Free The Speed Queen by Stewart O’Nan

great. It's such a great story. Do you think someday you'll put out an even longer version? You could just keep adding to it. I'd read it.
    You could do the same thing with all your books, the ones people like. Not like It or The Eyes of the Dragon or The Tommyknockers, but the good ones. I could read a lot more of Salem's Lot.
    Anyway, it wasn't a bad job. I could quit anytime cause I was still living with my mom. I didn't really need the money for anything. Monty always paid for everything.
    One night when we were out on a date, Monty took me to Charcoal Oven. It's this old-time drive-in off Northwest Expressway with this great neon, this chef guy in a hat in six different colors. You could see it for miles. We pulled up and ordered, and Monty said to me, "What do you want to drink?"

    And automatically I said, "Large diet Coke."
    So he goes, "Large diet Coke." to the speaker.
    "Diet Pepsi okay?" the girl on the speaker says.
    Monty looks at me like it might not he okay. He was like that, he wanted everything to be just right. I think he was scared that he wasn't.
    "Whatever," I said.
    So we cruised around to the window and Monty paid and we picked a stall and backed in so we could look at the neon. We sat there picking the pickles out of our hickory burgers and squeezing the ketchup packets onto napkins, trying not to make a mess. Monty was always worried about his carpet. He had cup holders that attached to the lip of the window, and I stuck my diet Pepsi in mine.
    The first sip I took was weird because I'd been drinking diet Coke so long. The diet Pepsi was sweeter and heavier and not as fizzy. I didn't like it at first. I must have made a face because Monty was like, "We can go around and order something else."
    "It's okay," I said, not because it was, but because I was tired of him asking me. I was tired of him calling us "we." He was the wrong one, and I'd given myself to him and now I couldn't get it back. He was nice, he was fine, but I hated myself and I hated him. I hated "we." It was just bad.
    So we sat there eating our hickory burgers and curly fries, watching the neon build the man in the chefs hat one piece at a time, and little by little I felt the caffeine creeping through me, except it wasn't like the diet Coke, it didn't build to a level and spread. It just kept going. My heart was jumping so much I had to catch my breath, and a chill made me hard in my bra. It was better than anything Monty had ever done for me.
    When we were done, I asked him to pull around and order another.
    The next morning I woke up with a huge headache, but I was used to that. Before homeroom I bought a diet Pepsi from a machine and I was fine.
    I only lasted another two weeks at Long John Silver's. At break I'd walk across the parking lot to the Western Sizzlin' and buy a large diet Pepsi with no ice. Two, three times a night. It didn't make sense. That's when I applied at Sonic.
    Everyone thinks it's funny that I worked there. Don't make it funny, please. It's a cheap joke and not fair.
    Leo's has Pepsi. You'd be amazed how few places do. McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's —that's all Coke. Burger King used to be Pepsi but they changed. They must have gotten a better deal or something. Sonic's interesting because it's half and half; it's up to the owner. Which do you like better?
    I've never had Jolt, but Darcy says it's amazing. I would have ordered it if I could.

23
    Lamont and I first made love on October 27th, 1984. This is later that same night he drove me home for the first time.
    I don't remember us talking much in the car, just hello stuff, what's your name, what do you do. He was working at the Wreck Room, this collision shop over on Reno. He didn't say if he had his own place —and he could have, you know? He was nice that way. At one point he asked if I'd had a little to drink, and we joked about my job.
    "I've been coming in every night for two weeks now," he said. "I thought you might notice..That's why I drove off