Page 25 of Snowballing

Eli: Sounds like a superhero.

Gareth: I hope I don’t have to wear spandex.

Is he flirting with me? I told myself there was no way. I had been out of the game for too long to tell. He didn’t even know me.

Eli: Your normal clothes will suffice.

Eli: I have a 9 day trip in February, so I was hoping to find someone now, so that Trey could get comfortable with them being around.

Eli: Trey’s my son.

Gareth: Nancy gave me all the details.

Eli: All of them?

Shit. Now I sounded flirty. There was a ninety percent chance he was straight. I was projecting societal stereotypes of mannies onto him and it was glaringly obvious. This was a horribly inappropriate way to start a professional relationship.

Get it back on track.

Gareth: Well, his age, your job, a few tidbits. I still think we should meet to see if it’s a good fit. I don’t have any plans today.

Gareth: Shit. It's Christmas. You’re probably busy.

There was something about him. He just seemed likable. I still wanted to meet him, but I doubted I’d have a problem with him if Nancy told the truth. He sounded like an all-American boy-next-door.

Eli: Actually, Trey and I are at the mall.

Gareth: Seriously? Burlington, Natick or Solomon Pond?

Eli: Burlington…

Gareth: Get out! Me too! Wanna meet up now?

“Dad! Dad! I got both the new shinies and the new raid boss, and I met this guy that was playing with one of the other groups and he traded me a shiny Snorlax with a Santa hat from last Christmas! Look!”

I smiled and tried to hold back the tears as I put my book down. He was so happy, like the little boy from years ago that got so excited over the smallest thing. I was grateful to this stranger that had made his day.

“What did you trade him?”

“Oh, pink’s his favorite color, so I traded him a shiny Slakoth because he missed that community day.”

And if he spoke Greek, I’d understand it as much as whatever he just said.

“That’s awesome! How nice of you.”

Trey radiated joy and snagged a bite of my pretzel that I had apparently forgotten about while lost in my book.

“Whatcha reading?” Trey looked over at me. “Romance, Dad? I told you, you’re a catch. You should start dating again instead of reading about that stuff.”

Where was this coming from?

“Speaking of meeting people, your potential manny is actually here at the mall. I was going to invite him for lunch. That okay?”

“Yeah, whatever.” And he was back to tapping or catching or whatever he was hopping up and down in his seat about.

“He said he’s almost here. You wanna get off your phone?”

Trey sighed. “Fine.”