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When the school year had come to an end, I had even more time to myself during the day again. I sometimes hung out at the beach with Sam or the others, but then they took turns with going on vacation with their families. I thought about that guys face often, but I hadn’t hallucinated anymore, since Prom. I wondered whether I should go back to UMass and look for him. If he was still so present in my mind, it had to mean something. Work at the pub came as a welcome distraction. Thus, that much bigger was the shock, when this same good-looking guy from the car was suddenly sitting at the bar of the Irish pub. I saw him hobble in on crutches, one foot wrapped in a thick bandage. He sat down at a table from where he could overlook the bar area. He hadn’t yet discovered me, as he sat diagonally to the kitchen window from where I was watching. He half turned his back toward me, so that I had the opportunity to analyze him a little closer. His nonchalant manner would give him a primary role in a movie right away. Without the blood on his clothes, I could see women fall in love with him by the dozen. The small hairs on my arms rose again. Not in an ‘I’d like to get to know you’ kind of way, because frankly, careless driving was about the last thing I’d put on the pro list of a potential partner. But why did I want to know what it feels like to dig my fingers through his curly hair and feel his skin on my skin? For a moment, I was unable to move and waited for the wave of electricity that passed through me to subside. That’s when Paula tapped on my shoulder.
“What are we looking at?” She tiptoed behind me to have a glimpse over my shoulder.
I felt too embarrassed to turn around, given the thoughts I just had. Good that people can’t read minds but still, I felt like I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar.
“See that guy over there? With the green shirt,” I pointed into his direction, “he is the guy who crashed the car.”
Paula also looked through the peephole. “You didn’t mention that he was good looking. Or our age as a matter of fact. I imagined a fucking drunk old bastard.” She bent her head to one side. “Actually, he was here yesterday already. I remember him because of the crutches. He's a hottie!" She prolonged the last word.
Have you talked to him?" I asked.
"No, he only ordered fries. Left a nice tip, though."
“So, what do you think he’s doing here?” I looked at her.
She laughed, “Well, what do you think Sherlock?” Paula’s eyes glistened. “By the way, are you sunburned? Your face is red”, she laughed again, “usually, you’re so composed, it’s almost scary. If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you like him,” Paula teased.
“I wonder why he is here and how he found this place. I didn’t leave any contact details.” I tried to skip her remark.
“I guess to find that out you have to move your skinny ass and go over there. Perhaps he’s a good guy and wants to say thank you.”
When I still didn’t move, she pushed me toward the bar. “Well, come on, I sure as hell ain’t going to serve him.”
I had no other choice but to go over there. Besides, why should I be the insecure one? He was the one who got himself stuck in a car. I straightened my apron, pulled my ponytail tighter and then walked out into the restaurant area. He noticed me right away and kept his eyes fixed on me all the way to his table. This in return sent a nice tingle through my body. It wasn't the usual stare of finding me good looking. It was as if he were somehow reading me.
"Hi." I exhaled. "Would you like to order anything?"
"Um." He cleared his throat. "Sorry about that. Um, yes but actually, I'd also like to talk to you. Or thank you, for what you did," he added.
"How did you find me?" was all I could come up with at the spur of the moment.
"You were wearing a shirt from here. My senses weren’t all there, but somehow, I still remember that. And how good looking you are," he swallowed.
Did he just flirt with me?
"So, the shirt was my only bet. I had to find you. I've been coming here several times and finally, it's my lucky day." He smiled. There was a slight gap between his top front teeth. Somewhere I had read that people with a gap in their front teeth were lucky. I guess it didn't apply to this one. But the gap only added to the charm of his smile. I couldn't help but smile back.
"How many more times would you have come until you'd have assumed that I wouldn't be here after all?" I rested one hand on my hip.
"Possibly until the menu would have started to repeat itself."
"Oh, I could almost call that persistent."
"I would like to explain myself. I don't want you to have this wrong impression of me. I was having a bad night then and saw that cat too late, so I swerved right into a pole. Usually, I pay better attention. And I wanted to thank you." He scratched the back of his head and bit his lip. "But now I see that you're wearing a splint because of me, which makes me feel even worse."
