Page 41 of Beauty and the Beard

The ratio of plaid and beards to clean shaven in t-shirts is about 40 to 1. If you have a lumberjack fetish, beard kink, or hell, any kind of lust for the manly mountain-type guys, you need to come here and have your mind blown.

I need to sneak photos for Roman. This is too much.

“Let’s grab that table over there by the bear.” Leaf’s hand on my back steers me towards a wooden bear statue and I laugh.

“Will you take my picture with that bear?”

“Uh, sure.”

I hand Leaf my phone and ham it up as if the bear was attacking me and another photo with me hugging it.

“Roman—he’s my best friend back home—he teased me about getting attacked by a bear while I was here. He’ll get a kick out of that.”

Leaf laughs and hands my phone back as we slide into the booth.

“He sounds fun. But remind me to make sure you know how to use bear spray if you hike by yourself.”

What!?

Leaf closes his hand over mine. “There’s nothing to worry about. Except what flavour of wings you want to try.”

“Good evening… oh my gosh! Leaf! It’s so wonderful to see you!”

He stands to hug the waitress, who barely looks old enough to serve alcohol, and when she glances at me, we both do a double take. It’s the girl from the park I met.

“Violet, right?”

“You two know each other?” Leaf furrows his brow, looking between us.

“We met at the park the other day. He gave me his autograph. How do you find yourself friends with this amazing human, Leaf? Not that you’re not amazing yourself, but you know who he is, right?”

Leaf glances at me, and I shrug.

“Uh, Sasha. He’s a model—”

“Former model I’d say.” I smile as Leaf continues to look confused.

“He’s an example is what he is. He did a spread a few months ago in a magazine that was so inspiring. Sasha gave a lot of us hope for good things and to always be ourselves.” She winks at me. “He’s not just a pretty face, Leaf.”

Leaf squirms and seems uncomfortable, but he smiles at Violet.

“I know.”

She falls into the spiel of wing night specials and leaves a menu. Violet even asks if Perry will join us, which makes me wonder what the connection is. I know it’s a small town, but Violet is so young.

“Hi guys, sorry I’m late.”

Perry slides into the booth next to me with a smile.

“Did you order yet?”

“No, Leaf was just explaining all the choices.”

“Violet already met him at the park.” Leaf throws out. “She knows who Sasha is.”

Perry turns to me. “No shit. You’re already meeting people here.” He glances at Leaf. “Did you tell him who Violet is?”

Leaf’s eyes lose a little shine and he bites his lip.

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