Page 23 of The Arrangement
That stopped us cold. Rome recovered first, smiling warmly at the teenager. “We’re not dating. Just old friends. This is our first time hanging out in decades.”
“Oh, that’s cool.” She handed me an empty cup so I could fetch my drink from the dispenser, while her manager pulled Rome’s beer bottle out of the fridge behind the counter. “Snag a table. I’ll bring you the pizza when it’s ready.”
Rome tipped his beer at her and winked. “Thanks.”
I trudged to the big silver container holding the iced tea and poured myself a drink before joining Rome in the booth against the far wall. We sat in an awkward silence. This was what I’d been attempting to avoid while we were on our “date,” but I guessed it couldn’t be helped. We needed to eat. It was after eight in the evening, and my lunch had been a turkey sandwich I’d crammed into my mouth while making notes for my next lecture at UC.
“You mentioned you haven’t been in Cincinnati long,” Rome said. His nimble fingers picked at the label on the slender brown bottle in his hands. “Why here?”
“Job,” I replied and was content to leave it at that, but it dawned on me that the entire meal was going to be painful and long if neither of us was willing to talk. Besides, his question had been polite. “And a fresh start.”
Rome huffed a small laugh, his lips moving into almost a grin. “I bet that start is looking a lot less fresh now.”
That was an understatement. After college, I’d returned to Providence and brought the woman who would become my wife with me. While the marriage hadn’t lasted long, I’d tried to stay and build a new life, but it had felt impossible with the constant reminders of what I’d had all around me. It had seemed smarter to begin again in a city where I had zero memories.
And now, I was building new memories in a new city…with an old enemy. I couldn’t fucking win.
“At the time, I was casually searching for a new job,” I forced myself to admit. If Rome was going to make pleasant conversation, I could at least play along. I pulled the paper wrapper off my straw and placed the straw in my drink, then twisted the paper into a knot. “Wasn’t even all that serious about the idea of moving. But I ran across a new job posting for the Cincinnati Natural History and Science Museum. The pay was okay, and I knew nothing about Cincinnati, but I remembered I had a friend teaching archaeology at the University of Cincinnati. Before applying for the museum, I called her and asked if there was any chance that UC could use a guest lecturer in geology. I figured that if I got the museum job and added in a few classes at the university, it would be enough to live comfortably.”
“You have an archaeologist for a friend? Is she anything like?—”
“Please, don’t. That joke is so old,” I stopped him to keep him from mentioning that famous Harrison Ford character. “And yes, every archaeologist has a friend who’s a geologist. If you’re going to find a civilization that buried in the earth, you need to be close friends with someone who understands the rocks.”
“Yeah, but I thought you said you were a paleontologist.”
“I am. There isn’t a bachelor’s degree in paleontology. You start with a degree in the earth sciences, usually geology, and move on to pursue your postgraduate degree. I actually got my masters in geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, then continued my studies for my PhD. It allowed me to study my two loves of evolutionary paleobiology and geomorphology. It might have also been a deciding factor in moving to the area, since Cincinnati has provided a wealth of fossil evidence from the Upper Ordovician era, which was the age…” I trailed off when I finally realized that my mouth had run away with me. Fiona had put up with it during those early dating years, butthe moment I’d slipped the engagement ring onto her finger, my cute rambles had become tedious.
“That was when oceans covered the vast majority of the world,” Rome finished for me. My eyes snapped up to his face to find him looking perfectly serious. “If you have enough consistent data in the form of fossils, it must raise the chances of being able to follow evolutionary changes in the life during that time period.”
“I…yeah…” I murmured while my brain struggled to keep up with what was happening.
Rome’s face broke into a broad grin. “What? You thought I wasn’t paying attention while you were talking at the museum.”
“No. I didn’t.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Thankfully, Rome tossed his head and laughed. “You might not know this, but I can torment people and pay attention at the same time.”
The asshole pulled me out of my wordless shock and put me back in the land of annoyance. “Yeah. I noticed.”
The young woman working the restaurant register brought over our pizza, two small white plates, and a stack of napkins. Cooked cheese, oregano, and garlic danced through the air, and my stomach let out a war cry. I hadn’t thought I was that hungry, but that delicious smell was proving me wrong.
We fell into the greasy, hot goodness for several minutes, conversation completely forgotten as we inhaled two slices apiece.
“This is better than I expected. I didn’t eat the first couple of times I came here,” I murmured as I debated a third slice.
“It’s not bad. Probably helps that we’re starved. Have you tried any of the local pizzerias?”
“Some. Obviously Larosa’s since it’s freaking everywhere. Good sauce.”
Rome grunted and grabbed a third slice. “Very good sauce.”
I figured why not and selected another piece and put it on my plate. “So, are you actually a librarian, or do you just volunteer at that library?”
My companion gave me a closed-mouth smile as he chewed his pizza. After washing it down with a swig from his beer, he put his pizza on his plate and wiped his fingers off with a napkin. “You don’t think I could be a librarian?”
“I don’t know. Until I ran into you at the museum after the concert, I didn’t think about you at all,” I admitted, maybe a little more snidely than I should have. I cleared my throat and tried again, aiming for at least impersonal. “I thought after college you’d go run your parents’ company. It never once crossed my mind that I’d see you reading a book to kids in a public library in Kentucky.”
Rome snorted and tipped his beer bottle at me before taking another drink. “Okay, you got me. My cousin Sydney is now running the family business—thank fucking God—and my father is retired. He’s mostly doing charity work with my mom and building curio cabinets.”
The tea I’d been drinking got sucked down the wrong pipe, and I choked. “I’m sorry, what?”
