“Do you live around here?”
“Uh…yeah,” I said, drawing my attention back to the woman in front of me. “I just got back to town. I was living out in New York.”
“Oh, that’s exciting. What did you do out there?”
“Lawyer.”
“Big shot,” she said, blushing as she propped her chin on her hand. “What was it like?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but couldn’t think of any way to describe it. “Um…in some ways good, and in other ways bad.”
I remembered Ellie’s watery eyes and glanced back at her, wondering what made her so upset that she would sit in a bar crying. Not that it was important.
“That’s a cryptic answer,” Sarah laughed.
“Yeah,” I laughed. “Sorry, it’s just…been interesting being back home. So, what do you do?”
“I work at the resort in Whitefish.”
“Whitefish. That’s quite a haul.”
“About twenty-five minutes. It’s not too bad unless the weather isn’t cooperating.”
What a boring conversation. We were talking about driving to work. There had to be something better to discuss on a first date. Hell, I wasn’t even on a date with Ellie, and I had a naturally fun conversation with her. Why couldn’t it always be that way?
“So, now that you’re home, what are you doing?”
“Nothing yet,” I answered, my ears perking up at the sound of the bell over the door. “Um…just trying to figure out my next step.”
“Yeah, that sounds hard. I’ve never been that far away from home, so I don’t know what that’s like. New York seems like a world away.”
She continued talking while my eyes wandered to the man who entered, his focus on Ellie.
“Is it hard to be out of the city?”
“No, not really,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound too distracted. But I was curious about this new man. He walked over to Ellie and introduced himself, going in for a hug.
I snorted in amusement. That was awfully presumptuous, and based on the way she stiffened, she thought so, too.
“Sorry, was something funny?” Sarah asked.
“Uh…no. I mean, I was just thinking about how…you leave the city and come back here, and it’s so quiet.”
“I bet. What was it like to work in one of those skyscrapers? Was it scary to be up above all the world?”
I wanted to shoot myself right now. What was it like to work in a skyscraper? Was this really what we were going to talk about?
“It was like climbing a mountain,” I went for.
“I would think it would be completely different. A different culture. A different way of life. There’s something so magical about traveling that far away, don’t you think?”
This was why I went out on Thursday nights. Yes, there was the chance that I would meet someone boring like this woman, but I had an easy out. And as I looked over at Ellie, it seemed she needed the early out as well.
I ordered drinks for us and pretended to engage in conversation with Sarah, but there was nothing that interested me. She was nice enough, but there was no spark. No connection. By the time our second round of drinks came, I was ready to get out of here.
“Excuse me,” Sarah smiled. “I’m just going to use the restroom.”
I stood along with her, just like my father taught me. But the moment she walked away, my eyes went right to Ellie.
