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“But I had this many!”
“Bullshit you did Spence. Now hand over my fries.”
The accusation had flown almost as soon as Jamie and Sarah had arrived back at the table. Spence, Becca, Cam and Gabe had already tucked into their meals with gusto, contented looks on each of their faces. Jamie however had been infuriated to find the fries that should have been sitting next to his burger were rather noticeably absent, while Spence’s fries strangely seemed to be double the size of everyone else’s.
As the boys continued to argue Sarah was astonished as she sat down and saw the burger and fries that were waiting for her. Her mouth started watering immediately as she suddenly realised how hungry she was, the bread and dip she’d eaten earlier long forgotten. Looking around the table at the sight of the each of the plates filled with food Sarah took a deep breath in as the smell of fries wafted up to her. Snagging one from her plate she bit into it moaning with enjoyment.
“Oh my God, these are so good.” Sarah quickly reached for another and chewing it let out another low moan. The crunch of the outside of the fry gave way to the soft fluffy potato inside. Spiced with something Sarah couldn’t quite work out she picked up a fry and touched her tongue lightly to the side of it. The flavour of the spices danced across her tastebuds and a sigh escaped her lips at the welcome sensation.
Chilli, rosemary, salt...is that turmeric I can taste in there too? I get why Jamie made us hurry back for these, they’re incredible.
Sarah stilled as she realised the others had stopped eating and were looking at her, a stunned look she saw on each of their faces. Spence’s pose almost seemed like a caricature with his burger poised in the air ready to take a bite and his mouth hanging open.
“What?” she asked confused by their faces. Sarah wondered if maybe she had failed to observe a ritual of the group before eating. Did they expect her to say grace and give thanks for the food first?
Putting his burger back down on the plate, Spence looked at her incredulously. “Do you always make those kinds of sounds when you eat, Sarah? Cos I need to know if I’m going to always have a semi when I watch you eat.”
“Excuse me?!?”
“Um, do you have any idea how you just sounded?” Becca asked gently trying not to laugh at her new friend before throwing a dirty look in Spence’s direction.
Sarah looked sideways at her. “What do you mean?” she asked, slowly licking the grains of salt that remained on each of her fingers.
Becca cleared her throat. “Let’s just say that it sounded like we should be leaving you and your food alone in a room by yourselves. It really sounded like you were enjoying your food almost a little too much, if you get what I mean.”
“Did I have a foodgasm in front of you guys?” Sarah asked surprised.
“Ah, if that’s what you call it, ah, yeah, I think so,” Jamie stammered beside her.
Looking at the faces staring back at her Sarah threw her head back and laughed loudly. She heard the sudden whoosh as a breath left Jamie’s lungs before he started laughing along with her. Soon they were all laughing uproariously at what she had done.
“Sorry. I didn’t realise I did it,” she grinned. Sarah popped another fry in her mouth and theatrically moaned as she tasted it. Giggling, she began to have a coughing fit.
“Here, drink this,” Jamie instructed, offering her his beer. Watching as she took a sip he waited until her coughing passed. “Better?”
“Ugh. Beer tastes awful.” Doing a small burp from the bubbles she’d swallowed she looked at her lunch companions apologetically. “Sorry,” she apologised.
“And here I was thinking you were classy,” Cam teased in mock horror, grinning at her.
Covering her mouth she did another tiny burp. “Eww. It tastes as bad on the way back up as it did on the way down. How do you drink that stuff?”
“Hey, no dissing the beer. It’s great stuff,” Jamie proclaimed picking up the glass and taking a long draft.
“There’s no accounting for taste,” she quipped, wrinkling her nose at him. Popping another fry in her mouth she managed to eat without making any unusual noises.
“I take it you enjoy the fries then?” Gabe asked, his eyes twinkling at her. Any negative feelings he had shown to her previously had now seemed to have completely passed.
“Freaking awesome. Been ages since I’ve had fries this good,” she enthused.
“Clearly.” Spence grinned at her. “You know Sarah, I have a particularly large fry over here, Any time you’d like to sit in my lap and eat my, ahem, fry, I’d be only too happy to help you have another foodgasm.”
The double entendre that Spence was hinting at didn’t go unnoticed by Sarah. Or the rest of the group that were now pensively looking at her wondering how she would react in return.
No need to freak out, this guy seems full of hot air and harmless. Just consider him like all those overly flirty men I’ve served as a waitress and it’ll be fine.
Having decided to have a bit of fun with the situation Sarah reached across the table to Spence’s plate and picked up a particularly unappetising and small looking fry. “But Spence, how would that be possible when your fry is soggy and so small? No girl wants that,” she waggled the fry she had picked off plate at him with a grimace of disgust on her face.
The rest of the table snickered at her comment.
“I...but...I...I don’t have a small fry!” he protested loudly.
Sarah raised her eyebrows at Spence and smiled a triumphant grin. Dropping the fry back on his plate, she sat back down and picked up a particularly large and firm fry from her own plate and looked at it appreciatively. “Now that’s more like it,” she declared before biting into it with gusto.
