I shocked myself at my own honesty and felt an instant wave of embarrassment. I didn’t want to be a mopy guy talking about all his baggage.
“Not that I don’t have a family,” I said. “I have my mom, and she’s great, I just wanted more camaraderie I guess. I never had any siblings by blood.”
Claire nodded with eagerness. “Me neither. I used to pretend I had like 7 brothers and sisters, I would even make up names and personalities for all of them.”
I had an image of a tiny blonde Claire carrying on an imaginary argument with an invisible sibling and smiled. “Which one was your favorite?”
“I had this awesome older brother,” Claire said. “Once we hopped into train cars and rode the rails like they used to do in the olden days.”
“That’s sort of why I got into bikes,” I said. “I wanted to be able to just take off with my good friends and go anywhere.”
Claire’s eyes turned dreamy, and she let out a little sigh. “It sounds lovely.”
“It is,” I said.
There was a beat of silence in which we simply locked eyes. It wasn’t uncomfortable though. It was more like we were seeing each other for who we were, in the light of the day, away from a dance club or a bar or fancy restaurant.
“Well, enough about the residual scars of childhood,” Claire said with a wry grin. “What should we eat?”
In a matter of minutes, Claire produced an array of take-out menus. To my delight, she had anecdotes and reviews about nearly every single one. One place had great pizza, but it was a long wait. A Thai food restaurant was her go-to on lazy Sundays.
I laughed at all of Claire’s pithy comments. At last, we opted for Chinese food. I was happy to discover that Claire and I had the same philosophy when it came to ordering Chinese food. We selected several dishes and didn’t worry about having too much since we could always eat leftovers. We ordered sesame chicken, dumplings, fried rice, crab rangoon, and beef with broccoli.
Once we had placed the order, I felt myself relaxing around Claire. She was easy to be around, and it was clear that she wasn’t uncomfortable. She flicked on the TV and we surfed the channels for a while, but mostly we just chatted about our respective jobs and friends and living in La Playa. I told Claire that Kim was recovering quite nicely as she described her colleague, Veronica.
“I have to ask,” Claire said. “What is the deal with Moves?”
I laughed at her bemused expression. “He’s simultaneously the best and the worst.”
“I mean, when he dragged me over that first night, I had no idea what was going on,” Claire said. “Obviously, I went with it, ‘cause I was pursuing Trey, but I swear no one has ever wingmanned with such confidence.”
“Confident, yes,” I said. “But not subtle.”
“I mean, I guess it kinda worked in the end,” Claire said.
I looked up with a start. It was the first time either one of us had referenced the night we had spent just a few yards away, in her bedroom.
“Not really thanks to Moves though,” I said.
“I’m sure he would disagree,” she said.
“Yeah, he would,” I said.
I shook my head and smiled over my friend. “He’s a good guy though.”
“Yeah, definitely charming,” she said.
“Don’t let that fool you,” I said. “There are a lot of guys in East La Playa that wouldnotcall Moves charming.”
Claire furrowed her brow in puzzlement.
“He’s our enforcer,” I said.
“So he’s, like, your muscle?” she asked.
I shrugged. “He’s the one who makes sure enemies stay in line. He’s a fighter.”
“Oh.” Claire didn’t look horrified or judgmental. Just curious once again. “I didn’t know everyone had roles.”
