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“Great coordination,” he says.
“Um.”The conversational hop is confusing until he jerks his head toward the entrance and I realize my forest-green dress is, in fact, a close match to the walls.Good to know that when he looks at me, he thinks about paint colors.
“Oh.Thanks.”
Jonesy shakes his head.“Darryl’s never gonna want to let you go.”
“Well, he’s going to have to.”I use my most crisp delivery, pivoting to an all-business tone since that’s clearly where Jonesy’s head is too.“I’m gone in a couple of weeks.My dream job in Boston’s calling my name.”
“Boston, huh?”He grimaces, but before I can ask if it’s an East Coast thing or a Paul Revere thing or what, a cute, curly-haired brunette swings by the hostess station.
“Hey, big guy,” she says.“Wanna talk about who gets what tables today?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replies, then turns to me.“You good here?It’s always a fight over which of us has to do the haunted section.”
Before I can follow up with six million questions about which section is haunted and more importantly, haunted withwhat, he ambles off to chat with the brunette and the other three servers on staff this morning.It gives me a chance to explore my new workstation, and by the time the doors open for the seven a.m.breakfast crowd, I’m forced to admit something horribly embarrassing.I’mbeyondfascinated by my flirty new coworker.
“Enjoy your lunch,” I say to the middle-aged couple I’ve just seated in Jonesy’s section.As I move back to my home base, I come close to accidentally clipping his shoulder, but he just sidesteps me with a deft spin and a wink.
“I need a little more warning if you want me to do theDirty Dancinglift with you,” he says as he doles out sodas to his waiting guests.
I retreat to the safety of my little wooden sanctuary, where I shuffle the menus into a tidier stack in order to have something to do with my eyes other than ogle my coworker.I’m halfway through my second week at Verdant, and it’s a battle I’ve been consistently fighting and consistently losing.
“You have the best view in the house.”
I glance over my shoulder to see Marcus, a gangly twenty-year-old, doing the exact ogling I was trying to avoid.We watch in silent appreciation as Jonesy makes a tired-looking man and his three little kids laugh with his attempts to fold one of their napkins into an origami bird.
We’re joined by Ariel, the curly brunette who ended up with the haunted section today, just as Jonesy throws his head back in a boisterous laugh at something the littlest girl at his table says.
“God, he’s just so…” Ariel breaks off and waves her hands in vague helplessness.She and Marcus are dating, but I think they both also kind of want to date Jonesy too.
“Yeah,” Marcus says.“He really is just…so.”
I don’t chime in even though I agree.The Verdant staff absorbs new people into their friendly, gossipy group immediately, and because of that, I know that Jonesy’s the primary object of fascination for pretty much everyone here.Of course he is, with his laid-back, lazy smiles and his scruffy jaw and his goddamn pheromones.He’s the class clown and the homecoming king and the bad boy all rolled into one, and he has great hair to boot.
“What did he mean about theDirty Dancinglift?”
At my question, Ariel’s eyes flutter shut.
“Exactly what it sounds like.He does the lift,” she says.“Like if you ask him after we close, he’ll let you run at him, and he’ll catch you and…”
She doesn’t finish the thought, but I get the gist.“Like Ryan Gosling inCrazy, Stupid, Love?”
“Exactly like that,” Marcus says.“He even did me once.”
“Really?”I eyeball my tall, skinny coworker.
“He’s got all kinds of muscles under that shirt,” Ariel says as Jonesy breezes by balancing a tray loaded with dirty dishes on one hand.He and Marcus exchange a fist-bump, hand-shake explosion, and I have to work not to swallow my own tongue at how effortlessly he multitasks with a heavy tray.
“Dude, I’m so sorry,” he says to Marcus, “I forgot to write down my workout routine for you.Hit me up before you leave today?”
“Sweet!”Marcus’ face lights up.“I will.”
Maybe I should ask Jonesy for his workout routine.It seems to spark joy.Then I look more closely at Jonesy’s chest and arms, curious what kind of workouts he does.The Verdant button-downs aren’t tight, but they fit well enough to give the impression of muscles.And now I’m thinking about Jonesy setting down that tray so he can put his hands on my hips to hoist me over his head, smiling up at me as his fingers grip tighter and?—
Ariel smirks.“Swear to god, he’llDirty Dancelift you in a heartbeat if you show the slightest bit of interest.”
I shake off my Jonesy/Patrick Swayze/Ryan Gosling fantasy.Thank god Jonesy disappeared into the kitchen with the tray so he doesn’t overhear us gossiping about him.
