Chapter 20 Section 18

Helen thought worriedly, if BENNY knew that she had been lying to him, she would never trust her again.She didn't know how to make him understand the original intention of her lying. She didn't intend to deceive him, but just wanted the restaurant to accept her as a part-time job. Lying is something that cannot be started. Once it starts, there is no way to undo it. You can either continue to lie, or expose yourself and admit that you lied before.No matter which method you choose, it is possible to be regarded as a liar and never trust you again.After lying in one place, it seems that there is no way to wash myself off. I can only change to another place, start over from the beginning, and make a clean break with the history of lying.

She was feeling uneasy, and she heard him ask in a low voice like a child doing something wrong: "You said he was a 'little boy', aren't you happy?" "No, I was just wondering - uh - what is he calling for?" "It's raining, he called to ask if you left—" She suddenly understood who the "little boy" he was talking about was relieved and thought, you almost scared me to death.She quickly explained: "Oh, that's my ROOMMATE." He asked: "'ROOMMATE'? You share a ROOM with him?" Seeing that he was so eloquent, she changed the term: "Then call him 'APT-MATE', we just live in one APT. Lily and I live in one room, and he lives in the other."

"Is he picking on you?" For a moment, she felt that his tone of voice was a bit jealous.But she immediately realized that she must be self-indulgent and fantasizing.She said, "Why would he pick on me? He's ten years younger than me." "Hmph, so what's the matter with being ten years younger? I hear——he speaks in such a way that he's picking on you—" Seeing that he was so subjective and arbitrary that no explanation was allowed, she couldn't help saying: "It's none of your business whether he picks on me or not?" It was clearly tempting him to say, "Why is it none of my business?"

She didn't know how she could be so shameless to say such things to him, no matter what he said next was about his business or not, she would be embarrassed.She pretended to go to the front to clear the dining table, and quietly slipped away from this topic. Saturday night was as busy as Friday, and the phone rang non-stop for hours.Sometimes another phone call came in while a call was being made, and Helen had no choice but to ask the person who called later to hold there.Sometimes she was so busy that she forgot that there was someone holding the order. After taking the order at hand, she hung up the phone to take out the order or serve the diners.

As a result, the person who held HOLD got impatient, and called to find the boss to COMPLAIN, which scared her to death.She knows that restaurant owners are most afraid of offending customers. If customers complain, it must be the employees who are unlucky. But she didn't dare to hide it, so she had to ask the boss to answer the phone.The boss didn't bother to pick it up, and said, "Where do I have time to talk to that 'open stage'? Does he think he is 'water'?" This is the boss's catchphrase. Anyone who is annoying to him, he will say contemptuously: "Who do you think you are?" But it sounds like saying: "Do you think you are 'water'?" She I haven't understood why those people regard themselves as "water" for a long time, and water is so powerful?

There is also this "open stage", several people in the store, except Ah GAM, scold everyone with this sentence.Helen couldn't understand, and asked several times, but they were all laughing and couldn't explain clearly.In the end, BENNY translated it into poor Mandarin, which probably means "slut". Anyway, Laomei doesn't understand Chinese, and the boss is "opening" next to the phone to "open" and they don't understand.But BENNY will not be like this. He will take the phone and apologize to the customers, saying that the store is too busy, and there will inevitably be some omissions. Please order now, and I will make it for you immediately, and give you a 10% discount.

The 10% discount may not be a lot of money, but the customer was very happy to hear it, and ordered the meal immediately.Helen looked at him, fearing that he was going to scold her, but he didn't seem to think that this matter had anything to do with her, so he went about his own business after answering the phone. Many customers know BENNY, and they always say hello to him when they come. Sometimes they ask on the phone, "Where's the guy with the mustache? Why didn't I hear him answer the phone during this period?" Helen found that BENNY was very popular with women. When some women heard that she was taking the order, they would ask where BENNY had been. Always treat them politely.

There is a black woman in her thirties who often comes to order food. Every time she comes, she puts her pointed, colorfully painted nails over Helen’s shoulders and calls her name BENNY to take the order, completely pretending to be Helen. Transparent as well. BENNY came out, took an order quickly, and went back to work in the kitchen, but the black woman still stood in front of the counter and chatted with BENNY, and he also chatted with the black woman while frying things. Helen asked him dissatisfied: "Why are you so patient when you see a woman? Tell her slowly—" He shrugged: "There are no men and women in my eyes, only business."

Later, Helen simply ignored the black woman, didn't even ask her what she wanted, and just called: "BENNY, business is here, take—customer——" BENNY didn't say a word, just came out to "pick up the guests", and when he was done, he smiled at her and asked, "Are you jealous?" One sentence made her dumb. On Friday and Saturday, I get off work at eleven o'clock in the evening, an hour later than usual.When Helen got home, LILY and JOE were still awake and watching TV in the living room.Helen invited the two of them to eat, and the three of them gathered at the kitchen table again. LILY brought out the fried prawns brought back from the restaurant, JOE brought out the pork chops fried in the afternoon, Helen brought back fried squid with onions today, JOE also impromptuly made a seaweed soup, and the three of them began to eat and drink again.

Lily said worriedly: "If we eat like this, we will definitely gain weight. We eat and drink a lot before going to bed, and then fall asleep. How can we not gain weight?" JOE said: "It's really nothing, just do some exercise before going to bed." Helen said: "It's so late, where can I go for exercise?" Lily giggled: "Helen, you must be like a real treasure in the restaurant, talking nonsense without understanding, you must make those boys laugh out loud." Helen realized that she had said something stupid again, and said embarrassingly: "It's just that you people are too complicated in thinking. It's really that you speak carelessly, but you listen with intention."

