Page 11 of Show Me How to Heal
It took me all my will power to tear my gaze away from Zayne, even for the second it took to quickly look at the guys at my table — which was the polite thing to do. However, after a moment, my eyes immediately searched for Zayne again.Got him.I’d recognize his shiny, light brown braid anywhere.
Huh.
I’d always associated braids with femininity, but there was no doubt Zayne was a guy. Even his loose shirt couldn’t hide the broad shoulders.
“First of all: soap makers actually can have fans. Do you have any idea how big Zayne’s social media following is? There are people out there that collect his soaps without even using them. They just, like… buy everything and put it on a shelf! At least I want to buy his stuff because it keeps my neurodermatitis at bay.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Walker asked. “Tell me you’re pulling our leg and there aren’t people buying tons of soap to put it on a shelf?”
“I wish.” Mel rolled her eyes. “It’s ridiculous. I’ve been trying to get this cotton soap I adore for weeks, but it’s always sold out. Do you think he’d mind if I went over and asked him?”
I tiled my head. He looked nice, at least to me.
I watched as he walked to a booth, a warm smile on his lips, and then he… hugged my realtor before sliding into the booth and starting to talk animatedly with my realtor and his friends.
“Give that man a break,” Raphael said, a little exasperated.
“Jeez, you sound like I’m about to harass or stalk the guy. I just want to talk to him!”
“Yeah, but he’s got enough on his plate as it is.” Now the exasperation was definitely there. I turned my head back to my table. I couldn’t ogle that man for the whole evening, anyway. That was definitely creepy. And I wanted to listen to what Raphael had to say.
“What do you mean by him having enough on his plate?” Mel asked, well, rather demanded to know.
Raphael blanched, his face turning white. “Nothing. I mean… he just seems to be extremely busy. He’s a regular of mine. He buys a lot of lavender for his soaps from me and dries it himself because I can get food grade lavender for him. So, you know, we talk sometimes. Just small talk, nothing important, but over the last couple of months, he’s seemed to get more and more worked up — and his orders went up, too. I think his online shop is really picking up a lot of traffic.”
“Duh.” Mel rolled her eyes. “That’s old news. If you followed his Insta, you’d know he’s doubled his subscribers. And his TikTok channel is like… super popular.”
I turned around again, trying to catch another look at the guy that’d sparked my interest. If it hadn’t been for Mel and Raphael, I might have gone over to Mason’s table and just… I paused. I didn’t know what I would have done.
Introduced myself?
Tried to flirt with him?
Probably not. I had no idea how to flirt with guys, and I didn’t think that walking on crutches, hobbling my way through a bar, would get me any bonus points.
Even so, now that I knew people probably bugged him on a regular basis, I definitely didn’t want to be one of those people. I knew from experience how annoying that was.
He was at the bar.
Alone.
As in: he actually was sitting on one of the bar stools and trying to get the bartender’s attention.
Okay, yeah, I was still watching him. Sue me.
He was… interesting. I still couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes off him or why there was this weird fluttering sensation whenever I saw him, but it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that right at this moment, there was an empty barstool right next to the guy.
Well, left next to the guy, but whatever.
Biting my lip, I tried to evaluate whether going over and trying to talk to him was worth it.
I mean… how big were the chances he liked cripples?
A guy like him?
His biggest hobbies were probably things like hiking or… horseback riding. Yeah. He looked like someone who’d love riding on a horse.
And I wouldn’t be able to do anything like that. I mean, I didn’t know about the horse stuff for sure, but since I’d never sat on a horse before, it was a justified assumption I’d be bad at it.
