"Lot of homeless around here," I say, noticing them on both sides of the street.
"I hate it. I wish the city would do something about it."
"Like what?"
"Take them somewhere so we don't have to deal with their harassment every day."
"The guy just asked for money. He wasn't really harassing you."
We stop at another intersection and her head whips toward me. "Don't tell me you're one of those idiots who wants to hand out money to all the people too lazy to actually go out and get a job."
I'm not sure how to respond to that. I wasn't trying to start an argument with her.
Luckily the light changes and we cross the street. She turns left and I follow her, passing by two more homeless guys.
"Those men we just passed are perfectly capable of working," she says. "And yet they sit on the street every day asking for money, expecting people like me to support them while they lounge around doing nothing." She opens the door of a small deli. "We're eating here."
We go inside and get in line.
"I hate waiting." She gets out her phone. "This line better move fast."
As we're waiting, one of the homeless guys we passed on the street walks in and heads to the restroom.
Lisa glances up from her phone and notices him. "They always do this. They come in and use the restroom and never buy anything. The restrooms should be for paying customers only. Do you really want to use a restroom after a homeless person's been in there?" She huffs. "Disgusting."
"If they don't use the restroom, they'll go on the street or in the park. Isn't that worse?"
"That's the point I was making earlier. They shouldn't be here. The city needs to get kick them out."
We're at the front of the line now and she places her order. "Pastrami on rye with a thin layer of mustard. And by thin, I mean I should be able to see the bread. If there's more than that, I'll make you redo it."
The young girl behind the counter nods. "Yes, ma'am. Anything else?"
"Iced tea, and don't fill the glass with ice. It waters it down. Half ice. Got it?"
The girl nods again. She seems nervous. I feel the same way. Just a few minutes with Lisa has made me nervous and uptight. I'm not even hungry anymore.
"I'll have pastrami as well," I tell the girl, adding a smile to help put her at ease. It doesn't seem to help. She keeps glancing at Lisa like she's afraid of her.
Once we're seated with our sandwiches, Lisa says, "The girl behind the counter should be fired. She's worked here for over a year and I still have to remind her about the mustard."
"I'm sure she sees a lot of people a day," I say, noticing how the place is packed and there's a line out the door. "It's probably hard to remember everyone's order."
Lisa smirks. "Aren't you sweet? You should've chosen a different career."
"What do you mean?"
"To be a lawyer, you have to be a shark, not a goldfish. You have to demand people treat you the way you want to be treated. You trust no one and you assume everyone has a motive. People lie. Cheat. Steal. It's a sick world and we're just here to make money off it."
"You really see the world that way?"
"I see what I know. And what I know is that people are lying, cheating, selfish bastards."
"I respect your opinion but I choose not to believe that. Isn't that why we're lawyers? To help the wrongly accused?"
She lets out a laugh. "I'd forgotten how naive people your age can be. I, personally, was never like that, but I knew people like you. Eyes closed to reality. Wanting to live in a fantasy world where only good exists." She crumples up her napkin and puts it over her plate. She only took three bites of her sandwich. The rest remains on her plate, along with the chips she never touched.
She gets her phone out and texts someone. "So, regarding the Samson case."
She continues to talk while texting as I struggle to take notes while eating my sandwich.
At 12:30 we leave and walk back to the office.
"I really hate that," she says when we're almost at our building.
"Hate what?"
"That." She points across the street. "When they dig out of the trash. It's so disgusting."
I look where she's pointing and see someone pulling something out of the trash can. It's hard to see across the street with the cars going by but it looks like a woman. It's only the second homeless woman I've seen, the first one being the old lady that came in the coffee shop last night. This woman appears to be much younger. She has a navy blue backpack and I watch as she stuffs whatever she pulled from the garbage into her bag.
"Hurry up," Lisa says, holding the door of our building open.
"Sorry," I say, hurrying inside.
"Go ahead without me," she says when we're in the lobby. "I have to call the agency and get a new nanny. I'll see you at our meeting at two."
I continue to the elevators, relieved to get away from her. I have a stomachache and heartburn and it's not from my sandwich. It's from being around Lisa. She's the most negative person I've ever met. And the most angry. The only time I saw her smile was when she made fun of me for being naive.
I don't think I'm naive. I know the world is full of bad people but that doesn't mean everyone's that way. Like Zoe from last night. The way she welcomed me the moment I walked in the door? I could've been a horrible person. A criminal. And yet she greeted me with a smile and welcomed me like we were old friends. And she was nice to the homeless lady, even gave her a hug. She's the complete opposite of Lisa and proof that good people exist.
After work, I race out of the office, wanting to get home and get a workout in. There's a gym in the basement of my building that's not bad for an apartment gym. Exercise is how I relieve stress, and right now, I'm feeling a lot of stress. There's a client meeting tomorrow morning at eight and the boss wants us at the office by seven to prepare for it. I have to read through all the client files tonight, but I don't want to do it here. I'm going to go to that coffee shop again. Maybe I'll see that girl.
After the gym I shower and eat a quick dinner. At seven I head to the coffee shop. On my way there, I stop suddenly when I see someone coming toward me. It looks like that girl. The one I saw last night. She's a block away so I can't say for sure but I think it's her. She has her hair up today but has on the same long sweater she wore last night.
Slowing my pace, I get my phone out and pretend to look at it while I wait for her to reach me. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when she does. I don't want her to think I'm stalking her.
When she's a few feet away, I put my phone in my pocket and look up at her. It's definitely the same girl. With the same dark eyes. Same full lips. Same beautiful face.
"Hey." I smile at her.
"Hey," she says back, not really looking at me. She continues past me.
I turn around and catch up to her. "Sorry to bother you but didn't I see you in the coffee shop last night?"
She stops, her eyes moving over me like she's trying to assess if I'm a threat. Shit. I didn't mean to scare her.