Page 47 of True Sight
“Alright, here’s what I found.” I turn to look at him and notice he has some bread, biscuits, a jar of jam, and cereal.
“Good job, mate. Here, we can make a snack board of sorts with what I found.” I move to step around him to grab a large serving tray I know I have at the same time he stepsin the same direction to get around me. As we move, we collide into one another and grab onto one another to avoid falling to the floor.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re fine.”
We both speak at the same time and catch our balance. His arms are around me and I’m holding tight to his. Neither of us move and instead hold one another’s gaze in stunning silence. He blinks a few times, his hands tightening on my back and swallows hard.
“I’m going to go this way.” He nods to the left.
“And I’ll go the other.” We nod in sync and step around one another. When he’s behind me, I adjust myself quickly and thank this wretched storm for knocking out the power so he can’t see my growing situation.
Once we have our food and some drinks, we head to the living room. Annie has fallen asleep on the armchair so the only place for us to go is the sofa. Sitting down next to one another, I set the food on the table in front of us. Building my own type of sandwich with what we’ve collected, I pop it into my mouth and moan. I didn’t realize how hungry I was in the mess of the evening and the taste of cheese and jam has my insides buzzing. When I look, he’s staring at me with his mouth slightly ajar.
“Here, eat.” I wave a hand at him and smile. He leans over and takes a few pieces of our makeshift charcuterie board and eats.
“So, what’s the deal with storms?” he asks, leaning back. The storm outside is still raging on and with the sun down, it is completely black outside. If it weren’t for the candles we lit and the torch we have propped up, we would be speaking to one another in the dark.
“Deal about what?” I ask, moving so that I am sittingwith one leg bent under me and facing him. I prop my head up on my hand.
“Why do they freak you out so much? My therapist would say there’s some sort of trauma tied to that, but she says that about everything. I’m pretty sure ‘trauma’ is her favorite word.”
I chuckle lightly. “I feel like that’s therapists in general, not just yours.” I take another bite of my meal. “I love that you go—to therapy, I mean. I don’t think enough men do. I think it’s really great that you’re going.”
He sighs and rolls his neck. “Yeah well, it wasn’t my first choice. I probably should have started going years ago but…I don’t know, I was too proud I guess. Too pig-headed.”
“So what forced your hand?”
“Weren’t we talking about you?” he mocks.
“Briefly but now we’re talking about you.” I tilt my head at him.
He exhales slowly. “Nothing ‘forced my hand,’ I was just tired of feeling like I did.”
“And how’s that?” I know I’m intruding but he seems open to talking for once and I want to know more about him.
“Like I was a burden to my friends,” he answers pointedly and I feel my heart sink. No one should ever feel that way. I know first hand.
“From what I know about your friends, they don’t sound like the kind of people who would think you’re a burden.” I reach over and touch his arm, giving it a comforting squeeze. His eyes stare at my hand for a moment but he doesn’t shift to move it away.
“I know that, but, I don’t know I was just getting in my head about it and with the nightmares, it was just too much.” He drops his head for a moment before lookingback to me. “They’ve been my friends my entire life, they’re like my family.”
“Will you tell me about them?” I encourage, squeezing his arm again and smiling.
“So there’s three of them, but they’ve all found the loves of their lives over the last two years so now there’s six. First, there’s Hank and Bailey. They got together two years ago after he came home from deployment and he instantly fell in love with her. If you want two people who don’t have a mean bone in their body, it’s them. Then Kolbi, he owns Sweetgrass Security, you should hire them for the studio.” He points a finger at me seriously. “Well last year, he fell in love with Magnolia. They recently got married a few months back.”
“Oh, I love a good wedding,” he exclaims and I laugh at his excitement.
“And then there’s Malcolm. He’s with Ophelia. They got together at the end of last year and after a few bumps, figured it out and now co-run Butcher and Block which is this amazing restaurant on the other side of the bridge.”
“Sounds like quite the group.” When he smiles widely and I get a glimpse at what I know is his true smile, I nearly melt into a puddle.
“We really are.” He sighs, looking down at his feet again. “What about you? Tell me about your friends?”
“Erm, well, I don’t really have a lot offriendsso to say.”
“What? A guy like you?” He sounds genuinely surprised at my confession.
