Jess
Sunday Afternoon
It was time to see what sort of a man Phoenix could be when given a second chance.
And unlike before, when I had put a ton of pressure on myself to deliver a great date, I really didn’t feel any on my end this time. Certainly, I wasn’t about to show up in terrible clothing, poorly made up, or with a flippant attitude, but the extra pressure was off. I didn’t feel as much of an urgent desire to make a good impression as he might have.
Besides, I knew that now that I’d already put one foot out the door, with the other one lifting off the ground to also go out, there wasn’t any worry about getting entangled in something I didn’t want to be in.
Or, rather, need to be in. But... worry about that when it gets to that point.
Of course, some thoughts were easier to follow than others, and some thoughts were easier to consider following than others.
Nevertheless, as I heard the sound of the motorcycle drawing nearer to the same hiking spot we’d gone on a week before—I had teased Phoenix quite a bit about seemingly wanting to repeat history—the thoughts about how this didn’t need to be serious faded into the recesses of my mind. All I really cared about was enjoying the next few hours, however they turned out; thoughts of what this could mean would either naturally arise in conversation, or they’d best be put to the side for later.
Phoenix’s bike emerged around the corner, and already, even just from seeing his position on the bike, he looked much more engaged. He hadn’t leaned back lazily a week ago, but his hunch forward looked much more rugged and certain. It was like he was confident of where he was going, and not just drifting from one place to the next. He was controlling his life; life was not controlling him.
He parked his bike, dropped the kickstand down, and smirked at me.
“So would ‘hi’ suffice?” he said. “Or do I have to say something more to show you I’m not in a foul mood?”
“Ah, so it’s not going to be a sequel to last time,” I said playfully.
The tone and vibe I felt mirrored that of when I served drinks behind the bar, which was a strange thing to admit, considering I adopted those features for the sake of generating tips. But I didn’t feel bad about it because I wasn’t adopting this cheerful, upbeat feeling for everyone in sight; I was doing it for Phoenix and Phoenix alone.
“Well, however you want to say it, this will be better than last time,” he said.
He put his arm around the small of my back as he led me to the trail. It was a short-lived gesture, but it was one that set the tone very quickly—not only was this not going to be a repeat of last week, it wasn’t even going to be in the same league.
“Well, you must have had a great week then,” I said.
“Somewhat,” he said. “I haven’t gotten shot at, so that’s a plus.”
I laughed, felt a little guilty when he didn’t laugh, and then let a few more bottled-up laughs escape when he smirked at me.
“I hope that’s not how you evaluate how your week goes,” I said.
“Not at all,” he said.
“Then how do you evaluate it?”
Phoenix scrunched his eyes and mumbled to himself.
“By how well acquainted with the truth I am and how well I am able to handle it.”
It was a rather... peculiar, but not in a bad way, means of answering the question. Most people would answer by how happy they were, how much money they’d made, how their relationships were...
But Phoenix just sounded like a philosopher sitting on a rock; it was not the kind of thing one would expect from someone who worked in a repair shop and drove motorcycles with a bunch of men.
Just like how his father was.
Then again, if there was one thing I had learned during my time at Brewskis, it was that the bikers often were the people who said the smartest things, because they weren’t restrained by appearances or having to kiss ass.
“All right, Mr. Wise Guy,” I said with a smile. “What sort of truths did you get into this week?”
“Oh, some that I’ll discuss later,” he said coyly. “Not sure some of them are the type of things that you’d want to hear at the beginning of a second first date.”
“A second first date? Is that what we’re calling this?”
