Effing hel , now I had to pick someone.
It hit me.
Duke.
Perfect.
“Is Duke there?” I asked.
“No,” Jane answered.
Beautiful.
Maybe my luck hadn’t changed.
Plan B.
“Okay, then, can I talk to Tex?” I blurted.
“Sure,” I heard the muffled noises of a hand covering a mouthpiece, then, “Tex?”
I also heard Tex’s muted, impatient boom. “What?”
“Phone,” Jane told him.
“I figured that, woman. I got, like, five hundred customers.
Take a message.”
“It’s Stel a Gunn,” Jane informed him.
“Shit. She’s not riddled with bul ets, is she?” I rol ed my eyes to the ceiling.
“Are you injured in some way?” Jane asked me in al seriousness.
“No,” I answered but Tex would be if he didn’t fal in line with my plan, pronto. “Just tel him it’s important.” More phone muffling then, “She says it’s important.” I heard incoherent grumbling then Tex came on the phone and instead of saying hel o, he said, “I’m gonna f**kin’ kil whoever’s talkin’ to the papers. It’s a f**kin’
madhouse in here. And most of ‘em are new which means they don’t know the dril , like, what I say f**kin’ goes. They expect me to be nice or somethin’. One told me I needed a customer service trainin’ course. What the f**k is that? ”
“Tex –” I tried to cut in but it didn’t work.
“Trainin’ courses! Yeah, we need trainin’ al right. These f**kers need to learn that I make coffee and they drink it. It doesn’t come with a ‘hi’, ‘how you doin’’ or ‘have a nice f**kin’ day’. They order, they move to the end of the counter, they get their coffee and they cease to exist for me.
Fuck! ” he finished on a boom.
“Tex, stop saying ‘fuck’ so loud!” I heard Indy shout in the background.
“Fuck!” Tex shouted back. “Fuck, f**k, f**k, f**k, f**k! ” Oh dear.
“Would it kil you to be a little nice?” I asked when he’d quit saying f**k.
“Yes,” he answered immediately.
Okay, I didn’t have time for this. We needed to move on.
“Tex, I need a favor,” I told him.
“Does it involve me kickin’ someone’s ass?” he asked.