“I’m busy protesting,” I remind her even as I eye the yummy goodness in her hands. She is trying to break me.
“So a hunger strike too.” She shakes her head like she can’t believe it.
“Never,” I gasp. I’ll do a lot of things but giving up food isn’t happening. “Maybe I should take both. Let people know where I stand. That cake pop will be eaten to show my loyalty to your coffee shop and not because I need a snack.” I drop my sign, walking over to her. She hands me the coffee and heaven on a stick. I’m able to hold them and the sign too. Well, at least I can the coffee. I eat the cake pop in one giant bite before handing her the stick back. Millie laughs at my craziness but I can see the love in her eyes. Even though she thinks I’m absolutely nuts, she’s proud that I’m standing up for her business.
“You have glitter all over you.”
“I know. Can’t help it if I shine.” I take a sip of the iced coffee to wash down the cake. God, I might be shit at making signs and protesting, but I make killer treats. We wouldn’t run out of things for sale if we had more room. I want to walk over and kick the building that they have already started construction on. These big corporations love to come in and put smaller ones out of business. I am determined to stand up for the little guy. No one is going to come into our house and take it away from us. They will have to get through me first.
“That’s not shining, that’s a hot mess.” She reaches out, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Do you have sunscreen on? You’re going to burn.” My skin is starting to feel hot. I didn’t think about putting any on. I am going to regret that. I bet my fair skin is already a nice shade of pink. No pain, no gain.
“The sun is setting,” I say in order to elude her question. She tries to bait me back inside multiple times. The dinner offer almost makes me crack but I stay strong.
“I’ll take that as a no.” She rolls her eyes and I know she’s fighting going to get some to put on me. “I have to pick the kids up. You going to stay out of trouble?” Her eyebrow lifts as she waits for my answer.
“Of course. This is public property. I’m doing nothing wrong.” I say the same thing to her that I’ve said to the contractors that keep barking at me to move out of their way as they try and go in and out of the building. I’m purposely getting in their way. Some were outright mean and a few were a little too nice. It was a struggle to know whose way to jump out of and who to annoy. I think I’ve got a good balance of both going on.
She kisses me on the cheek. “Make sure you stop over afterwards for dinner,” she tells me. It’s Saturday and I always go for dinner.
“Yeah, I’ll walk over in a few hours.”
“I’m doing pizza night.”
“You’re good.” I narrow my eyes at her. She shrugs, knowing exactly what she’s doing. Pizza night is the best. We all roll out our own dough and get to load it with whatever we want. “I’ll be over shortly,” I give. She kisses me on the cheek before she heads out.
I suck down my iced coffee before I get back to my picketing. I really didn’t think this through. I need flyers to hand out or something. No one knows what I’m talking about and my sign makes no sense. I need to come up with a better one.
“You little bitch” is bellowed as I run right into a big-bellied chest. I bounce off it, falling to the ground. I let out a small scream. “That is your own fucking fault.” The man points down at me angrily. I think he’s the main guy on the construction crew. He barks all the orders, at least. He reaches down, grabbing my sign. I try and grab it back but my hand lands on his belt. We both pull and he almost stumbles to his ass. He lets out a string of curses as he rips my sign in half. I’ve never felt anger like I do in this moment. It’s coursing through my body at this jerk’s disrespect for not only a woman but for my property. My only solace is that when I look at the big lug he has glitter all over him. I definitely win for today.
“You can’t destroy my property,” I shout at him. He ignores me, throwing my sign to the ground. I get up, rushing over to pick it up. I clinch the keys I pulled out of his belt into my hand before I slip them into my jeans pocket, hoping he doesn’t notice. He’s not saying anything about them so I know I’ve gotten away with it. He’s already too busy stomping back into the building. I take off back to my place before he realizes I have his keys.