I lift my shoulder halfheartedly, suddenly shy.
“That’s less personal talent and more experience with living in a small town. It’s not some big city, where you have a ton of hoops to jump through. You just have to know who to talk to and how to get your way. Chet is an asshole with entitled asshole kids. When they don’t get their way, they throw hissy fits, and because of his position, he’s able to make their tantrumseveryone’s problem. I don’t like that, so any opportunity I can get to take him down a peg, I take.”
“Well, I guess I should be lucky you’re on my team,” he mumbles, looking at the papers again in a bit of a daze. I take them, slide them back into the manila folder I brought, then put them into my bag.
“The luckiest,” I agree. We stand outside the building for another moment, me looking at him and smiling, him looking down at me contemplatively.
“Do you want to get lunch?” he asks after a moment, and my entire body stills.
“Lunch?”
“Yeah. Midday meal, sandwiches, salads,” he says, an echo of my own words.
I nudge his shoulder, watching his lips tip up more than ever before. He'steasing me. He still isn’t smiling, something I’m not fully sure he knows how to do, but I think I might spot the beginnings of adimple.
“Oh. My. God,” I murmur, looking around dramatically, trying not to give in to the Graham-induced daze.
Today has really messed with my head, between the almost smile, the forearm porn, and his hand on my waist. Or maybe it’s that he and I are spending time together outside of the office for the first time. Either way, my outburst works as planned, his eyebrows furrowing. I grin, basking in his confusion. I like confusing Graham. Something tells me that very few people can get him off kilter, and being one of the few who can feels special.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just… It’s happening!” I say. “We’re one step closer to friends!”
He rolls his eyes and lifts a hand as if to fend me off. “Okay, if you’re going to make it weird?—”
“No, no. No take-backs. Come on, let’s go. There’s a good place around the corner.”
I grab his arm and lead him toward the small lunch place without another word. When we get there, I greet April, the hostess, and introduce her to Graham.
“Table for two?” I ask, glancing inside. It’s packed, which isn’t a surprise since it’s a popular lunch spot, but I was hopeful they’d be able to fit us in.
“Inside or out? Out is open, but inside is about a fifteen-minute wait.” Graham answers for me.
“Outside. Are you okay with that?”
“As long as you are. I need to get my vitamin D. It’s what gives me my sunny disposition.”
April grabs two menus and leads us to a table.
“You need more vitamin D? I think you’re sunny enough,” Graham says as we walk.
“That sounded like another compliment, Mr. Hawthorne. Be careful, I think it might become a habit for you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment,” he says quickly with a shake of his head, pulling out a chair for me to sit in.
“Sure it wasn’t,” I tease, then accept the menu from April. Graham sits, then takes his own menu, and we call into a. comfortable silence as we look them over.
After a moment, Rachel comes over with a pad to take out an order.
“Hey, June! How are you? I didn’t expect to see you here,” she says with a wide grin.
“Hey, Rach! We had to get some permits at city hall, and I’m determined to show Graham here some of Seaside Point's hidden gems. How’s Jonah?” I ask of her son.
“Oh, he’s great, working with Claire again this summer as a junior lifeguard. Probably yapping her ear off,” she says with an eye roll and a smile.
“She loves it,” I say, because she does.
“Well, we’re lucky to have her in town,” she agrees before looking to Graham and me. “Do you two know what you want, or do you need another minute?” We both agree that we’re good to order, and Rach takes it down. I reach for a tortilla chip in the basket at the center of the table after she walks off, but Graham stares at me skeptically.
