Awkward Reuben

Last Friday, I spent the day "demo-ing" sausages at work. During the first hours of the demo, a man—let’s call him Reuben—approached my station holding a jar of mango vinaigrette from the produce department.

"Should I buy this?" R asked.
I nodded, "Yes, it's great!"

Dumb answer.

R grinned/glared at me. "So, you've tried it then?"

Oopla. (One white lie in retail is perfectly acceptable--if not necessary. But, two? I just couldn't.)

"Ugh. Let's open it and give 'er a try," I said, remembering from my training that we can open a product for a customer to taste.

I called Cedric (who works in produce) over, and he brought some carrots to try the dressing with. It was delicious. R gave my arm a tight squeeze.

"Thank you, Jaime. Thank you. I will buy it. Thank you."

A few minutes later, R brushed past my station again and whisperingly (made-up word) asked, "Did ya miss me?" He then became Awkward Reuben. You'd have to see this gentleman to understand. He was originally Reuben with a small build, flannel shirt, and thinning hair who asked about dressing. Arm squeeze, no problem. Perhaps he was really into his veggies and wanted them to play dress-up with something other than ranch. No problem. But, his question made it more about veggies.

"You weren't gone long enough, sir!" I chuckled (remembering my mom's favorite thing to say to us when we wanted to call an estranged boy: "How can he miss you if you keep bugging him?").

I don't remember the exact point I set out to make here, but the bottom line is, I anticipate I'll soon have many more interesting stories to tell.

Cedric

There's this man named Cedric. I've known him for two days and seen more life in him than most anyone I know. Perhaps it's because he's simply lived more life. Or because he skips the hi-how-are-yous and just says it.

"Are you a dancer?" he asked me.
"I was as a little girl," I said.
He smiled. "You still got it."

This was our second and longest conversation. Do our newest friends see us the best?

He laughs more in one hour than I have in my entire life. (I laugh a lot.) Every story he tells, every story he hears, he laughs. He laughs before, after, and in between. He laughs when it isn't funny. He is tall, black, and comes from a big family. He is from the south but doesn't have a chip on his shoulder. He doesn't impress yet leaves an impression. He eats things like fruit tarts for lunch.

Who is this person? He's probably someone's grandpa. I hope he's missed where he's from.