Page 40 of Hurry Up And Wait
“Um…”
“Oh, don’t worry.” He held up his finger. “Happily married. Man, I am so stoked about this. Allow me to be the first to introduce you to the amazing Funyuns party,” he said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and guided me into the store, grabbing my shopping cart for me. “And after Funyuns, we’ll move on to all the necessary food groups for dating someone at OPS.”
“There are food groups?”
He chuckled in amusement. “Don’t worry. You’ll catch on. Meat department first. It is essential that any man working at OPS have his weekly fix of shawarma. Now, I would personally eat it every day, butsome peopledon’t like that.”
“And by some people…”
“Psychos. Dead to rights psychos.”
I sighed heavily. “I’m afraid I’ve never tried that either.”
“Not a problem. You can’t be expected to know it all on your first week here. I’m guessing you’ve never tried wheatgrass or pickled pig’s feet either. And then we have to get you started throwing knives. I’ll get you your own set. Do you care about a color?”
Before I could answer, he moved on.
“I’m sort of the trainer for all the women. You’ll get used to it.”
My eyes widened in understanding. “The women at the silo! I saw them throwing knives yesterday!”
“They have their own training room,” he said proudly. “They all use it. Except for Eva. She’s got her own room.”
“Because she’s dangerous?”
“Because she’s the boss’s wife, and she was my first.”
“Lover?”
He stopped and gawked at me. “No, the first woman I trained. I could never do that to the boss. How’s your musical knowledge?”
My head spun at the sudden change of subjects. “Uh…”
“My favorite isOklahoma. OrWest Side Story.But you know,Kiss Me, Kateis really good too. It’s just so hard to decide.”
I felt terrible for admitting this, though I wasn’t sure why. “I haven’t ever seen a musical.”
He stopped in his tracks and turned to me with an expression that resembled pure horror. I imagined that’s how I looked when Shawn attacked me, though that was because of actual violence. I wasn’t sure how this compared, but clearly, he wasn’t dealing with the news well.
“But I’ll be sure to watch one right away,” I rushed on, hoping to soothe him.
His shoulders sagged in relief and he continued walking me through the store, tossing things in the cart that I didn’t actually wantor need. Jars of pickles, bags of Funyuns, so much meat I could never eat it all…and then we got to the nut section.
“Now, I’m not a huge nut fan, but every house needs a few canisters. Pistachios, for sure. Cashews are another good choice…pecans, walnuts…”
I watched as he tossed one canister after another into the cart. I didn’t even like nuts, but I wasn’t about to cause another panic attack in this man. And as I watched him, I wondered if he really worked at OPS. Maybe he was really some crazy person who wanted to work there, and made it up in his mind that he did. He certainly didn’t look stable enough to work with weapons, not that I knew a lot about the company. Maybe he was really an accountant or something.
“—and Cash wanted me to torture her, but I knew musicals were the way to go. You can really tell a lot about a person by the musicals they like.”
I nodded, trying to ignore the fact that his boss wanted him to torture someone. But my curiosity got the better of me, no matter how I tried to push it away. “And is that something you do often?”
“Watch musicals?”
“No, torture people.”
“Only when necessary. Mostly for information. Though, before I met Anna, I might have tortured you for not liking Funyuns.”
I stared at him, a little more nervous because of the seriousness in his eyes. Then he burst out laughing. “I’m just joking. I would never torture you for not liking Funyuns. Though, I might make sure no one ever found your body.”