Small.
Interested.
He catches it.
There’s the faintest answering smile at the corner of his own mouth.
Well.
That settles it.
I set my glass down and push off the bar.
No point pretending I’m not going to walk over.
By the time I stop in front of him, he is watching me with that same guarded interest.
“Hi,” I say.
That earns me another smile.
Chapter 3
Philip
Up close, he’s trouble.
Not in an obvious way.
There’s nothing loud about him. No performance, no edge that warns you off. If anything, it’s the opposite. He looks like someone you’d trust without thinking about it.
Which is significantly worse.
“Hi,” he says.
His voice is lower than I expected. Calm. Like he’s not trying to impress me and doesn’t need to.
I take a sip of my drink before answering, mostly to give myself a second.
“Hi.”
Effortless. Truly.
He doesn’t seem to mind.
“I’m Mark.”
“Philip.”
He nods once, like that’s all he needs, then glances briefly at the table I sat with my friends before looking back at me.
“Good night?” he asks.
I follow his glance. The chairs have already been claimed by someone else. The glasses are gone. It’s like we were never there.
“It was,” I say. “Very educational.”
“Oh yeah?”
