10
Jeremy repressed a gag as he looked down at the plate before him. On a normal night he'd have his face all but buried in the pair of gravy-slathered country-fried steaks. They didn't serve anything like this in Creighton and he'd been sort of bingeing since he got out.
But tonight…
He swallowed hard against a wave of nausea. He'd been feeling a tad queasy all afternoon. It had started a little while after his lunch of extra spicy Buffalo wings at Work. The day shift there had heard about the fight and how one of the bouncers was pissed at him, but they didn't seem to care much. Could that be it? The wings? Or just some virus?
Who cared? All he knew was he was feeling crummy. It hadn't been too bad before, but the smell of the chicken-fried steaks seemed to crank up the nausea about ten notches.
He signaled to Dawn who came right over.
"Everything okay? You don't look so hot."
"I don't feel so hot, darlin. In fact, I'm feeling right poorly."
Dawn had started feeling better later this morning, but he'd been going downhill for a couple of hours now.
She frowned. "It's not the food, is it?"
"Naw. It kinda started before I came in." He pushed the plate away. "Why don't you give that to one of the Mexicans in the kitchen and bring me the check."
"You don't need to pay. 1 can say it was the food made you sick."
He smiled up at her. "Well, first off, I ain't touched it." You had to pay attention to details if you were going to lie. "And second, that ain't exactly honest now, is it."
"No, I guess not."
"Right. So you write me up the check and I'll call it an early night."
"Now I feel bad that I'm still working. If I'd just walked off I could take care of you."
"I don't need takin care of, darlin. When I get sick I'm like a dog—I just crawl under the porch or curl up in a dark corner till I get well. Now bring me that check. I need to be home."
Dawn made a face as she took the platter and headed back toward the kitchen.
Jeremy felt his gut cramp as it gurgled. Oh, no. Was he gonna have trouble on that end too?
He was gonna have to make pretty quick tracks back to his place.