I chuckled and took a tiny tumble-step toward him. Our body heat bounced back and forth between us. His hands stopped rubbing my arms, and I felt one move around to my back, just resting there. I stepped closer, lifting my head to him.
His eyes were closed. We were silent.
My teeth stopped chattering, and we didn’t speak. The only sound was the low croak of a toad somewhere in the trees.
I closed my eyes and leaned into him. His lips were warm, and he opened them to mine. I felt him apply more pressure to my back, and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him close. He gasped into me, and his other hand cupped behind my ear and neck.
My chest was tight, and my heart raced.
The kiss was just a moment that felt like forever. Because he pulled his lips away. He put his forehead to mine, and I opened my eyes to see his were still closed.
‘I should tell you something,’ he said. He chuckled, but it sounded sad.
‘Don’t tell me you’re straight.’ I mean, did I have a type or what?
He laughed again, and his hands were back to rubbing my upper arms. ‘No. The complete opposite.’ His hands went down to mine, and he squeezed them. ‘I … have a boyfriend.’
And the world came crashing down.
There’s a simple recipe for getting over someone who is in a relationship. Step one, wipe them from your mind entirely. Just stop thinking about them; it’s that easy. Like a buttery, flaky, perfect croissant, anyone – who happens to be a professional – can do it. And I am absolutely a professional when it comes to repressing emotions!
Step two, avoid them at all costs.
Unfortunately, my luck avoiding Gabe ended four days after I kissed him. Thankfully, I wasn’t training him; he was in the formal dining room, training with another server named Katie, so at least we didn’t have to do the awkward thing where we pretended we hadn’t kissed as I showed him the correct way to fold napkins. Which would have been even more awkward because I hadn’t answered the seven texts he had sent me over the past four days.
Al and Willa were my last table to leave, and I reset my section around them as they gossiped with me. I wanted to sit down and join them – Al had even told me to once or twice – but that was a major no-no. If there was one thing Nataliewouldallow us to say ‘no’ to, it was sitting with the residents. Even if that was part of her tasks, it would be a trick task to gauge if I could say no when I should.
‘And get this, kid,’ Al said, slinging his arm over the back of his chair. ‘She says she gets to choose because she’s been here longer than me.’
I frowned. ‘So she chooses every movie because she’s had more time to develop bad taste?’
Al cackled and even Willa almost smiled as she took another sip of her coffee. Without asking, I walked to the service station and grabbed the coffeepot to freshen her cup.
‘Last one,’ she whispered as Al continued.
‘Seriously, so anyway, I stood up and I told the old bitch—’
‘Al!’ Willa scolded.
‘If I have to sit through goddamnedCasablancaone more god-damned time, I’m going to hire a bunch of tired drag queens to come give a running commentary through the whole fuckin’ thing.’
I turned to Willa. ‘You didn’t scold him for that one?’
She shrugged. ‘It’s a direct quote. He really did say it, so what am I going to do, scold him again?’
‘You said all this?’ I asked, keeping my voice low. ‘To Dictator Dowling?’ Helga Dowling had a history of authoritarian rule over the Sunset Estates clubs she was a part of. Even my mom referred to her as Dictator Dowling when telling me about her own run-ins with her.
‘I did, and you know what?’
‘You get to choose the next movie?’
‘No. But I do have Daisy Chain and Jenna Fluid on retainer, so she’ll see who she’s messing with at the end of the month.’
I laughed and set the coffeepot back at the service station, turning off the warmers. ‘I would actuallypayto come watch that.’
‘What are we watching?’ Gabe had emerged from the salad bar doorway. Seeing him standing there, smiling his fake residents-only smile – very different from the real wide, handsome grin he gave me – was like a punch in the gut. Didn’t he know this wasmyarea? I still wasn’t prepared to hash things out with him. In fact, I just wanted it all to go away. It was so much easier for me to be pissed off at him for never telling me about his boyfriend than for him to apologize and force me to actually be cordial.
‘Al, Ms Vaughn, you remember our new hire, Gabe?’ I tried to hide the icy tone in my voice but must not have done it well enough, because Ms Vaughn looked at me instead of Gabe. She held eye contact, arching an eyebrow. I gave up the staring contest first and looked away.