I automatically touched my left wrist.
“I feel bad. I'd like to make at least an attempt in making it up to you. And to say thank you." After hesitating for about two seconds, he asked: "Could I take you out to dinner?"
My insides jumped with excitement. “Sure. Why not?” I tried to sound casual and tucked a strand of hair that had fallen into my face back behind my ear.
He visibly relaxed at this answer. His shoulders sunk as if he had been holding his breath and now exhaled.
“Good. I’m glad. I really couldn’t leave it this way.” Then he looked straight up into my eyes. His were a dark chocolate brown, and again I was amazed at these long eyelashes. Maybe he had some South American roots.
He pushed his chair back and got up, trying to keep his balance on one foot. “I’m Alex, by the way.” He held out his hand.
“I’m Nathalie.” When I took his hand, I felt this urge washing through my body again. I almost pulled him closer to kiss him as a first step to getting closer to his heart, which had the most delicious beat. Shocked about these thoughts, I looked down at our hands. A good, firm shake. Nothing special about it. I swallowed and after another moment, let go. If Alex had noticed any of my confusion, he didn’t show it.
“Nice to finally know your name, Nathalie. Again, I’m so sorry about your hand.” So far, he hadn’t mentioned that I never came back to that coffee shop on the campus.
“It’s ok.” I managed to say. “I’m sorry about your leg. How is it?”
“Nothing that won’t heal. Shin bone broken in two places and quite a few cuts that needed stitches. The doctor said if all goes well, I can fully put pressure on it in about five weeks.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I guess it could have ended worse.” Then he smiled. “But right now, I actually don’t have any complaints, because I am here talking to you.”
I felt myself blushing. “Well, I should probably get back to work now,” I said to cover that. “Do you still want to order anything?” I even took out my notepad and pen.
“A Coke, please. And perhaps your number so I can contact you about the dinner?” He bit his lower lip again.
I wrote down my number on a coaster.
“Just to let you know, I don’t usually do that with guests.” I handed him the number.
“Just to let you know, I don’t usually crash cars and then try to hunt down the pretty woman who rescued me.” He took the coaster and looked at it. “Thank you, Nathalie.”
I liked the way he said my name.
“Your Coke will be coming right up.”
“Wow, you two seemed quite lost in a conversation over there,” Paula remarked when I went to get the drink. “I could have lit the fucking bar on fire, and you wouldn’t have cared.”
“Well, sorry for ignoring you for five minutes of our social work life.” I giggled. I never giggle. And moreover, the giggle had nothing to do with what Paula had said.
“Whatever, tell me what happened. Do I have to worm everything out of you? Jeeeesus!” She pointed her hands to the sky.
“One second,” I said and disappeared to his table with a glass of Coke in my hand.
“Here you are.” I placed the coke in front of him and hesitated for a moment. “$3.50, please.” I smiled apologetically. I felt a bit weird asking for the money, now that we had this personal connection. It was a lot easier with the other guys who hopefully knew I was doing my job if I was friendly and perhaps a little flirty with them.
He held a 5$ bill toward me but then pulled it back.
“No, wait a moment. I always wanted to do this.” He took out a pen and wrote down his name and a phone number next to Abraham Lincoln’s mouth. “Now you have my number, too.” He smiled. “Don’t worry, I will call you but ever since I saw this in a movie, I’ve always wanted to do this.”
Smiling, I shook my head, took the note and headed back to the bar.
Paula was staring at me open mouthed.
“Did, what I saw, really just happen?” She snatched the bill from my hands.
“Alex.” She read. “Unfuckingbelievable. Or should I say, hallelujah?” She almost yelled and sat on the counter.
“What?” I made big eyes at her.
“I never thought this day would come when you finally actually flirt with a guy. And now this cute half-cripple walks in and not only do you flirt with him, you even exchange numbers.” She clapped me on my shoulder. “Way to go, Nat.”
“What do you mean? I do flirt with the customers.” I whispered vehemently. I didn’t dare turn around and look at Alex again.