“Oh, I like you,” Becca announced warmly to Sarah as she chuckled and offered her a high five. “That was a total classic. It’s been a long time since a woman has put Spence in his place like that.”
Spence shrugged good naturedly and laughed. “True,” he admitted. Raising his beer he lifted it in a silent toast to her before taking a drink. Picking up her glass of wine she returned the gesture, before taking a sip.
“Wait, wait, wait, we need to have a toast!” Becca insisted having watched the pair raise their glasses to one another.
Cam looked at her confused. “We do?”
“Yes.” Picking up her glass she lifted it in the air and waited for the others to follow her lead.
Not sure what her plan was Cam followed his girlfriend’s lead and reached for his glass. Holding it in his hand he looked over at Gabe and shrugged his shoulders. Taking it as his cue Gabe lifted his own glass, Jamie following suit quickly. With their glasses already in their hands Sarah and Spence waited for Becca to speak.
Turning to Sarah she beamed. “To new friends.”
“New friends,” they all echoed clinking their glasses together.
New friends, Sarah repeated in her mind as they put down their glasses and resumed eating. New home, new business. Life finally seems to be coming together for me.
Her thoughts were interrupted by an almighty belch coming from Spence’s direction. Gabe and Jamie laughed at him as Becca curled her lip.
“Spencer Markham you are a pig!” Becca threw her balled up napkin at him.
He deftly avoided it as the wadded up ball of paper sailed past his head and landed noiselessly on the ground behind him. Leaning backwards he picked it up and rested it on the table. “That’s nothing compared to what I hear at work some days.”
“What do you do for work Spence?” Sarah asked interested.
“Take a guess,” Gabe challenged her.
“Brick layer,” Sarah suggested. Spence was built solidly in the arms and across the shoulders suggesting that he lifted heavy loads regularly. Add in hearing belching on a daily basis she figured she was on to a winner with some sort of traditionally masculine occupation.
“Ehh, wrong,” he declared, attempting a sound like a buzzer. “I’m not a tradie.”
“Try again,” Gabe encouraged.
“How many guesses do I get?”
“Three, and you’ve already used one,” he replied.
Sarah took a bite of her burger and looked at Spence. Not a tradie, hmm. That rules out electrician which would’ve been my next guess. Not a plumber or carpenter either then. Okay, think logically. If his muscles aren’t from work then he must work out, she thought as she looked at the biceps that strained against the fabric of the T-shirt that he wore paired with some shorts. Recalling seeing his defined calves earlier as he helped to lift her solid oak desk a thought struck her.
“Personal trainer,” she guessed. “No! Wait! He’s not. That doesn’t count right?” Sarah looked at Gabe as she realised her obvious mistake.
“Ehh,” Spence made the buzzer sound again.
“Nope, that counted. One guess left,” Gabe informed her.
“Hang on a sec,” Cam interrupted. “Why’d you change your mind? How’d you know Spence isn’t a personal trainer?”
Sarah squirmed in her seat. “Um...”
“Come on, spill,” Cam encouraged her.
“He’s got the arms and legs for it, but ah..”
Spence beamed at the compliment.
“...but not the stomach,” Sarah finished in a rush.
Gabe and Becca laughed as Spence’s smile quickly disappeared. “What?”
“I’m sorry Spence,” Sarah was apologetic.
“You’re alright, Sarah. I bloody hate doing crunches, so I skip them when I’m at the gym.” He looked down and patted his stomach. “Guess I’ll have to start doing them again.”
“One guess left,” Gabe pointed out.
“Woah, not yet. You still haven’t explained how you worked it out. It’s not like Spence is walking around with a fat stomach or anything,” Becca pointed out to Sarah before she could guess again.
“I’m a fine specimen of man,” Spence joked theatrically, standing with his hands on his hips in some kind of superhero pose.
“She just told you you’re not so fine, or haven’t you noticed?” Jamie threw the barb at his friend. Spence flipped him the bird in response and sat back down.
Sarah laughed at the boys. “Spence took his shirt off before he carried in a couple of boxes this morning that were really dirty. It just seemed a bit strange that he was toned everywhere else but not his stomach.”
“See I told you she was checking me out! What’s there not to like after all?” Spence grinned, spreading his arms out wide as he asked the question.
“Your fat gut,” Jamie responded deadpan.
“It’s not fat!” Spence smoothed his hands over his flat stomach.
“The fact you can’t get sex off your mind, like, ever,” Becca pointed out.
“I’m a guy!” Spence protested.
“Your taste in music is pretty awful. Remember how he went to that eighties tribute concert last year?” Cam interjected, the others nodding in agreement.
“What is this? Pick on Spence day?” he protested loudly.
“You started it.” Becca pointed out.
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“I did not!”
“Right then children,” Gabe interrupted. “Let’s get back to it. Sarah you had one more guess about Spence’s job.”
