AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her eyes had mesmerized me when they locked onto mine, and I almost forgot what I was going to say. It wasn’t like I was bad with women. I knew I had a certain appeal and all, but Wendy was just so fascinating, so overwhelmingly my type that it was like my drive to impress her, to show off, was stronger than my ability to speak full, coherent sentences.
It was entirely unlike me. And extremely intriguing.
Enough so that three days later, I was still running over the memory of handing her a piece of lemon pie in my head. Saturday had dawned with me thinking about her smile the first thing when I opened my eyes and at random intervals during the day. I even caught myself daydreaming about the next time I saw her and what I would say to her while I flipped burger patties for the Saturday special.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I looked up at the ticket window. Saturday night was winding down, and I was grateful for it. I didn’t like leaving before the diner closed, but Janet, Tony, Roger, and Rebecca were all there working the evening and late-night shift, meaning I was superfluous. Since I had worked the breakfast and lunch shift, I was more than happy to cut out of the diner while there was still a p.m. at the end of the time a little early, so long as it wasn’t super busy.
I had a text message from Gerard, and it made me smile. We had sent a couple of messages back and forth, mostly talking about things to do in Ashford, of which there was little to tell him. It seemed he had already exhausted some of it, because his message was inviting me up to his cabin when I got off. I told him I likely wouldn’t get there until late in the evening, and he responded that I should just bring an overnight bag and crash in the game room.
Shrugging, I figured why not? He seemed like a cool dude, and it had been a number of years since I’d crashed on someone else’s couch. I finished cleaning the station I was on and handed off the responsibility to Tony.
“You headed out?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “If you need anything… don’t call me.”
Tony laughed and shook his head.
“I got this, bro,” he said. “Me and Roger here are going to rock out, am I right, Roger?”
Roger, in extraordinary Roger fashion, grunted and nodded as he flipped a burger.
“That’s as effusive a yes as he gives,” I said. “See you Monday, Tony.”
“See you Monday, boss,” Tony called back, and I went into the office to toss my apron.
I let Janet know I was leaving, and that Tony was in charge of back of house and headed out. My place was only a few miles from the diner, so I dropped by there and gathered my bug-out bag that I kept under the bed and tossed it in the car. I also grabbed a six-pack of fancy dark beer from the fridge that I’d grabbed from Sergio’s after having one on tap.
Gerard had texted me his address, and I popped it into my GPS app. It was a good fifteen minutes up the mountains. It looked like he was only a few miles from the trail I’d met him on. I followed the directions until I found a long driveway, deep in the woods. When I got to the cabin, I whistled to myself.
His place was fantastic. It wasn’t a sprawling mansion or anything, but it was close to an overlook of its own, looking down into the town rather than out over the mountains. From where I parked, I could see the diner deep in the distance. I grabbed the beer, figuring if I decided to stay, I could always come out and get the bug-out bag, and went to his door.
“Hey, hey,” he said as he opened it. The warmth of the fire roaring in the giant living room was comforting, and the smell of pizza hit my nose immediately. “Come on in. Pizza just got out of the oven.”
“Pizza?” I asked.
“I’m afraid it’s not homemade. I ordered one from Sergio’s. They were very nice and delivered all the way up here.”
“Man, I am a professional cook, and if it were between something I made and Sergio’s, I would choose Sergio’s. Good call.”
“Well, good, then,” he said. “I ordered two, but I was unaware of how quite large they are. It is a lot of pizza.”
“Sergio is known for his portions as much as he is for the taste. You’ll be eating pizza for a week,” I laughed. “I brought beer.”
“Fantastic,” he said. “I have beer, but it’s the cheap Canadian stuff. You can take the man from Quebec, but you can’t take the Labatt from the Quebec native. I do have some Unibroue beers, though. I didn’t know if you liked the fancier stuff.”