Lily asked: "That BENNY didn't say whether he will go to the dance tomorrow?" Helen was a little sorry, as if she didn't handle things well: "He said he was too busy and couldn't leave." "Then you can go with me tomorrow." "But I've changed tomorrow's rest to the day after tomorrow—" Lily yelled angrily: "What does he mean? You go to work tomorrow, and he still says you can't leave? I think he is really sick." JOE interjected and said, "LILY, I think that BENNY is trying to trick my aunt, so don't bother me. When I called the restaurant yesterday, he answered the phone. He didn't seem very friendly and asked me what it was my aunt. people." Helen heard the word "Auntie", and blurted out, "Why did you start calling me 'Auntie'?" "I heard your BENNY call you that when I was on the phone yesterday. I thought it was quite funny, so I followed suit. Why do they call you 'auntie'?" Helen told the allusion a bit, and thought to herself, it turned out that BENNY also called her "Auntie" behind her back, which meant that in his mind, she was just an "Auntie". Just call her "Auntie".She argued, "Why would he pick on me? Didn't you hear him call me auntie?" JOE said disapprovingly: "What is it to be called auntie? They grew up in the United States, how do they care about these things? Men, they have an 'Oedipus complex', subconsciously want to kill their father and marry their mother, if it is not bound by morality , they are all willing to compete with their own mothers. Have you forgotten the plot in it? Isn’t the first woman Ah Q chased after was a woman who was much older than him?” As JOE said, he imitated Ah Q's tone: "Wu Ma, I want to sleep with you! I want to sleep with you! Ha, these words are so sexy, sexy and incestuous, very exciting. Your restaurant Those BOYS must be thinking about saying this all day long: Auntie, I want to sleep with you—" Lily slapped him: "Then you are also a BOY, don't you keep saying this in your head all day long?" JOE heyed a few times, it was the first time he didn't argue with LILY. Helen also knew about the "Oedipus complex", but she never believed in it, thinking that it was just a book writer trying to sensationalize it.The reason why there are indeed Oedipus people in the world may be that people who read books are influenced by books, and they do not have "Oedipus complex" in the first place. But JOE's analysis made her very frustrated. Even if BENNY had some interest in her, it was just a pathological need, and he treated her like a mother.She thought unfairly: How can I be old enough to be his mother?That is, ten years older, can be a mother at ten years old? Lily started discussing with JOE whether they should go to the prom together tomorrow, JOE said: "It's better to go separately, we are not boyfriend and girlfriend, why make others misunderstand, why not come to dance with us?" Lily was a little unhappy: "You're a man, it's okay for you to go to the prom alone, just to tell others that you are AVAILABLE, but for a girl to go to the prom alone is a bit out of place." Helen thought for a while and said, "Can I go with you? If yes, I'll take a day off tomorrow night to accompany you. Anyway, Sunday is not busy, so BENNY can handle it all by himself." Lily was very happy: "Okay, you can go with me." "But let's talk about it first. I don't have a skirt. I don't dance. I just sit by the side and watch you dance." Lily quickly said: "I'll lend you a skirt, I have a lot of skirts, you can choose whatever you want. Dress up tomorrow, maybe you will win over a few at the ball, and just change your husband." Helen went to take a bath after dinner, Lily brought some skirts for her, and asked her to try them on inside, see which one is good, and wear whichever one tomorrow.After taking a shower, she put on a skirt on a whim, and took a look in the mirror. She felt that she was not too old and ugly, and that she was suitable for other clothes, except that her belly was a little bulging, probably because of the caesarean section. Didn't do much sit ups after giving birth and didn't recover well. She never paid attention to her figure or clothes before, because she was too busy, and secondly, she had no motivation, so who could she look so good at?For some reason now, I seem to be paying attention to my image.She thought, no matter what, she had to lose the fat on her belly, otherwise it would be ugly to wear a skirt and pants.She looked at her bra again, and it was indeed out of shape. Wearing a bra like that, you could see from the outside that the bra didn't work well and was uneven. The skirt that Lily brought her had a collar that was cut very low, so Lily also handed in a bra without straps.She tried the bra on, it was a little too tight, her bag was running out in all directions, but it did squeeze out two half circles above her breasts. Lily said that this is the "hemispherical effect" that most women dream of. Men like to see women's "cleavage", the deeper the better. She put on that very bare-chested skirt and saw that her "cleavage" was exposed outside the skirt. She thought it was really terrible now. Women don't wear clothes to cover up, but to expose, not because they are afraid that men will see it The heart, but the fear that men will not see it, and the fear that men will not be lustful after seeing it, the world is changing too fast. The next day was Sunday, and the restaurant opened at twelve o'clock, an hour later than usual, probably because most of the old Americans would go to church on Sunday morning, and the restaurant opened early and there was no business.Helen got up before eleven o'clock, and she called home around eleven o'clock, thinking that Li Bing and his daughter should be home by now, right? The phone rang many times, but no one came to answer it. She was about to hang up and call Xiao Shen's house when she heard her daughter's timid voice: "Hello——" She asked happily: "Mimi, are you home? I'm mom, I—" She heard Mimi cry and say, "Mom, I'm so scared, Daddy-may-be-dead-" She knew that Li Bing must be drunk, so she quickly comforted her and said, "Mimi, don't be afraid, Dad will not die, he is drunk. Why don't you call Mama Gao?" "I—can't find the number—" "I'll call Mama Gao right now. Put the phone down now, or your mother will call later, and your call won't be called." When she heard Mimi put the phone down, she immediately called Yu Zhen. As soon as Yu Zhen heard that Li Bing was drunk, he said, "I'll pick up Mimi at your house right away."