Sarah had been happily munching away on her fries throughout the exchange between Cam and his friends. Watching the verbal sparring she had forgotten to consider any other possibilities for Spence’s occupation.
“I don’t know? It’s got to be something physical. I can’t imagine you at a desk job at all. Maybe something like a gardener? They’re not really a tradie, are they?”
“Spence?” Gabe raised his eyebrows to his friend indicating that he should reveal what he did.
Spence turned to face Sarah head on. Wiggling his eyebrows at her he gave her a wolfish look. “Ready for it?”
“Go on then,” she challenged him.
“Teacher.”
“No, seriously. What do you do?” she laughed at his response.
“I’m a teacher. I teach Maths at the high school in Penwick.”
Sarah was amazed at Spence’s admission. She just couldn’t imagine him dressed in slacks and a button down shirt attempting to teach students algebra.
“It’s true,” Jamie confirmed bumping against her shoulder gently from where he sat next to her.
“You should’ve seen the kids at the club last night when they saw me. They get in with their fake ID’s, take one look at me and can’t get out of there fast enough,” he told to Sarah as he laughed at the memory. “It’s brilliant, every single time.”
“It was pretty good,” Cam agreed, having gone to the club with Spence.
“At least you two actually got to go. Some of us had late shifts at work,” Becca grumbled.
“Where do you work?” Sarah asked her, curious.
Over the next few minutes each of group went through what they did for work with Sarah. She sat happily listening to the conversation that went on around her as she finished off her fries without making any further odd noises or comments from anyone at the table. Sarah learned that Becca was currently working as home help for the elderly who were still in their own homes in Mount Kiernon but needed some assistance. Cam was a website developer who worked from home. Technically he was employed by a company in Franklin, but telecommuted. It was clear that the group were tight and had a lot of shared history between them. Sarah was contemplating this fact as she lifted the lid off her burger and reached for the ketchup to add the condiment.
“Are the servings here always this big?” Sarah asked Jamie quietly. As hungry as she had been when she’d first sat down her stomach was already filling quickly from the generous serve of fries she’d been working her way through.
“Yeah. Clive is pretty good with the food here,” he confirmed.
“I’m not sure I’m going to get through this burger. It seems like a lot of food,” she admitted looking down at her plate.
“Oh my god, that thing is enormous, Sarah. You’re never going to fit all that meat in your mouth.” Becca blurted suddenly, seeing the size of the burger patty that her new friend had been given.
“You don’t know what size meat Sarah can fit in her mouth, darlin’,” Cam guffawed.
“Oh, ew. That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Becca screwed her nose up at his double entendre.
Spence cleared his throat noisily making sure that he had Sarah’s attention before he spoke. “Pretty sure mine is bigger. Sarah, did you want to look at the size of my meat?”
“You really want to go there again after what she did to you with the fry comment?” Gabe asked Spence evenly as he reached for the ketchup.
Opening his mouth to speak Spence looked across at Sarah before taking a bite of his burger instead. “Maybe I’ll just leave you to it after all,” he mumbled lowering his head and becoming suddenly engrossed with eating his burger.
Gabe grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
“She has so got your number,” Becca trilled to Spence laughing with delight at his embarrassment.
“I’m with Becca. You’ve met your match with this one.” Cam laughed, slapping his friend on the back.
“We’re alright, aren’t we Spence?” Sarah smiled at him as he slowly raised his head to look at her. “Just keep it in your pants and you and I will be just fine. Good friends are always welcome in my book.”
He looked at her and smiled. “Friends,” he nodded, agreeing
Sarah sat back as she ate her burger with a growing feeling of contentment in her belly at sitting with such a welcoming group of people. As she ate she began to feel a slow, warm trickle begin to run down the inside of her hand.
“Oh bugger,” she complained, as the juices from her burger continued to make their way down to her wrist. Lifting her hand to deal with the mess she darted her tongue out to capture the juice from the side of her hand. Hearing a sharp intake of breath beside her as she did, she lifted her eyes to the noise. Jamie’s green eyes stared back at her.
“Napkin. Use a damn napkin,” he croaked at her. Picking up the paper napkin that was sitting in his own lap he lifted it to her hand. Gently he wiped away the traces that remained on the side of her fingers before dropping her hand on to the wooden seat between them. He laced his fingers with hers briefly and squeezed her hand tenderly. Turning his head away from her he again joined in on the conversation that was humming around them.
Looking around the table she saw Becca looking at her quietly with a small smile on her face, clearly having witnessed the exchange between Jamie and herself.
With shaking hands Sarah picked up her burger and took a deep breath, willing her suddenly pounding heart to slow down. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening between her and Jamie today – or even if anything was happening at all. Maybe it was just her imagination. Maybe it was just happiness at being in a group of friends who seemed to have accepted her as she was. Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her after the thought she’d had earlier of wanting to be kissed and loved the way that she saw Cam love Becca.
She wasn’t sure.
But Sarah did know one thing for sure though. Whatever might be going on between her and Jamie she didn’t want anyone else knowing either.