After placing their orders, the cavemen decide it’s a great time to play paper football. As if the volume in which they are speaking wasn’t enough to drive me mad. Unfortunately for me, I’m seated right behind the “goalposts” one of them makes by holding up their hands.
Pushing through the distractions, I try to ignore them, but I end up misspelling aword on this application when I hear the front bells chime. Again. I know it’s impossible, but I swear the bells are louder this time.
After fixing my spelling mistake, I hit submit on the application just as one of the paper footballs hits me in the side of the head and gets stuck in my curls. The small white triangle isn’t hard to find against the deep brown of my hair, but my annoyance grows as removing it catches a few of my curls in my small gold hoop earrings.
Annoyed, I turn to the table, still trying to untangle my curls from my earring. “Do you mind?”
The majority of them wince at the expression on my face. It’s a healthy mix of irritation, anger, and disgust that appears only when I’m extremely overstimulated.
The table erupts in a soft chorus of frantic, mumbled apologies just as a smooth, low-timbre voice interjects from beside us, “You guys are such assholes sometimes.” By the way he laughs through the statement, I’d assume he finds their antics more amusing than disrespectful.
I pay no attention to the mystery man as my irritation grows. Whoever he is, I’m sure he’s responsible for the bell chime that made me mess up on my last application anyway.
“THEO!” the chorus of men yell, causing me and a few others in the diner to jump.
Feeling eyes on me, I finally give attention to the man they call “Theo,” glancing in his direction. He’s staring at me, a slight tilt to his head as though he’s waiting for me to say something. I don’t say a word. If he’s associated with these, as he deems them, “assholes,” then I can safely assume he’s one too.
“They’re harmless, I swear.” He flashes me a wide grin, and my brain short-circuits. While charming, there’s a hint of recklessness in his smile, and the combination is intriguing.
Asshole or not, it’s one hell of a smile.
I continue to stare at him as I sit there, saying nothing. I haven’t even so much as smiled at him. I should probably say something.
Just move your fucking mouth, Sienna.
“It looks like you’re busy. We’ll try not to bother you.” Theo winces and points behind him. “They usually seat us in the back.”
Finally coming to my senses, I respond, “I’m fine. I was just about to leave anyway.” Shutting my laptop, Idecide I can push my schedule up by five minutes today. I don’t think I can get many more applications filled out with my current table neighbors, anyway.
My jeans scrape against the cracked leather seat as I slide out of the booth, creating the most god-awful noise. There’s absolutely no graceful way to slide out of a diner booth seat, and my cheeks heat. I could not have a worse audience for a moment like this.
I’m apparently on a mission to make this the most embarrassing morning in the history of mornings, and my laptop slips out of my hands. Theo, witnessing the disastrous chain of events, catches my laptop with one hand moments before it meets its untimely demise.
He straightens as I finally wiggle my way free of the diner booth seat. At five-foot-seven-inches tall, I’m average for my height, but Theo istall. I have to crane my neck up just to make eye contact. Looking straight ahead only gets me a view of his noticeably broad shoulders.
When he takes a tentative step toward me, holding out my laptop, the light catches in his eyes. Hazel green with swirls of brown as though he was born of the forest itself. When I reach out to grab my laptop from him, my fingers accidentally graze his hand, and my breath hitches against my will at the touch.
“Theo!” A slightly shorter blond man approaches Theo, slapping an arm around him. “Come sit down. Pancakes have arrived, and the girls will be here any minute.” He appears less hungover than the rest of his breakfast companions, but not by much.
“Matt, chill. I’ll sit down in a sec.” Matt gives me a look up and down that unsettles the pancakes in mystomach. Walking back to his seat, he winks at Theo with a half-cocked grin on his face.
“Thank you. I should really get going.” I work to shove my laptop into my backpack and push past Theo, heading toward the door.
“Hey, wait.” Theo’s voice stops me in my tracks just before my exit. “Wouldn’t want to forget this.”
Theo holds out my planner. Or more accurately, the one thing I can’t live without. I was in such a rush to get out of here that I must’ve left it on the table.
“Thanks,” I mumble as I put the planner in my backpack. Theo doesn’t walk away as I swing the backpack over my shoulders. The bells above the door chime again, a reminder I should be exiting. Yet my feet are slow to move.
“I also go to Portland State. You graduating next month too?” My eyebrows furrow in confusion.How did he know I…?He points at my sweatshirt.
You know, after all those murder podcasts I listen to, you think I’d know better than to proudly wear merch that states what school I’m currently attending.
Before I can respond to his question, a thin blond woman pushes past me, all but shoving me into the coatrack next to the front doors. Her eyes are locked onto Theo as she reaches out, placing a hand on his chest.
“Hey, Theo,” she says in a honeyed tone. I guess the women Matt referenced earlier have arrived.
Theo’s eyes are still on me when I turn toward the exit, not saying a word.
