‘Where we’re going,’ I said. ‘You said you wanted to “talk”, but it’s not like we can do that here.’ I pointed up at the bright shining lights of the pool hall parking lot. ‘Oh! We could also try the office park down the street.’
There was a moment of hesitation before he nodded and put on his seat belt. ‘Yeah, the office park works.’
I shifted into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.
Brad was quiet the whole ride. His legs bounced up and down as he wrung his hands between them. I smiled. He would always get nervous like this before we did anything. Like it took a few minutes of kissing before he finally realized he was safe and could relax. That was the Brad I liked, not this anxious, jumping-at-shadows – or pool hall doors – Brad. I enjoyed that confidence he finally got after he was comfortable.
Once – this was way back when I first entertained the idea of the two of us getting together after we had our second secret drunken make-out session – I went to one of his hockey games, and I saw that confident Brad skating around the ice. Of course, then he ignored me after the game when I waited outside the locker room for him.
I did hope he’d be able to be happy with himself someday. But for now, what we were doing was fine.
The office park was empty save for a few cars – their owners probably in the handful of offices that were still lit. I parked in the back of the lot near the trees. Ava had told me about this spot. It was always quiet since most of the offices were empty. And if the cops pulled into the parking lot, the entrance was far enough away, and had a concrete median with bushes and flowers the cops had to drive around, giving everyone enough time to get decent.
I unbuckled my seat belt, and Brad did the same, mirroring my movements.
‘So …’ Brad said. ‘Uh.’
Something was up with him. I mean, he was always nervous – it was actually kind of adorable. Someone like Brad – tall, eastern-European-featured, stoic Brad Waldorf – who could check the hell out of someone in a hockey rink, all of a sudden became this awkward, anxious kid who was never sure what to do or how to do it.
‘You okay?’ I asked.
‘Yeah. I’m okay. Sorry, just a lot going on up here.’ He pointed to his forehead. ‘Um … Can I …’ His voice trailed off.
‘Whatever it is, yes, you can. We don’t have to talk.’
He looked surprised, or was that disappointment? Nah, Brad was never comfortable – when he was sober – until I made the first move. So I figured I’d try to make it a little easier for him.
‘Honestly,’ I continued, ‘I have a lot on my mind tonight that I’d like to forget for a bit, so I think it’s even better if we don’t talk.’
‘Are … are you sure?’
Was I sure that I didn’t want to talk about the sheer embarrassment of the last guy I kissed having a boyfriend? At least Brad wasn’t seeing any girls.
‘Absofuckinglutely.’
I leaned across the center console and kissed him. At first, he wasn’t responsive – maybe he did need to talk and get comfortable? Then my mind started drifting to the kiss Gabe and I had shared.Wasit shared? Or did I kiss Gabe and he didn’t kiss me back?
Then, finally, as if he could sense my mind wandering to other places I didn’t want it to go, Brad began to kiss me back. He reached across the console and hefted me by the waist of my jeans. After a brief tangle of limbs, I was straddling him in the passenger seat. I reached down and pulled the reclining lever and the seat fell backward.
Brad let out an ‘Oof!’ then chuckled.
‘Sorry,’ I said.
‘It’s fine.’ His lips were back on mine, his hands against my neck, then one slipping back to run through my hair while the other dipped under my T-shirt – past that sensitive part of my side that made me shudder – and to my back.
Yes. This was all so much better than thinking.
‘Let me ask you something,’ James said, handing me a dinner slip. It was a week later, and James and I were working kitchen support together.
Oh no.But at least a bizarre James musing would get my mind off the only thing that had been repeating for the past few weeks.Gabe has a boyfriend. And we are just friends.Unfortunately, my dalliance – I really don’t think we as a society use that word enough – with Brad Waldorf had only made me forget for approximately nineteen minutes.
Thankfully, our theme of two ships passing in the night had been holding up, and I hadn’t had to train Gabe recently. If I’d had to, Natalie would absolutely have to writeattempted to murder a trainee, needs to learn how to follow through with tasksin my letter of recommendation.
‘Do you think aliens know to only abduct people without any chill? Like, they never go after dudes like Neil Diggy-T – someone who’d actually know about space stuff and physics – but they’ll abduct Randy Redneck nine times in a week.’
Pretty tame for a random James question. I sprinkled some microgreens on the plate and put the metal topper on it to keep it warm.
‘Table twenty-one!’ I shouted, hoisting the tray up and walking around James to put it under the warmers. ‘I think they gave up on us,’ I said as I went back to the stack of dinner trays and flipped the next one over. ‘When’s the last time you even heard of anyone being abducted?’
