It was endearing to see him sort of stumble over himself. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this joy and delight bubbling between us.
“Sure! No, wait, actually I can’t.”
Felix’s smile went up, then down.
“I have to go back to work,” I answered. “Cass guilt-tripped me and another teacher into taking over as the yearbook advisors. I have to start sorting through the mess left by the previous teacher.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s not. Stephen—Kelly, he’s an accounting teacher—already works on the school newspaper. And I have this Christmas concert in a few weeks. It’s bad enough the elementary concerts are delayed until the New Year, but now I’m advising an activity I know nothing about.” I shook my head. “It is what it is.”
Felix took a step backward and motioned me to follow. “Come here. I’ll only keep you for a moment.”
He walked through the gift displays in the front of the building and turned left down a short hall. Felix opened a door to reveal a small, orderly office. He reached his right hand out for the first time to gently tug my jacket sleeve, ushering me inside. He told me to wait and then vanished down the hall once more.
I looked around. The speaker system for the shop and café seemed to be wired into here as well, and soft instrumental holiday music broke the stillness. The setting sun was shining through the big window on the far wall, casting the entire office in shades of gold and amber that I was going to forever associate with Felix. There was a big bulletin board on the left wall, pinned with all sorts of advertisements, reminders, memos….
I walked closer and saw a business card with my number written on it. It was the dry cleaner’s card I’d given Felix on Sunday night. He’d scribbled a note to himself on it.
Bo—call ASAP!
I laughed. I guess that answered the question at our first meeting of how Felix felt about skinny redheads.
I turned to his desk. There wasn’t much sitting out besides a pen on a recently printed document with notes written into the margins, and a few framed photos. I picked one up. It was of Felix and Alan, probably taken earlier that spring, as the teen looked roughly the same now, sans the braces he was rocking in the picture. They looked happy, though. A small but content family of two.
I set the frame back and took another one. Alan, I presumed, as a wee kiddo. He was sitting on the floor beside a decidedly Charlie Brown Christmas tree, with the biggest smile on his face and a children’s keyboard in his lap. Music lover from an early age.
The edge of the photo showed the shape of something that had been cut off by the camera’s frame—at least that’s what I thought until I realized the picture had been folded to fit.
I looked over my shoulder at the partially closed door.
I wasn’t going to bethatintrusive asshole, was I?
I turned the frame around and unsnapped the piece holding the backside on.
Apparently, I was.
Sliding the old photograph free, I gently unfolded the crease. A young blond man stared back. He had none of the joy on his face that five-year-old Alan had.
“I hope this will make your evening a bit better,” Felix said from behind me.
I startled and quickly turned, wincing when his attention went from me to the photo. “I’m so sorry,” I muttered, unable to look away.
Felix stepped inside the office. He set a paper gift bag down on the desk, glanced at me, then accepted the pieces I held out.
“I was just looking,” I began. “But you said you were divorced—I snooped like an asshole.”
Felix shrugged after a minute. “My ex-husband,” he confirmed, holding the picture up briefly. “Shortly before I moved here.” He folded the photo and slid it back into the frame. “I’d have tossed the picture, but I really love Alan’s expression in it.” He looked at me again and offered a weak smile. “I could have cut Eric out, but that’s kind of like pretending the past didn’t happen, I guess.”
“I knew better,” I said.
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s—”
“I like you,” Felix interrupted. “Kind of a lot. And—for the first time in forever, Iwantto date. I feel like if I’m not up-front about my previous marriage, it’ll just be a dead albatross around the neck of a new relationship.”
I held my breath.
