The 2 Martini Lunch

One question: When did this become passé?

With a stroke of great luck my BFF was laid off last week. Her spare time and sick severence package now affords her all sorts of freedoms including showing up at my place of work during the day and demanding that I come down and accompany her to some chowing to which I graciously oblige.

Yesterday we chattered our way down 5th ave to one of the many Orientel delis for a less-than-glamorous lunch. The sushi was rank, the hot-bar, cold, and the salad, wilted. What were we expecting? Not much more. But for the pretty-penny it set us back hind-sight revealed we could've gotten some top-Ramen or falafel from another joint with actual metal-utencils. Ya live, ya learn, n'est-ce pas? It didn't really matter what were eating (or eating at all even) as long as we were together and talking as fast as we could for our hour.

When the food ran out, the conversation ran on, and I thought to mself, "To hell with going back! Let's be decadent!" and I suggested we find a nice spot for a drink. On the 12 foot walk from our seats to the beverage case I thought better and decided maybe some bottled juice was a better (read: "more responsible") choice. We hunted the selection for 100% juices (which are few and far between) and made our way to the registers once more. What we forgot to do, was first drop our pants and grab our ankles.

"Fi'-ninety-fi', please."

"For both? Ok," I replied, handing the cashier a fist of crumpled dollars.

"No," she corrected. "This one fi'-ninety-fi'." She said pointing to my juice box. "That one," indicating Laura's, "six-ninety-fi'."

Puzzled, I appologized and put the juices back. It would've cost me around $13 for 20 oz of juice. I'm sorry, but even in Manhattan a price like that better get me buzzed. After coffee and a cookie, Laura and I made preparations to part ways and decided that next time, we head straight to the bar. I mean, if we're going to act like Manhattanites, let's do it right. With 1 o'clock Manhattans, perfect, up.

I'll lick my lips and solemnly declare, "Worth every penny."