Can I Help You?

“Yeah, it’s rough. I mean, I did everything I could for her. Your sister seems to love you to do that for you. It’s not easy for raise a child when you’re still learning to do things yourself,” she smiled softly as she slowly gave the woman a hug. “And I know we just met, but you can always come to me, too.”

Addie shook her head, “I’m sure it’s not. I’m lucky and I don’t know if it is or isn’t but I saw her.. I’m sure it’s not.” She was forever thankful for Emma but she knew that her being around had been a sacrifice for her sister. Addie gave a small smile to the other woman, “Thank you. That does mean a lot.”

Val chuckled. “I promise, ‘s still me!” He held up a hand. “Scout’s honor. I’ll do shots to prove it.” He teased. “Let me get you coffee. We can catch up. So much shit has happened, it’s ridiculous.”

“I want to hear everything.” Things had been stagnant since she broke up with Jeb but maybe hearing about someone else life would kickstart her own. “I will take a hazelnut latte thank you very much.”

“I was raised pretty frgual, I’m sure I’ll be stuck with that until I die. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, maybe one of my kids can actually have a college fund or at least a really nice bike.” She shrugged, and smiled. “Or I could blow it all on something senseless like a full body tattoo.”

“I was too but it wasn’t really like I had a choice either you know what I mean?” Addie laughed, “A really nice bike can be better than a college fund if you ask me.” She shook her head quickly, “I know you’re getting but you’re absolutely going to regret that do not do that.”

Nicholas wasn’t really one to go out too often. He got enough of people during work. But he’d felt a bit stir crazy that day, so he had gone for a run and was now at the cafe, taking a breather. He had found a seat at a place near the woman but hadn’t really noticed her until she spoke. Part of him wanted to just ignore her but the truth was, he was better than that. He folded his hands behind his head and leaned back, looking over at her. “Why do you say that, darlin’?” he asked.

Addie didn’t really expect for anyone to pay her any attention. No one in New York actually paid attention, they usually just ignored each other so the fact that the man next to her actually answered was a surprise. Although a welcome one. “Because.. well because it just kind of feels like it is.”

“Yeah, but I did,” Dominic grinned as he cross his arms on the table in front of him. “I mean, it’s the least I could do for making you wait for me to finish work. You didn’t need to do that, so thanks,” he continued, using the same tone she’d used on him. Looking around, Dominic took in the sights and smells of the little Mexican dive. The food must have been really good considering that most of the chairs and tables pushed up against the wall were occupied with people diving into various dishes and drinks. The food also must have been very spicy because Dom could smell it from where he sat on the other side of the room. 

“You think it always smells this good?” he asked, wondering out loud. “I live above a little Vietnamese restaurant and I wake up to the smell of broth every morning. It’s amazing. But I’m not sure I could hold myself back if I lived on top of this place. I’d be here for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“I didn’t need to, I wanted to.” Honestly time had moved so fast Addie had barely noticed that hours had flown by as she talked to Dominic. And Addie always felt time moving so slowly it had to mean something. She leaned on the table with a smile and just kind of watched him look around. She loved introducing people to the city and hole in the wall Mexican dives were the epitome of New York City. “You like spices right? Because if not we probably should’ve ordered more queso to balance out your tastebuds.” 

She nodded and looked around herself. “Yeah. They’re always so busy I’m sure there are like a hundred things being made at once.” Addie sipped on her water and just grinned at him. “I think you’d probably get a little sick of it. How are you not constantly just eating noodles? How are you not a thousand pounds I would be a mess if I lived above that place. I live above a bar so it’s mostly just loud and sometimes it smells like beer.”

“I had a kid at fifteen and kicked out when I had her. A car was never in my thought process cause I was just trying to survive for my daughter.”

“You sound a lot like my sister.. I mean heres was other reasons but she got it together enough to take custody of me when she was.. I don’t really remember.. 21 I think is when everything was all said and done so if anything I kind of get it.”

“Been there, done that. My family grew up dirt poor so my mom taught us some colorful ways to get by, but we lived and here I am earning more money than both my parents ever did and still living in that crappy mindset.”

“Same here. I have more money than I have ever had and yetI’m still constantly scraping the bottle of the barrel. It’s weird right? I wonder if that thought process will ever go away... probably not.”

“Well, yeah that’s the entire point of us coming here. But I’m certain that there’s something else worth trying while we’re here. Since you said to steer clear of seafood from here, what about the carne asada tacos? Those sound good. Or the one with carnitas,” he said before continuing to list of the various tacos on their paper menus. To him, they all sounded great and he could have easily gotten through half the list before getting anywhere close to full. “How about we order one of each taco, and then a bucket of queso,” he chuckled quietly as he looked down at her. 

