“I never went back on a guy yet, but Jez, George, it’s give and take in this world.”
“Well,” broke in Nevada advancing towards them with little dancesteps, wearing a flamingo pink silk dress, “havent you boys argued enough yet?”
“We’re through,” growled Gus. “... Say Miss Nevada, how did you get that name?”
“I was born in Reno.... My mother’d gone there to get a divorce.... Gosh she was sore.... Certainly put my foot in it that time.”
Anna Cohen stands behind the counter under the sign The Best Sandwich in New York. Her feet ache in her pointed shoes with runover heels.
“Well I guess they’ll begin soon or else we’re in for a slack day,” says the sodashaker beside her. He’s a raw-faced man with a sharp adamsapple. “It allus comes all of a rush like.”
“Yeh, looks like they all got the same idear at the same time.” They stand looking out through the glass partition at the endless files of people jostling in and out of the subway. All at once she slips away from the counter and back into the stuffy kitchenette where a stout elderly woman is tidying up the stove. There is a mirror hanging on a nail in the corner. Anna fetches a powderbox from the pocket of her coat on the rack and starts powdering her nose. She stands a second with the tiny puff poised looking at her broad face with the bangs across the forehead and the straight black bobbed hair. A homely lookin kike, she says to herself bitterly. She is slipping back to her place at the counter when she runs into the manager, a little fat Italian
with a greasy bald head. “Cant you do nutten but primp an look in de glass all day?... Veree good you’re fired.”
She stares at his face sleek like an olive. “Kin I stay out my day?” she stammers. He nods. “Getta move on; this aint no beauty parlor.” She hustles back to her place at the counter. The stools are all full. Girls, officeboys, grayfaced bookkeepers. “Chicken sandwich and a cup o caufee.” “Cream cheese and olive sandwich and a glass of buttermilk.”