LOS POLLOS HERMANOS

I brushed her dark hair gently. I still couldn’t believe that she was right there, beside me in my bed. I tried keeping her hair lined up in a clean spot but the fan kept blowing it away. She moaned once and I stopped touching her, I didn’t want to wake up my sleeping beauty. Right then, the phone started ringing interrupting my train of thought. I quickly picked up the phone to see who it was. It was an unknown number, I flipped the phone and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Um...Yeah, hello is this Jesse Pinkman?”

I could recognise that nasally voice any time of the day. It was the sleazy lawyer, Saul Goodman. I walked out of the bedroom and went outside.

“Mr. Goodman.”

“Yeah that’s me...good ole Goodman....about the thing you asked me.....I heard there’s a guy who’s interested in what you’re selling.....the meeting is at Los Pollos Hermanos near the mall at 4 in the evening.”

“Los Pollos Hermanos? The chicken joint?”

“Yeah...look Mr. Pinkman, the kind of distributor you’re looking for isn’t the type to meet you in a shady alleyway.”

“Alright fine-”

“About my payment.” He said before I finished.

“You’ll get the remaining 60 grand after the deal goes through-”

“And 20% on all future deals!”

I looked at my phone and thought, This fucking guy.

“2%” I countered. The truth was that it really didn’t matter how much I agreed here , the truth was that I was out after this deal. But for optics sake I felt that I had to hard ball him here.

“Oh come on man...I mean make it 17% and we have a deal.”

“3% and that’s way more than I’m willing to go. Any more than that I’ll have to talk to my partner.”

“Oh come on.....look how about 12%-”

“5% or I’m closing this call.”

“Fine. Fine 5% commission on every deal from here on...kiddo believe me when I say this you got a hell of a lawyer on your side, for that kind of cut you’re getting a steal.”

In the TV Show I know that he gets somewhere around the same percentage and for the kind of shit that Mr. White is going to put him through I really thought 5% was a bit less.

“Fine. Once the deal goes through and I get my money, you’ll get your 60 grand. After that you’ll get 5% henceforth.”

He was not going to take any of my money though.

“Heisenberg....when can I meet him, I mean if I can?”

“I’ll have a talk with him but I don’t promise you anything.”

“Oh okay...nice...alright. I think this is the beginning of a beauti-”

I cut the call.

The birds chirped and the early morning chill was really nice. It was good, everything was going to plan. Today at 4, for the first and hopefully last time I meet Gustavo Fring.

I went inside the house, Jane was still sleeping soundly. Eventually I got bored of staring at her sleep so peacefully and went on to make breakfast.

It was toast and eggs, along with black coffee.

I guess I was making a ruckus because she woke up not long after that.

“Jesse?” She still had that sleepy look on her face.

“Coffee?” I passed her a cup of the best black coffee I ever made. She helped herself to a plate of eggs. It looked like my food passed with flying colours.

“Jesus Jesse, you can really cook!”

I took a bow and said, “I live to serve you, my lady.”

It was super cringey but she laughed and I laughed and that’s all that mattered.

We didn’t say anything after that but our eyes were too busy looking at each other. Is this how love felt?

Oh right, I have to let Mr. White knows about the whole meeting thing.

“Give me a minute, I have to make a call.” I excused myself from the room.

After what felt like the 10th calling him, I decided to send him a message instead.

[Meeting with distributor, Los Pollos Hermanos near the mall at 4. You coming?]

I sent the message and went back to snuggle with Jane.

___________________________________________________________________

After the tenth time in the bed I was dead tired, there was nothing else to do other than roll around and sleep and that’s what I did. I slept until noon. The best part of this life was the fact that I didn’t have to work any more. I didn’t have to participate in the rat race like everyone else. I work when I want to and get paid more than I deserve. A part of me still was guilty that I was producing drugs but guess what? Almost everyone would do what I do if they knew how to and could avoid getting caught.

“You want something? I was going out-”

“Oh no I got this thing...lunch with dad or something.”

“or something?” I teased her and she responded with a swift punch to my shoulder.

She put her bra back on, blew me a kiss and went back to her home.

It wasn’t even five minutes and I began missing her.

God what a woman!

After all the sex, I was really hungry. So I decided to head out to Los Pollos Hermanos two hours early.

Let's see how good this chicken is.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

______________________________________________________________________

The last person I thought I would see in the chicken chain restaurant was my parents but here we were. I stopped awkwardly when my ‘dad’ called out to me,

“Oh Jesse!”

“Uh...dad...mom.”

My little brother Jake, the little shit was there too.

“You look.....healthy.”

Yeah no thanks to you dickhead!

“Yeah thanks.” I replied curtly.

There was an open seat in their booth but I guess they weren’t in the sharing mood and quite frankly neither was I.

“Can I help you, Sir?” That voice sent chills to my spine.

I slowly turned around to see him, the chicken man himself. Gustavo Fring himself, in the living flesh. I don’t know why it was but never did it occur to me that I was living in a fictional universe until I met him. For some reason Walter White and my parents never felt out of ordinary but this man....this man was anything but ordinary.

“Uh..no...I mean this is my.....I mean sure, can you lead me to a table for one?” I stuttered like crazy. The reality of what I was doing set in. I was going to negotiate with a cartel boss....why did I act so cavalier until now.

“Of course sir, please follow me.” He said with a disarming smile.

Man if I didn’t know what I did, I would really have a hard time believing that he was Pinochet’s ex general and is currently one of the most powerful cartel bosses.

