Skip to main content

Barebacked and Buying Cigarettes

A couple of chatty crustbros walked in Bedford Gourmet Foods, their conversation a debate on water quality. Eventually they decided the water upstairs was "chill." That being potable, not necessarily cold. They didn't need to buy any bottles down here in the deli and resolved to leave. 

The barebacked alpha crustbro stayed to purchase some smokes while his crew lingered outside. I continued waiting inside for my reliably good roast beef wrap to be made. "Boss," said the guy in the deli, the late shift worker with the one permanently bloodshot eye, in my direction. He pointed to the counter. I paid and left a $1 tip. We might not know each other but there's familiarity. I was ordering food here when I lived on Bedford Ave.

Back in Bed-Stuy, when bit into the wrap at home, I discovered he'd added jalapenos into it. This was a revelation.