Page 7 of True Honey
“Just looked like a nice town,” she said, clearlynotwanting to talk about it. She looked until her eyes landed on Kayla across the bar. She was looking for an out and I wasn’t sure how I had swung out so badly on the interaction. Usually I was smooth, quick to answer, faster to get a girl's pants off. But there was something about her that screamed,slow and cautious.
Maybe it was just that the rest of my life was barreling toward the end of the tracks or that I had no control over anything, but I appreciated how careful she was.
“If you’re a doctor, whystayhere?” She asked.
“Family.”
It was like the word had flipped a switch in her.
“That’s usually a reason to leave,” she said. “You must really love them.”
“I won’t bore you with the details, I’ll save them for my therapist,” I said and set the empty glass on the bartop.What the hell was I doing?It wasn’t the time or the conversation, but it was just second nature, the flirting rolled out of me and the next thing I knew I was asking her out. I sat on it for about thirty seconds, my usually very calculated decision-making thrown to the wind. “Would you want to get dinner with me this week?”
Drew stopped screwing on the lid of the shaker and I watched her jaw tighten.
“I promise I’m not a creep?” I added.
She opened her mouth and closed it again. I watched her throat bob, it was becoming very apparent that she was trying to come up with a way to say no that didn’t involve escalating the situation. She was scared, skittish and just trying to let me down easily.
“You can say no,” I said to her and she looked up at me finally. There it was, the fear in her eyes that if she did, I would overreact. “Although I don’t think I’ve ever been rejected, so be nice?” I added with a small, pathetic smile that was fueled by shame and whiskey.
“I don’t think it’s the right time for me, I’m just getting settled into Harbor and you’re very nice, handsome but…” she cleaned her hands on the little black apron she was wearing around her waist and held one out for me to shake.
I chuckled and entertained the awkward moment before she excused herself and told Kayla she was taking a fifteen-minute break. I wandered over to the front desk as Drew disappeared into the parking lot and leaned over on my elbows.
“She’s like a mouse,” Kayla noted. “She’ll warm up to the crowd soon enough.”
“She was nice,” I said, “when did you hire her?”
“Yesterday, she came in asking about the job and she’s got more experience waiting tables than all the girls in here combined. She’s just…” Kayla took my card and sighed, “a little quiet.”
“Not everyone can be loud,” I said, glancing out the tinted glass door for a peek at her before she was gone.
“She’s a little weird, cagey I guess?” She said punching in some numbers.
“Yeah I noticed, she said she was from Newton?” I said and Kayla scowled.
“Like Kansas? No, she put Seattle on her work forms,” she responded confused when I started to laugh. She had lied to protect herself and I admired it, I was almost impressed at how easily she had side-stepped me. Clever.
“Hey thanks for the drink, sorry I wasn’t much fun today.” I tapped the card across her knuckles after taking it back and gave her a wink. “Next time?”
“Yeah Si, see you later,” she purred and went back to work.
I tapped my finger on the desk before putting myself back together and wandering out into the sunlight of the parking lot. I looked around for her, noticing her jeans and sneakers poking out from the driver's side of a shitty little car packed to the brim with boxes and suitcases.
“Thanks for the jokes,” I said, waving as her head popped back out of the car. In the warm sunlight, it was easier to admire how pretty she was. Her red ponytail frizzed around her heart-shaped face and freckled cheeks, everything working in tandem with her cautious evergreen eyes.
She gave me an awkward smile, fixing her shirt and waved back. Something moved in the car, and I noticed a young boy in the front seat talking to her. She gave me one last look before disappearing back into the car and leaving me standing there like the nosy idiot I was.
SHORE
“Do you need a note to get out of practice?” I asked her. Adeline Sarah was the star winger for Harbor’s semi-pro rugby team, four years deep into chronic knee issues. She shook her head of dark hair, no. “Alright,” I pushed out of my chair and offered her a hand off the high bed. Her knee would be sore for a few hours after the session and check-up. “Careful,” I hummed in a low voice as she lost her balance.
Adeline smiled with a small hop to prove she had her balance.
I dealt with clients like her all the time, young and determined to run forever but unfortunately she was good at one of the roughest sports possible. The reality was she wasn’t going to run forever, but she certainly was the type of person to run until she couldn’t.
“Do me a favor?” I asked her as she turned to grab her bag. She paused momentarily and looked over at me. “Listen to your body,” I said, it was too often I watched athletes push too hard and forget that they’re just flesh and blood. “You’ve got a massive career ahead of you. I don’t want to read your name in the news because you ignored the pain.”