Dominic quickly placed their order, picked out a few drinks - a mango juice and pineapple juice - and quickly paid the bill before Addie could argue. 

“I’m gonna be honest, I’m a huge enchilada girl so I usually go with those, but I am all for going on a trip down Taco lane and just eating all of them. Do they have those ones with pineapples because those are always so good I think they’re made with pork.” Addie was still looking at the menu she didn’t even realize that Dominic had paid the bill until  the waitress thanked him and took the menus from them. “Again, you didn’t need to do that.” She took a sip of her water and smiled at him across the table, “But of course, thank you. It was very nice of you and I promise the queso will be worth it.”

Dominic walked up to the half-opened door of the restaurant Addie had suggested and pulled it open, letting her walk in ahead of him. Although he wanted to say that he would have been more than okay with walking in first, she was right when it looked nothing like a restaurant from it’s storefront. However, when he walked in, he was pleasantly surprised to see it pretty full of people and the mouthwatering smells that lingered in the air. 

“So far so good, Addie,” he said, nudging her playfully once again. “So is there anything really good here? Or actually, anything I should stay away from? I guess that’s really what I’m asking.

Addie chuckled and walked in in front of Dominic, she assumed so that if it was something sketchy she could handle it. “I told you.” She started making her way to a booth for them. “If I was going to take you to somewhere that was concerning I would be straight up about it. I’m not trying to knowingly deceive anyone... except my sister but I think that’s different.” 

Addie sat down and got comfy, happy to be out of the bar and somewhere more low key and where Dominic also didn’t have to stop every few minutes to make another drink. “Well.. I mean I wouldn’t get any seafood, but that’s mostly because I don’t trust seafood at a Mexican restaurant.” She picked up the menu and looked at it for a second before looking over it at Dominic. “Queso, right? And a lot of it?”

“I don’t know,” Dominic shrugged before checking his rearview mirror. “You kinda strike me as someone who goes to brunch every Sunday morning and can’t get through a week without it. And I’m saying that in the best way possible,” he quickly defended with a laugh. “I just have a hard time imagining you at these dives, but if the queso is as good as you say it is, I’ll happily take back that brunch comment.”

Dominic continued driving through the unfamiliar streets of New York until they were just a block or two away. This was the last thing that he thought he’d be doing after work. When Dom woke up that morning, his plan for the day was: class, work, sleep. However, he was surprisingly glad that Addie had stumbled into his bar out of the thousands in the city. Turning onto a side street, he put his car into park, grabbed his backpack from the back seat and got out, all but running to Addie’s side of the car to open the door for her.

“So is this place actually real? Or were you just trying to lure me into unfamiliar territory?” He teased.

Addie had to laugh. She apparently had really fooled Dominic and she was fine with that, but was he in for a rude awakening if he stuck around? Yes. “I hate to disappoint you but I am definitely not that girl. I think I’ve been to brunch a handful of times and I always feel so out of place.” She shook her head, “I’m much more of a dive girl.” 

Addie was not trying to be cryptic or edgy, but it was just the truth. She wasn’t the type of girl that most people enjoyed being around. She was unapologetically herself and herself was rough around the edges who loved to have fun wherever she could get it. It wasn’t always the prettiest picture.  Addie just hoped that Dominic wasn’t the type to be turned away by roughness. 

She was pretty wrapped up in her own mind so she barely realized that they had stopped until Dominic had run to open her door. “Oh! Thank you, who ever said chivalry was dead.” Addie hopped out onto the streets of New York, “I promise it’s real. If I was going to take you into something sketchy I’d be honest with you. All I’m trying to get you into now is good queso.”

“Oh, for sure. I have so much clutter and shit in my house it would be easier to trade a crappy pair of earrings for some bananas than it would be to pay 6 dollars. Who charges that much for four bananas?” She rolled her eyes. “Grocery stores are killing people I swear.”

“That’s why I stole most of the food growing up because who has that type of money for a few bananas that are going to go bad? I’d rather just take a banana and get out of there and save the money for like... meat or something.”

“Well, it’s not exactly my chosen profession, but it was a condition for my fellowship. Other than annoying college boys it really hasn’t been that bad. I actually kind of like it. It’s sort of forced me to brush up on certain things and perfect my understanding, which is never a bad thing,” Louisa replied with a shrug. “But yeah, when you’re getting paid to go to graduate school, you’ll pretty much do anything to make sure you finish, even deal with the unpleasantries that accompany it.”

“What are you trying to do then? No I guess that’s pretty good... I think maybe everyone should be forced to do that because I forget stuff at work all the time and it’s very stressful.” Addie nodded, “Anything to save money that has to be expensive.”