ketchup.  “I have to warn you, I’m a very messy burger eater,” Lily said, as she slid into her side of the booth.

“You mean you don’t eat it with a knife and fork?”

She looked to see if he were joking, and he was.  “Only when it gets to the end, when the bun has deteriorated and my hands are soaked in ketchup.”

He got up then.  She thought maybe she had said something totally disgusting.  But no, he brought back the insubstantial plastic knives and forks available.

Frank was much better looking than she remembered.  But then her glimpses of him were mainly fleeting, as Eden and she always went up to Eden’s bedroom to gossip and snapchat with friends out of anyone’s, meaning, parents’, hearing.  That’s when Eden and she had been friends and spent so much time in one another’s houses.  Frank was blond like Eden, although more dirty blond, where Eden always had highlights put in her hair.  He wasn’t exactly tall but he wasn’t short either and he looked fit.  If police asked her for a description, she would have said average.  But there was a light coming from his eyes and a sort of smile on his face that made him look involved.

They didn’t have much to say to one another before their trays arrived.  Hers was a burger with a side salad—except.  “I’m sorry.  Ordered a salad and you brought me fries,” she told the young man who delivered the food.

“Are you sure?” he wondered.

She picked up the packet of salad dressing and held it out to him. “I’ll go check,” he said. He was back in a minute, informing her he could get her a salad, but it would be a dollar extra.  She just waved him away.

Frank just laughed.  “My life and the way it goes,” she said grimly.

“But there’s always a silver lining.  You ended up with a packet of salad dressing for free.”

Lily made an effort with her strawberry shake while he dug into his burger.  She needed to add more ketchup to hers.  Before taking a bite, she admitted to him that, “I was always fascinated with you when—well, when Eden and I were friends.  We were in grade school, you were in high school.  We were in high school, you were in college.  I thought—wow.”

“That’s—  I will admit I never gave much thought to Eden and her friends.  Except I assumed they were all pests because Eden was a pest.”

“How is Eden?  I know we’re no longer friends; but now that I’m older, I think fondly of the times we had together.  And I’m sorry I ruined it all over a boy, who really wasn’t worth either our time.  I know she went to Bryn Mawr for college, but I haven’t heard much about her since.”

“She’s at the Smithsonian in DC.  She was an art history major.”

“Is she married?”

“No.”

“No one gets married anymore.  Not until they reach their thirties anyway.”

“And what do you do?” Frank asked politely.

“Ugh.  Medical records.  Hate it.  But I came out of college with a major in comparative literature.  What could I do with that, as enjoyable as it had been.  So I took this quick course on billing and coding, got a job right away, the money’s not bad, especially as I lived at home during the pandemic.  But now, god, I’d like to get out.  But, my mom—she doesn’t want to deal with the situation alone.  Things are pretty damn tense at home.  Except for some reason Dad walks around on a high, as if everything is going to be okay, now that he’s been caught.  Maybe because it gets him out from under the thumb of the Russians?  I don’t know.”

Frank shook his head.  “What the hell happened?  How did you father—you know—become involved in something so—illegal?”

Lily paused—and wondered.  Was the meeting with Frank Franklin in Trader Joe’s really accidental?  Was he stalking her?  His father had a lot invested.  Did he?

“I’m sorry,” Frank said.  “I’m sure you’re living in a  bowl of hell right now.  I wasn’t here when my father died, strapped to a bedpost, but my mother said the reaction from those who knew our family was rather—intense.”

Lily laughed.  Then she tried to cover it over by pretending she was coughing.  But Frank also smiled.  “At least my parents were divorced by then.  But still—what a way to go.”

“I remember because my mother and her friends were, well, chortling over it, while pretending to be shocked.  I think in a way they felt he got what he deserved.  Oh, god, that’s an awful thing to say to you.  But, you know, they were all sort of threatened by Heidi, or the idea of a Heidi coming into their lives and throwing a wrench into it.  Said wrench being divorce.  I guess, looking at it from their perspective, it would be frightening.  Not many of my mother’s friends, now ex-friends, have a career.  I think they’re like my mother, tutoring between tennis lessons.  The shock of life not going on as one expects, well—I guess some women can handle it.  Not my Mom, so far,” she finished rather bitterly.  “But to answer your question about what happened, chez Stantons, it turns out that my father involved himself in online gambling, got into mountains of debt, and it caught up with him, via Russian gangsters.  He is a stupid man who’s ruined his life, my mother’s life, my life.  I would run away and hide if my mother didn’t beg me to stay.  But, well, that’s why I wear a hoodie.”  She put her burger down.  “Can we talk about something other than our parents.  Please!”

“Of course.  I’m sorry.  Let’s restart.  Lily, it’s great to see you after so many years.  You’ve become a fine young lady.”

She laughed.  “Frank Franklin, or may I call you FF, what have you been doing with yourself so far away from home?”

“Hartford, actually, geographically next door, and I’m a lawyer.  Dealing in commercial real estate.”

“Oh, god.  Like hamsters, we’re back on the treadmill.”