Ruin

88

Thursday: 12:15 P. M.
-----------------------------------

Watch him stand up deh a chat!

Rolling down my window, I pop my head through and glare at the nastiness as he daps up Mark's fist. "Come inna the car nuh sir, yuh think mi have all day?"

Mark can stay 'til another time eno. It's like he forgot that I'm here waiting on him. And he knows how traffic uptown can get, sometimes.

"Wah'pn, browning? Long time mi nuh see yuh!" Marks greets me with a small laugh.

I return a tight-lipped smile. Mi hungry and nuh inna the mood. "Mi deh yah man."

With a smug smirk playing on his lips, Shane hails Mark one last time before turning and walking over to my car—— parked along the curb outside the Head Office.

I tsk as he slides into the passenger seat and starts buckling his seat belt.

"How yuh so antsy today?" he asks when he finally settles in and looks at me.

Mi hungry!

"Says the man that has me waiting on him for ten minutes, then gets downstairs and still a chat?"

He chuckles. "Nuh Mark a keep up man inna the bag a waste chattings."

Like yuh never did a entertain it..

"Hmm..." Pulling off the curb, I breeze down the avenue.

Fifteen minutes already gone outta mi lunch time...cho!

"Aye, man feel like a king yah now eno," he says reclining in the seat and adjusting the lid to the AC vent, as we hit Marcus Garvey Drive. "Mi favourite girl a treat mi to lunch."

His comment brings a small smile to my lips. "Hear yah 'bout 'Favourite girl'. Moya waan hear yuh fi pop yuh mawga limb."

He laughs raucously at my statement. He knows it's true. Worse the whole a dem have it say we deh already.

When I used to be at the HQ location, about two years ago, Shane started working with the company. From his first day there, my manager at the time charged me with the task of baby-sitting.

He'd asked me to show Shane around the cafeteria and teach him how the lunch programme worked ——each employee was given a stipen to cover a portion of the cost for our lunch if taken from the cafeteria, with the balance, if applicable, drawn from our pay, monthly.

It was just in time for my lunch break, at the time he'd asked, so I agreed, and Shane accompanied me to lunch. Since then, we were inseparable.

We took lunch together everyday. If one of us was held up with work on any particular day, we'd wait on each other; all when we a dead fi hungry. If one didn't come to work, we'd feel awkward eating alone. Even external customers who sometimes bought lunch from the cafeteria started to take notice——assuming we were an item.

And the rumours started to spread.

Like wildfire.

Although it was mostly false accusations, there was some truth.

But that's nobody's business.

Shane's laughter dies down to a low chuckle. "And yuh know say she woulda vex fi true. Worse she a pree mi hard from wah day."

I glance at him before looking back at the road. "Wah yuh do now?"

"Not a thing..."

Wow, of course not...