Free Like Grownups Do by Nathan Roden

you’re not fooling me for a minute. I’ve seen the guys come and go from this place—the hard bodied twenty-somethings with high and tight haircuts and perfect posture. You’re up to something either military or high level government ops—probably black ops, off-the-record stuff. And if I find that out I’m getting your girl out of here. It’s not bad enough that we’re turning the planet into a sewer; we have a government full of spooks trying to burn every poor country to the ground in the name of ‘democracy’. Millie, are you even ready to go? I have that meeting at three thirty. Chop-chop.”

    Millie was fuming. She grew more detached from Bradley at every visit he made to the office. Bradley seemed to enjoy embarrassing her in the presence of her co-workers. As he helped her on with her coat, Millie made brief eye contact with Babe—an intensely fiery look that made Babe shudder. Bradley nodded toward Babe and Tom as he followed Millie out of the door.
    Babe and Tom stared after them.
    “Jesus, Babe. ‘I’m getting your girl out of here’? What is she doing with that asshole?” Tom asked.
    “You got me. MG said they met on a blind date. Remember we always wondered why she wasn’t going out every weekend? Maybe she just got tired of turning guys away. But, yeah, I don’t know what she sees in ‘The Weener’. Sure, he’s decent looking and has a good gig at MIT. But he’s about as deep as a saucer and he treats her like shit. Top that off with the ‘college professor’ sweater vest uniform and the little pointy beard. Have you seen the pipe in his pocket? You can’t smell it, so he obviously doesn’t even smoke it. He wears that beret—”
    “What color is that?” Tom asked.
    “Uh, purple?”
    “Naw. It’s freakin’ raspberry,” Tom said, with a snort.
    Babe laughed. “He wears a raspberry beret and drives a little European convertible with the top down in the winter. Plus, he’s a militant liberal.”
    Tom shook his head. “It’s going to end badly, isn’t it?”
    Babe nodded. “Yep.”
     
     
    Babe watched Millie return from lunch through the glass wall of his office. Her long, brown hair was suffering the effects of the ride in the convertible. She took off her coat and her first attempt to hang it from the coat rack failed. She stared down at the rumpled coat momentarily and then bent to retrieve it from the floor. The ferocity of her second and final attempt at hanging the coat meant that the mood over lunch had not improved. Babe looked at his watch, and though he knew the Schroeders would hold his reservation at Momma’s, he and Tom needed to leave now. Babe winced as he opened the door.
    “Millie, you’re back. How was the rodent food?”
    “Perfectly tasteless. You boys enjoy your cardiac burgers.”
     

 
     
    Ten
     
     
    K laus Schroeder greeted Babe and Tom from half way across the restaurant, where he was replacing Jordan’s empty beer bottle with a full one.
    “Mr. Babe. Mr. Tom. Welcome, welcome my friends. Frieda! Come and see who has come back to see us.”
    Frieda Schroeder crashed through the swinging half doors with her elbows. She burst into a smile as she began to pull off her rubber gloves.
     
    “What a sight for these old eyes. Babe and Tom—so long you have been away, boys. I am right in the middle of forty pounds of hamburger or I would give you both a squeeze.”
    “Frieda, we wouldn’t dream of getting in the way of a batch of Momma’s burger meat. It’s great to see you,” Babe said.
    “Ditto, Momma Frieda.” Tom said. “My stomach is screaming at me that we’ve been away much too long.”
    Babe was a regular at Momma’s since his university days. The last few weeks were his longest absence from the restaurant since that time. He had been absent since before the funeral. Klaus, Frieda, and their two sons closed the restaurant early that day, and had attended.
     
    Babe had brought Jill to Momma’s a few times, mostly on nights