Matthew Dix

And the way she's hoping I say no.

And that's never happened to me before.

So this is something.

And it turns out that because they don't know me, I can be the thing I think I can be.

And suddenly I have more friends than I've ever had in my life.

And I'm good at my job, shockingly good.

In 1980s, the job at the McDonald's that is the hardest is running the bin.

I have been a public school teacher for 24 years, and I can tell you that I have not had a day in my classroom as taxing as a day running the bin at McDonald's during rush hour in 1987.

It is coordinating a kitchen full of 16-year-olds and 60-year-olds and convincing them all to do work for you at the same time and watching a drive-thru screen and listening to cash registers and figuring out how much food needs to be here at any moment without causing waste and making sure profit.

It's really hard and for some reason I can hold all this information right here and I'm good at it and people respect me for it.

But as soon as I got good at it, all I heard was one word, Benji.

You're great, but Benji's better.

Benji's the best bin person in this restaurant.

Actually, he's the best person in this restaurant.

He is fantastic, and everyone loves him, and everyone respects him, and I hate Benji.

All they do is tell me how great he is, and with every single word they say, I hate him more.

And then I discover they're telling him about me, and they're saying how this guy came in, and he might be better than you.

They're spreading gossip about me to him, and so we have never met each other, but we hate each other.

And so this day, we're coming together for the first time.

Our shifts are crossing, and I'm going to meet him.