THE BEAR – S03E06 – NAPKINS

MICKEY: No, my, uh… my baby brother, he’s… he’s a chef.

TINA: Oh, fancy.

Mickey: Yeah. He’s, um… He’s the shit.

TINA: Yeah?

MICKEY: Yeah. You, um… You ever know somebody who, like, knows exactly what it is in this world that they wanna do? Like, fucking knows it, and not only do they know it, but they’re really fucking good at it.

TINA: Mmm. That sounds like a dream.

MICKEY: I’m telling you, I-I genuinely really think that that is the dream.

TINA: Hmm. This a family business?

MICKEY: Eh. You know, my… my old man, he opened it. He also ran it into the ground. He just, like, has a giant stack of unpaid bills. He took one look and he split, you know? He hightailed it. Ran for the hills, never came back.

TINA: Mmm. They’ll do that.

MICKEY: What, bills?

TINA: Dads. [chuckles]

MICKEY: [scoffs] Yeah. Amen to that.

TINA: So, do you like the work?

MICKEY: Um. I-I don’t know. I mean, I… I like the people.

TINA: Okay, but do you like the work?

MICKEY: I definitely do not like never not being fucked. You know? I… I don’t like that you gotta make enough money every single day just to pay for yesterday. I don’t like it when, uh… you know, shit happens. The oven breaks or the sewer line backs up. I don’t like it when the delivery company forgets fucking onions, you know? But, yeah. No, I do. I… I… I like the people, you know?

TINA: Mmm. Then I guess that’s why people do it.

MICKEY: Do what?

TINA: Open restaurants.

MICKEY: Eh.

TINA: Yeah?

MICKEY: I don’t know. I mean, I know it, like… I know it, like, sounds like bullshit, but I think that, like, if you really consider, you know, like, the-the…the special moments, you know, of your life… like celebrations, good times, you know, cheer… I feel like, you know, they always happen around food, you know?

TINA: You believe that?

MICKEY: Yeah. I… I think I am starting to.

TINA: Okay.

MICKEY: Yeah.

TINA: Sure.

MICKEY: Yeah. [both chuckle]

TINA: So if you could do anything, what would be your dream job?

MICKEY: Fuck. I… I don’t know. You?

TINA: [stammers] I don’t think I have a dream job. I’m not that good at anything, so…

MICKEY: Yeah. I mean, I think I’m pretty good at a lot of things, but I’m not, like, stellar at any one thing.

TINA: I think that’s most of us.

MIKEY: Yeah. I remember when I was a kid, I went on this field trip. I don’t remember what it was fucking for, but I remember we went into this old building, you know? Like, beautiful. Like, proper art deco. And on every single floor it was, like, a different business, you know? It was all official. You know, people working in suits and dresses and, like, doing their thing. And… [stammers] I remember thinking, like, this building, it’s like a building of dreams, you know?

TINA: What kind of dreams?

MICKEY: Well, if-if you think about, like, every single one of those people, they had, like, one dream, right? And that led them to that building and then to that floor and then to that job. And it was just, like… You know?

TINA: Mmm. So it was inspiring.

MICKEY: No. I mean, dude, it was totally fucking depressing. I mean, it killed me.

TINA: How come?

MICKEY: I just… I don’t know. I mean, I’m a kid, and I’m there, and I’m like, “Well, that shit ain’t happening to me.” You know, I knew… I knew I was gonna get, like, skipped, you know? Like… I had shit to do, you know? I had people to take care of. And I knew that, like… I don’t know. Like, that dream shit… Pfft, you know, just… You know, wasn’t gonna happen to me. TINA: I was there for 15 years. At the place that fired me.

MICKEY: That’s brutal.

TINA: Mmm. Brutal. And when I’m applying for all these jobs…

MICKEY: Yeah.

TINA: It’s all kids. Right?

[Mikey sighs]

TINA: They look like kids.

MICKEY: Dude, is that not the fucking worst?

TINA: Yeah. But also beautiful, you know?

MICKEY: Why? How so?

TINA: They seem, like, hungry, you know?

MICKEY: Yeah.

TINA: And… [stammers] And I was thinking to myself, like, maybe I lost that in myself.

MICKEY: Yeah.

TINA: You know? Like, I get anxious to pay the rent. Like, to pay for groceries, like, real shit, right? And I was thinking it would be really easy for me to get really angry at these kids. Like, “Fuck them kids. They don’t know shit.” They haven’t been through nothing, they don’t know real stress. [sighs] But I’m also like… “I would give anything to be one of them motherfuckers.”

MICKEY: Ah, dude. So fucking true.

TINA: I’m jealous as fuck. [chuckles]

[Mikey chuckles]

MICKEY: Yo! Like, as fuck. Yeah.

TINA: Oh, shit. It’s comedic how hard it’s been…

MICKEY: Mmm.

TINA: For me to find anything, man. I’ll clean a dish, I’ll wash a floor.

MICKEY: Mmm.

TINA: I’ll sell some bullshit, you know? I gotta cover this ass, right? [ sighs] I don’t need to be inspired. I don’t need to be impassioned. I don’t need to make magic. I don’t need to save the world, you know? I just… I just wanna feed my kid, you know?

[Mikey exhales sharply]

MICKEY: Amen. [ huffs] Amen, man.

TINA: Just give me a routine. I’m in.

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