Another time as we finished our routine we stopped to grab something to eat near Vali Asr Square. Although it had gotten much harder, however, we still had not given up on our game of making one another laugh when drinking sodas. Ardi had gotten much better than me at not laughing and so I always had to try very hard and get creative. That night as we were having our sandwiches (with sodas) once again I could see that none of my efforts had any effect on him so I decided to kick it up a notch. Anytime I suspected the owner couldn’t see us, I began doing intense booty shakes (which in fact did make Ardi laugh). Unfortunately for me the owner was just in my blind spot and was witnessing the whole incident. After turning a blind eye to it for a couple of rounds he finally spoke up.

“This isn’t a dance club. Have your food and have a nice day.”

Neither one of us said a word but instead quickly finished our sodas (whose bottles we had to return) so that we could leave with our sandwiches. I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to face the owner but fortunately it was Ardi's turn to pay, which he did before leaving. As we stepped out of the sandwich shop I asked Ardi, “Did he say anything?”

I tried to make light of it. “It’s not that bad. After all they guy doesn’t know us.”

Ardi countered, “That makes no sense. Based on that logic everyday people should wake up and go out on the street and think since all these passersby don’t know me I should start booty shaking in the middle of the street.”

I laughed. “That’s not what I meant. We shouldn’t have done this but what I mean is now that it’s already done it’s not that big of a deal since the guy doesn’t know us.”

On subsequent weekly excursions we debated whether we should go back to that particular sandwich shop. We eventually did although much later to ensure our incident, and faces, were erased from the shop owner’s memory.