Page 23 of Totally Geeked

“You can touch the guy. Like a light touch on the arm, or hand brush, or when sitting opposite them or beside them, your foot or knee can softly touch under a table or something.”

“Really, I can just go up and touch someone?”

I laugh. “You don’t go up and grope them, but if you’re at the bar and his hand is on his glass, when you put your glass down you can do it just close enough that the back of your hand brushes lightly against his. If he’s into you, he’ll leave his hand where it is or start up a conversation. If he’s not, he’ll move his hand or walk away.”

“I think I’d be more likely to spill my drink all over him, and then he’ll take a swing at me for ruining his pants or shoes or something.”

What the fuck? I look over at him. “Tell me that never actually happened?”

“Sort of. Not the getting punched part, but the drink on a guy’s lap and shoes, maybe once or twice, or seven times.”

His cheeks flame, and he moves his attention back to the page and jots it down, and I turn my attention back to the road.

“Well, if a guy spilled his drink on me, I’d just tell him, that’s one way to get me out of my pants in a hurry, and offer to buy him a new one.”

“That there, that kind of flirting, I need to know that,” he says, and I see him scribbling the line down in the notebook out of the corner of my eye.

“You don’t need cheesy pickup lines.”

“But I want them. Knowing what to say to make light of an awkward as fuck situation like that is exactly what I need. What else have you got?”

This is not what I wanted, but if he thinks it will help, I guess I can give him a couple of lines. Just a few more tame ones maybe.

“What other awkward situations have you got?”

He sits a little straighter, pencil at the ready.

“There was a time that I tripped over a guy's foot, and he grabbed me just before I fell over.”

“You could have said, wow, the saleswoman was right, this cologne really does help you catch a handsome stranger.”

“That would have been so much better than what I said.”

“What did you say?”

“I think it was something like thanks, my floor nearly smashed the face.”

I laugh. “That’s not terrible.”

He raises his brows and tilts his head slightly to the side. The warm hue of the setting sun shines across the freckles on his skin making him look like he’s covered in a soft glittery glow.

“It was humiliating. Okay, what was it again, saleswoman, cologne, handsome, stranger, yep got it. Okay, give me more.What about if you see a guy at a bar you think is hot, how would you strike up a conversation? What line would you use, or lines, if you have a few options, that would be good?”

“Umm, I guess one I used to use a lot if I was making an introduction was, Hi, my name’s Harrison, but you can call me Harry, as long as you promise to call me.”

He giggles, and my face grows warm.

“That works?”

“I didn’t say it worked, but it broke the ice, and I guess that’s what any of those lines are trying to do.”

I glance over and see he’s written the line out word for word, except put his own name in place of mine and called himself AJ for short.

“Okay, next?”

I go through as many of the pickup lines that I can think of the whole way to Jacksonville, and we have a good laugh, and he writes each one down in his little notebook to review later like homework. I pull the truck up to the front of the hotel, and we climb out, grab our bags, and I pass the keys off to the valet, letting them know I’d need the truck at eight thirty in the morning tomorrow before heading inside.

“Booking for Roe and James,” I say to the woman at the concierge desk.

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