Nobody's Fool

’em, I don’t know what you are, but I’m a nigger. A workin’ nigger.”
    Sully looked at Cass, who was also stunned. This was more than Roof had said in twenty years. It sounded like twenty years of need might be behind it.
    â€œAin’t nothin’ wrong with work but the pay,” he said, pouring vinegar on the grill, causing a toxic cloud.
    Sully leaned back from the powerful fumes. “That and the conditions.”
    â€œAnd the time wasted,” Cass added.
    â€œAnd the aches and pains,” Sully said.
    â€œAin’t nothin’ wrong with work,” Roof repeated. Perhaps a man who’s waited twenty years to say something is not easily joked out of it. Finished with the grill, he filled his water glass, drained it, then ambled out from behind the counter, tossing his apron into the linen hamper. “Y’all be good in Colorado,” he told Cass without looking at her. And then, setting his empty glass on the counter, he left.
    â€œYou don’t suppose Rufus has flipped, do you?” Sully said when the door swung shut behind him.
    â€œNo, I don’t,” Cass told him.
    From the back room, Sully heard Ruth’s voice and turned on his stool, expecting to see her come in. “Who’s going to live in the apartment out back?” it occurred to him to ask.
    â€œProbably Ruth,” she said.
    Sully frowned at this intelligence.
    â€œShe’s thinking about putting the house on the market.”
    â€œWhat about Zack?”
    â€œAt the moment he’s living in the trailer out back.”
    This was the first Sully had heard of any of these arrangements. They increased his feeling of disorientation. “What trailer?”
    â€œThe one the daughter had been living in. You should talk her into renting the apartment to you,” she suggested.
    â€œI don’t think so.” Sully grinned, though the possibility had momentarily crossed his mind. “I’d be better off going to Colorado with you. Safer.”
    â€œYou’ll be plenty safe right here,” Cass said significantly.
    â€œMeaning?”
    â€œMeaning Ruth’s through with you. Meaning you’ve finally managed to lose one of the few women in this town worth wanting.”
    â€œWho are the others?”
    â€œGood.” Cass threw up her hands. “Make a joke.”
    â€œYou think Ruth would have been better off if she’d divorced Zack and married me?”
    Ruth came in from out back right then, saving Cass from having to answer. Ruth studied Sully a moment, then consulted her watch.
    â€œYou owe me a dollar,” Cass told her.
    â€œPut it on my tab,” Sully suggested.
    Ruth went to the register, lifted the bottom of the cash drawer, slid a folded invoice underneath. “Your days of running tabs are over, friend.”
    Sully shrugged, took out a dollar and slid it next to his empty cup. “Maybe if I start paying I can get a full cup of coffee now and then.”
    The two women exchanged glances. “You okay to close by yourself?” Cass said.
    â€œYup,” Ruth assured her. “You’re a free woman.”
    â€œMy philosophy professor says there’s no such thing as freedom,” Sully offered.
    â€œHe said this before or after he met you?” Ruth wondered.
    Cass was looking around the place with what were clearly mixed emotions.
    Sully, for some reason, squirmed. “What time are you off Monday?”
    â€œEarly.”
    â€œHow early?”
    â€œSix,” she said. “Maybe seven.”
    â€œYou need help packing?”
    â€œThe movers are doing it all,” she said. “I’m not lifting a finger.”
    Sully shrugged. “I’ll come by.”
    â€œDon’t,” Cass said, sounding like she meant it, and he saw that her eyes were full.
    â€œSend me a postcard,” he suggested. “Addressed where?”
    â€œTo The Horse, with the rest of my mail. Piss Tiny off.”
    She came around the counter then and they hugged, and Cass whispered a thanks in his ear. “What for?” he said.
    â€œNo clue,” she admitted.
    â€œDon’t look at
me
like that,” Ruth warned when Cass was gone.
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œlike I just won her restaurant in a crooked poker game.”
    â€œI didn’t mean to,” Sully said, realizing that this was precisely the way he must have looked. “In fact, I was about to ask how