He made small talk for a while, and I couldn’t help but notice the way he kept looking at me. Like he wanted to say more. Then, he followed up with the heavy-hitting question, the one I guessed he’d come here intending to ask. Could he join us for a Friday Flyer night? I looked over at Maeve and could feel her unease with it, but she rolled on and told him they were coming to my dart league game today at Hip Hops. He looked at me with a raised brow, and I smiled brightly at him while shrugging.
“That sounds fascinating,” he said, his gaze lingering. “I’d love to meet you guys there for that drink to see you in action.”
“I’m not super good or anything,” I threw out nervously.
“You also said you were just okay at cooking, but those fajitas could have easily held their own in some of the best restaurants in New York. Why do I have a feeling you underestimate yourself often, Miss King?” His voice curled around me, and I felt the blush rise on my face. “But I think a dart night would be fun. Does that sound like a plan?” There’s no way he thought a small town dart league was fascinating; he probably just had nothing else to say. But the way he was looking at me? What was that? I continued to over-analyze those few words after he stood up.
Right before he stepped away, my phone dinged, and when I saw the alert, my heart dropped. Damnit, darts was canceled. “Ugh,” I said out loud.
“What’s wrong? Cora asked.
“Scratch all that. Darts just got canceled for tonight. Apparently, there was some sort of water main break?” I was extra disappointed because I was looking forward to a night out that involvedmy new flirty friend.
“That sucks, but no mind,” Maeve replied immediately. “We can go to The Yard to mix it up instead of Flyers? It’s karaoke night. Let’s say 7:00, so we can be there early enough to get a big table?”
After we all agreed to that, Donovan took off.
When the door closed, we all looked at each other and broke into schoolgirl-like giggles. Maeve made a comment about how she thought he was there for one of us. Truth be told, he and Cora probably worked better on paper, but I knew she was wrapped up in whatever was making her glow. That let my mind wander a little. What if he was there for me today?
11
DONOVAN
It was a bold move to crash their lunch, and admittedly, very unlike me. They were very gracious about it, even though I could read their initial expressions of surprise. But I got what I wanted: an invitation to join them that night. Granted, I didn’t think I’d be heading to karaoke tonight, but I was interested in getting to know the people Maeve always talked about. A nervous excitement buzzed beneath my skin. All I had to do for the night to be a success was to tap into the person I used to be. The one I’d put in a box and locked all those years ago. But today, crashing that lunch? That was old me behavior alright, and truth be told, it came back a lot easier than I thought.
As I sat at my desk, I should have gotten back to work, but instead, I leaned back in my chair, and looked out the window. I could see Orchard Lake and the Appalachian foothills. Seeing that every day affirmed my choice to stay here a little longer than I anticipated, but knowing Quest was being built in the distance made it that much sweeter.
While I rocked in my chair, I couldn’t stop thinking aboutthe woman I sat next to during my lunch crashing stunt. Since I’ve started examining my life, I’ve had the realization that I was veering a little too much into the weirdo, wealthy, eccentric loner lane. Plus, things were just losing their shine. My situationships weren’t as satisfying, which was crazy. The women I hooked up with had everything you would want in casual sex. They were hot, sexy, and fucking dynamite in bed. But after these past couple of run-ins with Audra King, she had my full attention and curiosity. She was so unassumingly beautiful. I was so used to being surrounded by blond-haired, waif-like women with fake lips, hair extensions, fake breasts, and enough Botox they couldn’t smile properly.
