just this once

 Fan knew Jared could cook. He'd talked about it. She'd even gone to one of his cooking classes while he was still in high school. If he'd stuck with it, no telling where he might be. But his buddies kept telling him it was a girly career. Was he gay or something?

These thoughts lingered throughout the morning, but she did have him moving things along. Besides, it was just the two of them. The lady who helped her was at home now. And granted much of the food would got to the food mobile, they did have a few who came in just to socialize at a distance. She hoped they didn't have to go back to just take out. But they might with COVID cases rising.

By lunch, she was there to greet them and serve them as if they were at a real restaurant. She brought the food to them at a set price that was affordable. She was perky in her denim apron. Of course, the old men were friendly and talked too much. 

Fan did her best to stand away but soon found herself in a shouting match of some kind. Their voices were muffled with the masks on.

"Say, you guys doing that step dance, anymore?" One fellow asked, saying he needed to get in his steps.

Fan didn't think so but hated to hurt his feelings. Usually, it was recorded on YouTube with some kid stepping along to retro tunes for about fifteen minutes or so. But there were so many commercials, people were getting upset about it. They wanted a real person teaching them.

Fan sighed with a wince. "We..we are working on it." Of course, she'd been left all on her lonesome lately. There was supposed to be someone here in charge of the entertainment. She was only the cook. "I'll see what I can do," Fan thought of a bright idea.

She went back to the kitchen and found Jared at the sink spraying down dishes as he was loading up the industrial-sized dishwasher.

"I have a favor," she then said.

"A favor?" He shut off the water and looked at her as if he was done for.

"Well, it's not that big of a task." Fan shrugged thinking surely he could do it. He liked to dance in middle school. He was always going to those sock hops. When she told him he needed to walk to the beat of some old pop tunes, she could see he thought she was kidding.

"Aw, Ma!" It was practically yelped. She reached to pull him by the ear. 

"It'll be easy," she said.

"Then you do it," Jared said he wasn't in any mood to dance, especially to old folks.

"They'll like you better," she was certain his youth would energize them. After all, she was too tired to move. "You're young. I'm not." She told him all he had to do was incorporate the dance steps he did when he was in middle school. Nothing professional. It didn't need to be fancy. 

"Seriously?" He reminded her how she always went on about how young she was. 

Fan sighed. "Just this once.  Please." She was using her sweet voice. She'd pull his ear again if she had to.