Page 53 of Double Play

After we pick out a dress, I grab a quick bite and leave for my jog.

LAYTON

As soon as I pull up to O’Reilly’s, I see Henry sitting on a bench out front, nervously running his fingers through his curly, dark hair.

I illegally park and practically hop out of my car, immediately sitting next to him. “I’m here. What’s happening?”

His head is down but he’s now tugging on his hair. His voice breaks. “She left me.”

“This is the girl you met a few weeks ago?”

He nods. “Yes.”

I need to get him away from the bar. I grab his arm. “Let’s get some hot chocolate and you can tell me about it.”

“Not coffee?”

“You serve coffee all day. Is that really what you want right now?”

He gives me a small, crooked smile. “No, it’s not. I love hot chocolate. It reminds me of Gammie.”

Gammie thought every problem could be solved by a cup of hot chocolate. I spent many nights watching her make it from scratch before sitting down with her to unload my problems.

“I remember. Me too. Let’s go find the good stuff.”

We head to a restaurant nearby that’s famous for its hot chocolate, and I order two.

We’re seated in a quiet booth in the back of the restaurant “Tell me what happened.”

He shrugs. “She said I was getting too serious too fast.”

“Were you?”

“Maybe a little. I really liked her.”

“Tell me what you liked about her.”

“The sex was amazing. Best of my life.”

My shoulders fall. “What else?”

“She’s pretty.”

“Anything substantive?”

He appears baffled by the question. “Like what?”

“Her personality. Do your interests align? Your values? Did you talk about your future? Anything beyond the physical?”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “I guess we never got that far.”

“So you were about to throw away two years of sobriety over a good lay who you know nothing else about?”

He rubs his hands all over his face. “Fuck, when you say it like that, it sounds bad.”

“Itisbad.”

He leans back in the booth and is quiet for a minute or two. “Have you ever truly gotten to know a woman before it got physical?”

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