Page 61 of Fierce-Hyde

“In general and for you,” he said. “Another change I need to make. It’s rude. I know it. I’ve received enough lectures about it. Now if my phone goes off, I know it’s a text.”

“And you can glance at it to see if it’s important or not. I understand how hard it is to ignore it if you hear it go off. If you had one of those watches, then you could see that way.”

“I don’t like the way they look,” he said. “And I’m not much of a watch person at all.”

“I love wearing watches,” she said. “I’m with you not liking how they look. To me a watch is more a fashion accessory. I have one on to know the time, not to see who is trying to reach me. Maybe I’m a bit of an old soul, but if I’m working with someone,they get my commitment, not if my mother or a friend needs me. If it’s an emergency they will call. But a text isn’t an emergency to me.”

“I’m learning that too,” he said.

They sat there and ate their lunch.

The silence wasn’t awkward, but he was trying to think of what to say next.

Then he realized he didn’t need to do that.

Tori seemed comfortable sitting there eating her food when in the past he wasn’t used to being with someone who was.

When they were done with their lunch, they threw everything out and stood up to walk to his car.

He drove to the festival and parked. The crowd was massive and they made their way through.

“These are pretty,” she said when she walked toward a display of ceramic coasters.

“I like them,” he said. “Do you like the water?”

“I do,” she said. “I think my dream is to have a second home on the water somewhere. Any body of water will do.” She picked up the set of two white coasters with waves on them and turned them over. “I’ll take these.”

He wanted to pay for them but told himself to let it go. They weren’t there yet there and there was no reason to trigger a fight when it seemed as if it didn’t take much for them to get into one.

She reached for her coasters in the bag and they walked some more.

“Hyde.”

He turned his head. “Coop, how are you doing?”

“I can’t believe it’s you,” Coop said, reaching his hand out to shake. One of his and Ryder’s high school friends. “I heard you moved out of the area.”

“I did,” he said. “I’m back now.”

“Have you seen or heard from Ryder? Dude, he’s married with three kids. One kid he didn’t even know he had. Never thought I’d see the day. You two are the last people I thought would settle down.”

“I work with Ryder,” he said. He wasn’t sure he liked what was being said, but he couldn’t argue any of it either.

“Then you know all about it,” Coop said. “And who is this little lady? No ring on the finger, so you’re not married. Me, I’m divorced and just split from my second wife. I learned my lesson. Never going there again. We all said we’d never get shackled and I didn’t listen. Ryder neither, but let’s see how he does.”

“Coop is used to running at the mouth,” Hyde said, laughing. Though it was forced. He wished his friend would shut the hell up. “This is Tori Miller. Tori, Cooper Stevens. An old high school friend.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Tori said, putting her hand out.

“Don’t mean to say anything bad about Hyde,” Coop said. “Just, you know, guys will be guys and Ryder, Hyde, and me…we were a threesome back in the day. Everyone wanted to hang out with us.”

“I can’t imagine why, from a woman’s standpoint,” she said, smiling.

“I could tell you,” Coop said.

“She’s joking,” he said. Coop was a good-looking guy. Bigger than him and Ryder and a little thick in the head. Guess some things didn’t change.

“Ahhh,” Coop said. “Nice to know. Anyway, if you’re back in town now, why don’t you hit me up? You, me, and Ryder should get together for good old time's sake.”

---