Some time later,they sat across from each other in one of the booths against the wall.Tom cut himself off after the second beer so that he could drive home, but Randall moved onto his third.The alcohol had worn off Randall’s cool, Hot Mall Santa varnish and turned him into an animated storyteller.
“He enlisted to fight in the Civil War at age forty, where he was shot in the arm, the knee, and the chest, but he still survived and went on to become president.Rutherford B.Hayes was a badass.”
“I’ve never seen someone so passionate about our fifteenth president.”
“Nineteenth,” Randall said in between beer sips.“There’s this whole period of one-term presidents people have forgotten about.”
For the past twenty minutes, Randall had regaled Tom with random facts about past presidents.Apparently the grandsons of John Tyler, our tenth president, were still alive.
“Have you always been such a history buff?”Tom asked.
“No.To be honest, I never paid too much attention in school.On long car trips though, listening to music gets boring fast.So then I moved onto podcasts, and I listened to one about crazy facts of American history.Then I picked up an audiobook on George Washington, and it turned into this thing where I’m making my way through all the U.S.presidents.Hayes was tough because there aren’t a lot of biographies on him, unfairly so.”
“Isn’t it weird when you find yourself wanting to learn things you had no interest in at school?Last year, I found myself re-readingTo Kill A Mockingbirdfor fun.”
“There’s this adult part of my brain that’s like ‘knowledge is cool,’” Randall said in a robot voice.
“Is your brain a machine?”
“I have no idea why I did that voice.I like to think that my brain speaks in a British accent.”
Tom broke into a loud, hyena-like laugh that didn’t feel embarrassing in the moment.Probably because Randall’s laugh, more like a guffaw, was just as silly.They attracted odd looks.You guys wish you were having as much fun as us!
Randall picked a piece of lint off his coat’s faux-fur trim.
“Why are you still in your Santa costume?”
“I came from work.I really needed a drink and to not be around kids.”
They clinked their glasses to that.The beer matched the ring of amber in his irises.Tom figured he shouldn’t be studying his eyes so much.
“Your co-workers seem cool.I didn’t mean to embarrass you the other night,” Randall said.
“We weren’t expecting a celebrity to walk into our store.”
Speaking of co-workers, Tom’s heart clenched up when he thought he saw Antonio come into The Wounded Soldier.He didn’t know why, but being around Randall and Antonio at the same time sent his awkward meter off the charts.
“Do you see someone?”Randall peered at the front entrance.Even the way his hazel eyes squinted and lips parted slightly was like he was forever posing for a magazine cover.
The guy walked up to the bar, and phew.Not Antonio.
“I just thought that was my boss.”
“Oh, he does kind of look like the guy I saw the other night, the one with the blond husband.”
“Boyfriend,” Tom said quickly.“Boyfriend.They’re just boyfriends.”
Randall cocked an eyebrow.
“They are!Why are you looking at me that way?”
“In what way?”
“In that way with your eyebrows and your eyes and your mouth.”
“Those are parts of my face.”
“You know what I mean.”
