Double Lunch

At 12:30 the delivery guy came up to our floor with two bags, same green sticker, same Thai place on Ninth Street.

“Double order today,” he said. “One for Farid, one for Ines.”

Ines looked at me over her monitor. “You didn't.”

“You covered my shift on Friday,” I said. “I owed you lunch.”

“And you fixed my printer, so I ordered you lunch,” she said. “The same lunch.” “The fancy noodles with the peanut sauce, and the same brand of iced tea.”

“They had a deal,” I said. “Two boxes for the price of one.”

“Yeah,” she said. “That's why I got two.”

So there were four boxes of noodles on my desk, and it was only Tuesday.

We ate one box each. We put the other bag in the kitchen with a note on it: FREE, PLEASE TAKE.

At one o'clock an email came in to both of us, from a guy on the third floor. The subject line was THANK YOU!!! The message was one line: “Best lunch I've had all year. Who do I owe?”

Ines read it twice.

“Next time,” she said, “let's just say thank you.”