“Yes, of course, you do.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re like a pretty ice princess on her freaking crystal pea. You don’t let anybody close. But this whole distance thing really works for you. With your wholesome prettiness, you’re making the guys melt with every little smile you offer them. I thought it was your game of trying to awaken the hunting instinct in them. But you haven’t even noticed, have you?”
“I don’t mean to be distant,” I said grumpily.
“Ah don’t worry. You know I love you. But it’s about time you also behave like a normal human. How long have you been single now? You never talk about guys,” she exclaimed.
“Maybe, I don’t want to get hurt.”
“My beautiful princess, someone like you won’t get hurt. In case you haven’t noticed that either, any guy would kill to be with you.”
Perhaps with my body, but not with the actual me, I thought. I wanted to turn around to see what Alex was doing but I didn’t dare. So, I cleaned up a little until I noticed that Paula’s eyes wandered to something behind me. She put a very cheeky smile on her face and nodded.
“Your boyfriend is leaving,” she said through the smile.
“He is not my boyfriend.” I hissed and turned around. We were behaving like teenagers.
Alex waved at me and smiled, and I waved back as he limped back out of the pub as graceful as limping can be.
I exchanged the $5 bill with one from my wallet and tucked the one from Alex safely between my other notes. When I got home, I took it out and looked at it once more. Alex. It managed to make me smile again and, shaking my head at myself, I pinned the note to my wall next to my bed. Then, my phone rang. It was him! I suddenly was very nervous. Two more rings passed. I took a deep breath and picked up.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Alex.”
“I didn’t expect you to still be up,” I smiled.
“Oh, I’m a night owl. I hope it’s not too late for you either. I looked up the opening hours of The Wild Rover online and tried to figure out what time you might be off.”
“You did your research.” I sat down on my bed. Though I’ve never slept in it, it’s really comfortable to pile the pillows against the wall, and then cuddle into the blanket with my laptop on my knees. Much more agreeable than sitting at an office desk.
“I didn’t want to let the chance pass by to talk to you again. And to let you know that I was serious about dinner. Not that you might think it was just empty phrases.”
“I did not assume that, since you already put quite an effort into finding me.”
“Well, it was worth it.”
Silence. I liked the sound of his voice. It was deep but warm. Like the voice that would fit into the Sunday morning radio program. The one that makes you feel relaxed and happy while you are having your first coffee after a night with little sleep.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come back to the coffee shop. But things came up, you know.” I trailed off.
“Yeah, don’t worry about it.” He said, not possibly being able to know why I didn’t return.
“How did your survey turn out?” I asked to prolong the conversation.
“Good. It confirmed what the statistics are telling already, though.”
“What exactly are you studying?”
“Bio with a clear aim toward genetics. And you spend your whole free time working in an Irish pub.” He stated.
“No,” I laughed, "I need a life outside of that hole too. As much as I love it there, I'd go insane if I had to be there for ten hours every day.” I didn't want to tell him too much, but I didn't feel like lying either. “So, for the rest of the time when I’m not at uni, I am a bit on a self-discovery trip right now. Working on a few projects.”
“Kind of like me. I'm also working on a project." He said. "It’s for school, but if I find out something useful, I could get some financial aid toward my future tuitions. But I don't want to bore you with that now. How about that dinner?" He asked instead. "Do you like Italian food?”
We set a date for the following Wednesday. After the phone call, I sat on my bed and stared at the opposite wall. I realized that I had created quite a problem for myself by agreeing to dinner. Why didn’t I ask for just having drinks instead? My pretending not to eat strategies were still not very developed. I’d have to practice some more until then. At least I didn’t have to worry about him picking me up at home. Since his car was a write-off, he offered very apologetically that we could meet at the subway station. Yes, exceptionally, I joked.
A voice inside me told me that it was too big of a coincidence that it was him who crashed the car. Had I somehow created his attraction toward me with my powers without even knowing it? Yet, after today I knew more than ever, that I wanted to see him again. Somehow, he seemed a lot calmer and more in control of the situation than myself. I wanted to know more about this Alex. Above all, I wanted to feel this feeling again that I had whenever I was close to him. It's hard to define attraction with words or explain why it's there. But this was definitely the strongest attraction I have ever felt toward a guy.