Page 140 of Always Us

Alex hugs her into his side and kisses her cheek. “You need to spend more time with them before you decide that.”

I haven’t seen these two together for months, and back then they weren’t dating. Now that they are, I can see how much they like each other. They’re across the table from us and Sara’s tucked under Alex’s arm. She’s so short and small that she makes Alex look like a big guy even though he’s not. He’s about 5’8 and on the thin side. Not skinny, but he’s not a muscular guy. He’s into art and movies and music, not working out. But he does like sports, which gives him something to talk about with Garret, who could literally talk about sports for hours. In fact, he’s done that with Sean. I don’t know how anyone can talk that long about sports. Harper loves sports and even she can’t talk about it for hours.

“Alex’s nieces are so cute,” Sara says.

“Cute?” Alex gives Sara a funny look. “On Thanksgiving, they took Caleb and we couldn’t find him. And then they put some girly headband on him and almost painted his nails.”

She laughs. “They were just playing.”

“You need to have him hang out with your nephews,” Garret says to Alex.

“They don’t want to be around a baby. They want to be outside playing ball. But my nieces go crazy whenever someone brings a baby over.”

“Can I get you something to drink?” The waitress stands next to Caleb at the end of the table. She’s a cute blonde, wearing black, very tight shorts and a white cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up and unbuttoned to the point that it shows a lot of cleavage. It’s a revealing uniform, which means she probably gets good tips from the college guys hoping to get a date with her.

Sara and I order soda and Alex orders a beer. Then Garret orders a soda and the waitress says, “You sure you don’t want a beer? They’re on special tonight.”

“No, thanks.” He looks at his menu.

“Have you ever tried one of our craft beers? If not, I can bring you some samples so you can see which one you like.”

“Thanks, but I’m not quite 21 yet.”

“Oh, sorry.” She points to my hand. “I saw her ring and thought you two were married.”

“We are married, but we’re only 20.”

She gives us that confused look people always give us whenever we tell them we’re married. But then Caleb distracts her by pulling on her shirt and smiling at her.

“Hi, sweetie.” She leans down and her cleavage is practically in his face. He stares at her boobs, which is kind of funny. She looks at me and says, “He’s so sweet. What’s his name?”

“Caleb. But he’s not mine. He’s hers.” I point to Sara.

“He’s really cute,” the waitress says to Sara.

“Thank you.”

The girl seems flustered as she straightens up and turns to Garret. “Did you decide what you want to drink?”

“I think I ordered a Coke.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Sorry. I’ll be right back.”

She leaves and Sara laughs. “I told you being a waitress isn’t easy. You have to be friendly, but you can’t make assumptions about people. It always gets you in trouble.”

“I forgot you guys are only 20,” Alex says. “You seem older. Maybe because you’re married.”

“Yeah, we’re old married people now,” I say, looping my arm with Garret’s. “It’s almost our six month anniversary. We’re not even newlyweds anymore.”

“Yes, we are.” Garret leans down and gives me a kiss.

Caleb squeals and we all look over at him. He’s pumping his arms up and down and staring at the floor, where his toy fell.

“I got it.” Alex gives it back to him, then tickles Caleb’s belly. “I saw you checking out that girl. I think she’s a little old for you.”

“He was totally checking her out,” I say, laughing.

“I know, right?” Sara laughs, too. “He couldn’t stop staring at her boobs. I thought he was going to reach out and grab one, like he does to me all the time. I would’ve been so embarrassed if he did that.”

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