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Channing followed Anderson into the Southern Sensation diner with a lump in her throat. She didn’t find going to Nate’s regular hangout the smartest thing but Anderson was as stubborn as she was so fighting him did no good.
Anderson glided to a table, smiling at customers as if nothing fazed him. “Sit.” He held a chair out for Channing.
“I don’t feel comfortable here.”
“You can eat anywhere you damn well please. Nate doesn’t own this place.”
Channing sat as an ancient, blue-haired woman with a lopsided bonnet gave her dirty looks while gumming barbecue ribs.
Anderson plopped in the chair across from Channing. “Smell that blue crab. How about some crab po’boys?”
“That sounds good.” Channing clasped her shaking hands, avoiding glares. “You’re something else. Nothing gets to you.”
“I’m hungry.” He got a napkin from the dispenser and put in his lap. “I don’t care how these people act. As long as they keep their distance I’m fine.”
“Nate grew up in this diner. Trust me, we’re not welcomed.”
“Do I look like I care?” Anderson blinked with a cocky smile. “Thought you said at Avon’s people could do what they wanted to you but you’d keep fighting. This is your town as much as it is theirs. Ignore them.” He tapped the table draped in a red and white picnic tablecloth. “Can we get service please?”
The waitresses behind the counter turned up their noses and whispered at each other.
“Shit, you’ll be waiting until next year,” Channing muttered. “Not sure I want to order anything. No telling what they’d put in it. Why don’t we go to my parents’ place?”
“Nope.” Anderson sat back, rocking. “We’re paying customers. We have every right to be here. Service please!”
“See the tall lady?” Channing alluded to the long-faced woman with droopy eyes and her grayish-black hair in a sloppy ponytail. “That’s Genie. She’s a close friend of Nate’s family.”
“I don’t care.” Anderson fanned her over and she took her sweet time approaching the table.
“What are you doing here, Channing?” Genie asked with cigarette breath.
“I don’t want trouble, Genie.”
“Hm.” She took her pencil from behind her ear and scratched her head. “If that’s true you’d not have come in here.”
Anderson’s eyebrows dropped. “Is that how you speak to a customer?”
“You mess with Nate, you mess with me.” Genie chewed gum. “I’d do anything for him.”
Channing cleared her throat. “I’m sure you would.”
“I’m sorry for what happened to your daughter but ruining Nate’s life isn’t gonna solve anything.”
“The man was driving drunk and ran over my daughter. He left her to die. Are we supposed to forget that because you feel Nate is a great guy? What if my daughter dies?”
“Your daughter should’ve been looking where she was going.”
Channing jumped from the table. “What did you say?”
The customers looked at them.
“Anderson, we better get out of here,” Channing warned. “Before I do something I won’t regret.”
“We’re not leaving. Aren’t you the waitress?” he asked Genie. “Then serve us because if you think you’re running us off, you’re wrong.”
“I’m not serving you as long as you’re with her.”
“Why don’t you leave, huh?” snarled the man sitting in the booth by the window. “We don’t want you here.”
“You people are pathetic,” Anderson said. “It’s her daughter fighting for her life. You don’t give a damn about a little girl because she’s black.”
“It ain’t got nothing to do with color,” a woman snapped.
“Bullshit,” Anderson said.
“Nobody wants that girl hurt.” An obese man with a cowboy hat licked barbecue sauce from his finger. “The blacks been jumping to conclusions. They’re the ones turning this into a racial issue.”
“No matter what we think of Nate, Channing doesn’t deserve this.” A redheaded woman passed her looks of sympathy. “I’m a mother. Many of you are parents. Think of how she feels. I wouldn’t wish what Channing’s going through on anyone.”
Channing smiled. “Thank you.”
“You don’t belong here anyway,” the blue-haired woman said. “Even if the stuff with Nate hadn’t happened.”
“Who are you to tell her where she belongs?” Anderson asked. “I think you all need to mind your damn business.”
“You don’t run nothing down here, boy.” A dingy man sitting by the pie shelf, picked his teeth with a toothpick. “This ain’t Boston.”
“Let me get this straight.” The booth guy chuckled. “Are you two dating?”
The others frowned as if disgusted.
Toothpick man laughed. “You can’t do no better than her, Abraham?”
Anderson jumped up and Channing held him back.
“I’m not scared of anyone here,” he said.
“Anderson,” Channing whispered. “This is the south. Even babies carry guns down here. You never know what you’re getting into and many of these men are just needing an excuse to shoot.”
“Channing, stop, okay? Stop making excuses for these people and fight.”
“I fight every day, Anderson.” She let him go. “You don’t have to. You can choose your battles but some of us aren’t that lucky. If I got into a brawl every time someone looked at me wrong or called me a racial slur, I’d be fighting all the time. I’m dealing with what’s happened my way and I’m sick of people judging me.”
“We’re not leaving, Channing.” He looked at Genie. “Get me a blue crab po’boy drowned in tartar sauce, a large fry and a large lemonade with tons of ice.” Anderson sat. “I’m sure you all know I’m Klein’s friend, right? And he’s the mayor’s chief-of-staff?”
People huffed, intimidating stares vanishing from their faces.
Anderson flashed a wide-tooth smile at Genie. “Klein wouldn’t like how you’re treating his old buddy from college and neither would Mayor Bordeaux.”
Channing sat in her chair, a grin tearing at her lips.
Genie’s bushy eyebrows wrinkled. “You’re threatening us, Abraham?”
“You want to test me to see?”
Channing sat up, head high.
Genie exhaled. “Channing, what will you be having?”
She flashed a sarcastic smile. “The same as him.”
Genie jotted on her notepad, her bruised ego showing on her face. “That will be two po’boys, lots of tartar sauce, two large fries, and two large lemonades?”
Anderson nodded. “With tons of ice.”
Genie plastered on a smile. “I’ll be right back.” She flounced away, mumbling.
“Anderson.” Channing laughed, struggling for words to show how much he’d impressed her. “That was incredible. You’re amazing.”
He leaned forward, lips pursing. “I thought you already knew.”
She giggled, grabbing a napkin.