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His short hair was a shade of gray I had only seen once before. His eyes were light, almost transparent, as if the sun shone directly on them. A perfectly coordinated Texas-themed tattoo sleeve covered his sculpted left arm, ending at his watch. His right arm was oddly bare, but it made it easier to see the definition of every muscle.
“Would you like some help?” I asked.
“Please!” he groaned in frustration.
“You must be new here,” I smiled as he moved away from the locker.
“What gave it away?”
“You’re in great shape and work out, so you’re a regular at a gym somewhere. Yet, you chose the locker everyone avoids, so it’s not here.”
“I’m impressed by your inference powers, stranger.”
I walked the handsome stranger through each step of opening these metallic monstrosities. He stared at me with an amused smile.
First, the door was finicky, so you wanted to push it in as much as possible while twisting the lock to the first number of the combination. While turning the dial to enter the last number, you push the door toward the hinges and away from the lock while keeping the pressure inward. Last, you jiggled the handle about four times until the click gave it away that it was ready to be opened.
It was a chore to open the lockers, so they were seldom used unless any good ones were available. I became a pro at opening them because I continually forgot which were the good ones and which were the bad ones. If I knew how to open the bad ones, then they were all good ones.
The stranger’s door slowly swung open. He pulled out his wallet and keys with lightning speed and a sigh of relief.
“Ta-da!” I laughed.
“That’s incredible. How do you know the trick so well? It seems like a lot to remember.”
“I always forgot which lockers to avoid, so I learned to open all of them.”
“Can’t fault logic like that. How can I thank you for rescuing my stuff?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just glad I could help.”
I reached for my ponytail and tugged at the tips of my hair, tangling the ends between my fingers. The unexplained nerves in my stomach needed to be reined in.
“How about –” he started.
Gabby’s arm landed around me, interrupting the handsome stranger’s thought. She visibly eyed the stranger up and down without so much as an attempt to hide that she was sizing him up. Her lips formed into a wide smirk, and she got a wild look in her eye.
“Is this guy bothering you, Blake?” she feigned toughness, even though she was a cinnamon roll in disguise.
“So…your name is Blake?” the handsome stranger extended his hand. I shook it, feeling his warm, calloused hands on mine. “Nice to meet you. I’m Parker. And your bodyguard is…”
“Gabby,” she extended her hand.
“Nice to meet you as well, Gabby.”
“So, how can we help you on this fine evening, Parker?” she enunciated his name.
“Well…Gabby…your friend Blake here already helped me. She valiantly and heroically rescued my wallet and keys from the evil grasp of the lockers, so I was hoping to thank her by maybe taking her out for a drink tonight. If that’s okay with you, of course.”
“Well, Parker,” Gabby continued to guide the conversation in her usual extroverted way. The glimmer in her eye exposed the lightbulb that went off in her head. I tried to interject, but she shushed me before I opened my mouth. “She already had plans tonight that she, unfortunately, cannot break because she promised, but I have an idea. Do you know how to dance?”
“Dance how? Like twerking in an overcrowded, sweaty nightclub or two-stepping in a dance hall?” Parker asked.
“Dance hall. You know, the one with boots, cowboy hats, and people occasionally screaming yeehaw?”
He chuckled at Gabby’s line of descriptions. I knew that if I tried to stop her from doing this, Gabby would just put her sweaty hand over my mouth or potentially beat me into submission. You never knew with her. So, I waited for Parker’s answer, but based on the subtle drawl of his deep voice, I expected that the answer was yes.
“I do,” he confirmed.