“Uh sure...” I turned to my parents and said, “Yeah, see ya later guys.”

Gus led me to a table of two.

Once I was seated, he gave me the menu and directed me towards the counter.

I won’t lie, I was nervous. I knew that if he wanted to, he could have me killed, no questions asked. That’s just how powerful this man was. It made me that much more determined to get out of this business as soon as possible. With a million dollars in cash I could easily start over again. I could easily live a comfortable life with that kind of money.

My stomach grumbled.

Damn I’m famished.

I decided to order a bucket of chicken and some fries along with a large Cola. I knew I was going to be here until the store closed at night. It was very important that I made a really good impression here, a million dollars was riding on it.

My family headed out after ten minutes, my mother looked like she wanted to say something but ultimately decided against it.

After an hour passed, I took out a book about accounting and started brushing up on my knowledge.

It was officially four now and the meeting was supposed to go down now but nothing happened. I got a text from Mr. White said that he was coming to a meeting. He came ten minutes later.

“When did you come here?” He said as he sat down.

“I came an hour before. Yo, you gotta try these wings. They’re like busting. Shit probably the best chicken I’ve ever had.”

“Accounting Basics and Corporate Finance.....” He read the title of the book I was reading.

“Yeah...you know, maybe I’ll enrol into a community college, get that degree like you said.”

“Wow...that’s nice.”

He looked taken back, guess he didn’t expect Jesse to ever take his advice seriously!

Well my plan was always to get a degree eventually.

“Still Accounting....isn’t that bit too hard for you?”

“Not really, I’m a natural at it. Shit don’t I do our accounting?’

Which prompted Mr. White to laugh a little. Guess he didn’t take my contributions to our business partnership very seriously.

Well it’s not like I cared, after this deal I’m not seeing his old ugly mug ever again.

“Jesse, I was thinking more of a business degree or something. Accounting is really hard, you know? I should know my wife was one....well she’s working as one now but that’s another matter.”

“Gentlemen is everything to your liking.” Fring appeared out of thin air, scaring the crap out of me. Mr. White didn’t pay much attention to him, though.

“Yes thank you, can you refill my diet coke and some onion rings for my friend here.” I offered my empty cup to him and he gladly took it with a smile.

That dude is scary.

________________________________________________________________________

Three hours later

“Where the hell is this guy? Is he really all that professional?” Mr. White was really angry.

“Who knows?” I flipped to another page, I was fully immersed in the book. Besides I knew that Gus Fringe was carefully watching us, studying us.

“Alright...I have to go...I don’t have time for this.” Mr. White got up angrily, he looked at me for some time and said, “Well.....what are you waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Oh....I’m not leaving anywhere, not until they ask me to leave.”

“Jesse...are you sure this ‘Saul Goodman’ didn’t just take your money and send us on a wild goose chase? Huh what's stopping him from doing that.”

“Why do you care either way? It's my money. Look, Mr. White like I told you I’m not leaving until the staff asks me to!”

He waved his hands dismissively and said, “Whatever, it’s not like you have things to do anyway.”

He left the restaurant in a stride with dissatisfaction and disappointment.

I watched him leave in his Pontiac Aztek in a fit of rage.

I turned my attention back to the book and kept sipping on my diet coke.

________________________________________________________________________

Two hours later

There was barely anyone left in the restaurant, the servers were cleaning the tables and wiping the glass clean.

If I didn’t know the plot of Breaking Bad I probably would have left a long time ago. The distributor was late to the meeting by six hours, any other person would have left just like Mr. White. One of the servers came to my table and informed me that the place was closing and I had to leave.

“Oh is that right? I’m sorry I was too busy reading this book. I’ll be heading out now, thanks for letting me know, I’ll be on my way.” I collected my book and put it in my bag. I got up to leave.

Well it looks like it didn’t work.

I guess not showing up to the meeting high was good enough but it seems like we were not up to his standards.

I was tempted to try to speak to Gus directly but I wasn’t stupid so I went back to my car.

Just before I got in, I heard someone’s footsteps behind me. I turned back to see a man dressed in all black.

Wait a minute....I know him...he’s Victor. The guy who gets his throat slit by Gus!

“Meet me here tomorrow at 6 AM, don’t be late.” He said quietly and walked away without saying anything.

It took me a few seconds to realise what happened.

We passed the test!

____________________________________________________________________

The next morning 6 AM

It was me and Mr. White waiting in the parking lot. When I relayed what happened he didn’t believe me at first but then eventually had to give in at the prospect of making a million dollars.

We were standing around in the cold like a bunch of bozos.

“You cold? I brought some coffee just in case.”

“No I’m good...thanks for offering Jesse.”

He shivered immediately after saying that and I gave him a look of disbelief.

“I still don’t believe that this guy is real.” He shook his head.

“But you’re still here aren’t you.”

He looked at me like I was the crazy one, “Yeah of course I’m here. This is a million dollar deal and I’m leaving it in your hands.”

“Thanks for the confidence....asshole.”

Suddenly a black SUV drove inside the parking lot, it came near us. The doors swung wide open and the guy from before, Victor, was sitting in the back.

“Get in.”

I was completely shaken, I thought we would be meeting in Gus’s office and didn’t expect to be napped like a child.

“Get in before anyone sees!”

I looked at Mr. White, he was pale.

“Look, you don’t have to come with me. I can handle this on my own-” I tried to speak but Mr. White got inside the SUV before I could finish.

Victor said, “Well...are you getting in or not.”

I got in intermediately before he could change his mind.