Page 21 of True Sight
“Her name is Annie.”
“Annie, that’s a cute name. The sun will come out tomorrow,” he sings and I can’t help but roll my eyes.
“Yep. That’s the one.” He’s smiling back at me now and I worry for a moment he’s about to break out into song. The warm September sun breaks through the old windows and casts a light across the top of his head, highlighting the soft auburn color of his hair.
“Is she cute?”
“Some people would say so.”
“You think she’s cute. And you love her, I can see it written all over your grumpy face.” He wiggles a finger in my face and scrunches his nose at me.
“I do not have a grumpy face,” I argue, annoyed that regardless of how much time people spend with me they have no issue seeing that I am, in fact, a grump.
“Okay, you don’t have a grumpy face, sorry I brought it up.” He raises his hands in front of him as if I’m threatening him with a weapon. “I’ll file your grumpy face under things we aren’t allowed to talk about.”
I scowl at him from across the table and check my watch, needing something to do with my hands. Between his tardiness and my little confession, we’ve wasted half an hour of our meeting already.
“Can we just talk about your project, please?” I sigh, turning my laptop a little more so he can see the screen.
“Sure, we can just talk about my project.” He smiles, putting his dimples on full display again.
My fingers move across the trackpad to wake up the sleeping machine and I type in my password.
“Hey, do you think we can hangout sometime?” My eyes lift to meet him hesitantly. He’s leaning on his elbows again and has his head dipped low as if he just told me a secret. “I don’t have many friends here—well I think I have one butshe’s also an instructor I just hired so I don’t know if that counts.”
“And I’m the guy you hired to build you a fully custom website and app. Why am I any different than she is?” I have enough friends already and a few I never wanted in the first place. Unfortunately for him, there is no friendship application I’m currently handing out.
“I don’t know, you just are,” his voice trails off as he looks at me with a lazy grin. I squint at him, unsure and overall unenthused by the entire idea. But part of my job is making my clients happy and if letting him believe we can be friends makes him happy, so be it.
“Sure, maybe. But not on Wednesdays, I have standing plans on Wednesdays.” I open the file I made specifically for him that answers the question he asked me on Friday and turn my computer to show him.
“Fine, just not on Wednesdays,” he smirks before turning towards the computer and finally focusing on work instead of me.
11
HENRY
Iknew that leaving home would be an adjustment but I didn’t expect to feel this lonely all the time. Next week will mark one month in the States and nearly four weeks on studio renovations. I’m thankful for how busy the launch of it is keeping me because it’s a good distraction from how much I miss home. Not so much missing home as much as simply missing Ellie. Our relationship is more like twins separated at birth and going from seeing her almost daily to nothing more than an occasional FaceTime call has been hard on my heart.
But something I’m immensely grateful for was Alex. She and I hung out after I hired her just over a week ago and ended up getting wine drunk on my sofa. While we were supposed to be choreographing dances for classes, we opted to spend the night yapping about our past sexual encounters and the celebrities we would love to see naked. She picked up on the flow and speed of classes quickly and has joined me in several virtual sessions already. When she shared about her new teaching gig online, Conrad had to quicklybuild out a waitlist for local attendees to become members once we opened. He also put up a temporary enrollment page for me without me even having to ask which allowed people on this side of the Atlantic to join the virtual classes I had scheduled. For a guy who’s supposed to be grumpy and closed off, I found the gesture to be incredibly thoughtful.
Don’t go falling for a straight boy, you’ve been there before and you were the one who got burned,I hear the voice in my head remind me as I walk down the street.
I’m on my way to meet with Alex for coffee and to go over next week’s teaching schedule. We agreed that it’s a good idea to start offering classes during normal Eastern Time Zone hours and already booked out the few classes we’d added to the schedule. I’ll continue to teach my U.K. students in the early hours of the day and we’ll tag team the ones during normal business hours here in the States.
You don’t know that he’s straight though. It’s a dangerous thing to assume someone’s sexuality,I reply, starting a conversation with myself.
But you also don’t know that he’s gay either,the opposing voice snips.
An external sigh escapes me as I pull open the door to the coffee shop Alex asked me to meet her at. When I step inside, I think I’ve somehow gotten lost and entered a plant shop. Green vines and oversized leaves fill the space, creating a warm and comfortable energy. As I move closer inside, a door is open in the back which I walk through to step out onto an outdoor patio that’s closed in with plastic walls. Patio furniture is set out in an organized way and to the side is a full bar that holds bottles of wine, liquor, and two industrial sized espresso machines.
“Henry, hey,” Alex calls out and my eyes look towardsthe sound. I spot her sitting at a high top and walk over, leaning in for a hug once I’ve reached her.
“You look lovely today,” I compliment. She looks striking in her faux leather leggings, skin tight black long sleeved pullover, and a black puffer vest she’s layered on top. Her long black hair is pulled back into the ponytail I quickly learned is her signature look and she has on black Nike trainers to finish off her outfit. She looks like she just stepped off a photoshoot for Nike.
“Oh, please.” She waves a hand at me, resituating herself on her stool. “I had three personal training sessions this morning and haven’t had time to change.”
“Well for a girl who’s done nothing but workout today, you look stunning. If I had a single straight bone in my body I might consider hitting on you.” She laughs before taking a sip of her coffee. I pull myself onto the stool across from her and browse the menu propped up by a small metal stand.
