AllFreeNovel
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“I’m a winner. I know that.”
She hiccupped and grimaced, but after another glass of water and another glass of milk she was back to normal.
People came up to congratulate her on her victory and it was obvious she was in her element. After half a beer, and some chit chat with the locals, she wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“Feed me, Heart. I’m a girl on a budget.”
I brought her a basket of ten wings, nothing crazy hot and a few hot and honey for sweetness and set them down in front of her. She was not a woman who got weird eating around a guy, which I secretly loved.
I couldn’t remember the last time I went on a date with a woman who didn’t order a salad as their main course. “What’s this budget you’re talking about? I thought you were starting a job in a few weeks.”
She squirmed on the stool again and I had a sudden image of her doing that while sitting on my lap.
“Yeah, it’s only a few weeks and I’m not sure what’s going to happen after. It’s sort of an…experimental position.”
“Are you like a scientist or something?”
She laughed. “A little bit. What I do is essentially a study in physics.”
“Well, I’m just an old hockey player, I don’t know anything about physics,” I said.
“Please, skating is all about physics. It’s force and motion. Acceleration and angle. It’s the purest form of math on ice.”
“You make it sound kind of beautiful.”
“Because it is.”
I leaned over the bar until I was close enough to feel the heat off her shoulders. The smell of hot sauce and shampoo wafted off of her. She had a little wing sauce in the corner of her mouth and I wanted to lick it off. I was going to kiss her tonight and it was going to be hotter than the five-alarm habanero sauce.
“You going to let me walk you home tonight, Liv?”
She smiled, even as she was shaking her head. Like she was losing her own internal battle.
“You know you want to,” I sang in high falsetto.
“Maybe, I’ll let you walk me home because you’ve got all those big muscles so no one will mess with me.”
I closed my eyes and groaned. “That’s right, Liv. Use me for my muscles.”
She pushed against my shoulder. “You’re such a dork. And I’m not done eating. You said all-you-can-eat. I need another basket.”
“Your wish is my command.”
* * *
It was late.After midnight. Way past my bedtime, but Liv and I were walking together like the destination didn’t matter. The moon was high over the ocean and it felt like every star was out to guide our way.
We crossed Harbor Road towards the center of town where the Christmas movie was being filmed, and the sets with all the fake snow were still up.
“Wow, your town really loves Christmas.”
I explained the movie as our shoulders brushed and my hand kept touching hers. It was the most pleasurable torture I’d ever experienced. Most of the set was behind fences, but we stopped in a section of fake trees covered in fake snow.
“What’s it called? The movie?”
“Something stupid,” I said. “I can’t remember it.”
“This is a little weird,” she said, spinning around slowly, taking it all in. “Christmas in August.”