In contrast, Audra was every man’s fantasy. Her face was breathtakingly beautiful with naturally plump lips, a button nose, and eyes that were a color I couldn’t name; hazel with flecks of gold? I’d never seen eyes like that before in my life, and they mesmerized me. Her hair was light brown, and it went just past her shoulders, the couple of times I’ve seen her with it down. She had generous tits that looked like they would barely be contained by my big hands, a smaller waist, and an ass that looked like she lived in a CrossFit gym. I believe Sir Mix-A-Lot wrote songs about a person like her. Her personality seemed like the opposite of Maeve’s, but I suppose that when you work in the PICU, a calm demeanor comes with the territory. Finding out today that she played in a dart league was so wonderfully random. Realistically, we’d only interacted a dozen or so times, so there’s no reason I should know more than a few things about her, but things rarely caught me off guard. The dart league did. My mind inappropriately wandered back to that fantastic ass. Damn. I’d mostly seen her in scrubs, except for that one night at The Yard, but that didn’t stop me from closing my eyes and tipping my head fell back onmy chair to imagine what it would feel like to hold on to those hips as I…
“Donovan, are you serious about coming tonight?” Maeve’s voice broke up my extremely inappropriate thoughts as she came barreling into the office.
Tucking my legs under my desk to hide the evidence of those thoughts, I answered. “I am. I mean, if that works for you. As I’m going to be here for the foreseeable future, I’d like to start meeting some people. You talk highly of your friends, and I’ve met over half of them,” I pleaded my case nonchalantly. At the crux of all of this, I trusted Maeve. Aside from my adventure group, the people I knew from my old life all wanted something; access, money, exposure, or favors. But it didn’t feel like that here.
“Ok. You know I’m a straight shooter, Wright, and I just want you to know that if you think I dance around being unprofessional while at work and our work events, I need you to be prepared for me in the wild with drinks. I like my job a lot, but you are the one who is asking to bear witness to this.” She gestured down her body.
That earned a belly laugh from me. Those laughs really had been coming easier in the last couple of months. “Maeve, if you only knew me in my previous life. A night at a local bar can’t scare me.”
And it was true. From age thirteen to twenty-two, I just didn’t give a fuck. I was the life of the party and had endless funds. Nothing was too big a dare, and there was nothing I wouldn’t try once. I often wondered how I made it out alive. Not everyone did. I shook my head, remembering those wild times.
“I can’t believe that’s true. In the most respectful way possible, Wright, you’re too uptight for wild times. But try me.What’s the craziest thing you’ve done, Donovan? Stayed out past curfew?”
“Oh shit.” My mind started spinning. There was so much. “Let’s see, skydiving into the Great Blue Hole in Belize, Spelunking the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand to see glow worms, stealing a Cessna with Tommy, roasting marshmallows over lava, flying to England solely so a friend of ours could hook up with some cougar he met online, Burning Man three times, climbing Kilimanjaro, getting a tabori tattoo in Japan, an absurd amount of drugs … shall I go on?”
Her jaw dropped to the floor. “You can’t be serious? No. You’re lying.You?” she asked incredulously.
“Oh yeah, I was a real fucker. Money wasn’t an issue; all of us had access to private jets, and there was no parental supervision. We were the definition of unhinged rich kids. I mean, we trained for Kili, but, yeah. We had wild times.”
“So, if I dive deep on your socials, will I see that insane stuff from all those years ago? Or you can save me the trouble and show me now. Regardless, I’m going deep.”
“No, you won’t see evidence of it. The craziest shit we did, we never shared publicly. Too much of a liability for our families, you know? Can’t portray anything unsavory to give the impression that my life or family was anything but perfect. I should probably write a book,” I laughed. “But the guys you see on there are the ones I did it with. All of us were adventurers, and we had a damn good time.” I took a quiet intake of breath, shocked at my admission. That’s more information about my past or my parents than I’ve given to anyone in quite some time.
“What happened?” She looked at me with concerned eyes. Those tidbits of information were such a dichotomy to how I lived now, I could understand her skepticism.
I wasn’t going to get into it anyway, but before I could say anything, my phone alarm went off, halting the conversation. “Oh shit, our 1:30 call!” We scrambled to get our act together, and joined the online call with three minutes to spare. Though I wasn’t sure it would be our best meeting, at least we’d make it on time.
12
