Diego takes Janet and Ilene out to breakfast, while Sookie is in Sunday School.
They drove back to the church and Ilene picked up Sookie. Diego drove Janet home, waiting for her as she changed for work. He also had to go to work, but not for an hour.
“When are you off?”
“I get off at four. We close early Sundays.”
“Damn, I’m not off until six.”
“It takes about an hour to clean up and shut down. How about I walk over to the theatre and wait for you?”
“That would be great! Actually, you can come to the booth and keep me company.”
“That would be greater,” she agreed.
He gave her a short kiss and headed home to change.
Janet’s shift went well and she enjoyed her walk to the theatre. The girl at the ticket booth was expecting her and showed her to the projection booth door. Tapping quietly, she waited for Diego to answer before she went back downstairs.
“Hi,” he said quietly.
“Hi.”
“Come on in.” He gestured to the small room with the huge projectors.
Two chairs, a small table and a hassock were the only furniture in the room. He had a soda cup and half a bag of popcorn on the table. He invited her to sit in the chair furthest from the projector.
“Movie’s almost over, got about thirty minutes. How was your shift?”
“Not bad, busy. I like it busy, I don’t get bored.”
He nodded. “We have quite a crowd today. New movie opened.”
“What is it?”
He chuckled. “You know, I have no idea? I’ve been busy cleaning up. We aren’t the neatest bunch. I’m usually the only one who picks up cause, it gets on my nerves after a while.”
“You did a good job. I’m impressed.”
“You’d be even more impressed if you’d seen it before I started. I literally just sat down.”
“Thank you.” She gave him a quick kiss.
Diego moved the table and scooted his chair closer to hers. “I think I deserve a better kiss than that. After all this hard work.”
Janet leaned forward, lips parted, waiting for him. He put his left arm around the back of her chair, moving toward her. The projector made a funny noise.
“Shit!”
He stood so suddenly, Janet lost her balance. She caught herself before she clipped her chin on his chair. Diego worked at the projector a moment and got the film back on track. It had jumped the sprockets.
“I’ll need to leave the guys a note about that. We got damaged film.”
“That’s not good.”
“No. And I don’t want to get blamed for it.” He made a note and posted it on a small bulletin board.
“How many of you are there?”
“Six of us. We all work part time, odd hours. Interesting bunch of guys.”
“How long have you worked here?”
“Couple years. I started as the guy who empties trash. I like this better. I can usually get some studying in, unless there’s a problem.”
She started to ask him another question, but he shushed her.
“Babe, I didn’t invite you up here to talk.”
Janet giggled, clapping her hand over her mouth. “Oh, gosh! Can they hear me?”
“No, it’s soundproofed. We can hear the film because of a speaker. We have to listen so we know when it’s over or if there’s anything wrong with the sound.”
He moved closer, making his approach once more. His lips were barely touching hers when someone came in the door. It was Raul’s mother, Charlene.
“Hi, Janet. The girls told me you were here, so I came up to say hi.”
“Admit it, you came up to see if I was being a bad boy.”
“That too. Were you?”
“Was the door locked?”
“That door doesn’t lock from the inside.”
©2020 Dellani Oakes
Dellani Oakes 