“Thank you.”
“Can we take it out of my rent?”
I gave her a dirty look. Normally, when she asked, I scoffed. Saving me from looking like a chubby kid with his hand in the cookie drawer, I owed her. With Lucy’s innocent statement, I suspected that Simon hadn’t told her the reality of that first encounter. There was no way she would make the comment if she knew her husband pushed me against a wall and…
“Stop thinking about it!” Amanda chided. “God, it couldn’t have been that good.”
If she only knew. It wasgood. Simon had set the bar for all future encounters. The sadness returned at the idea ofotherencounters when all I wanted was another one with that bearish man. My eyes dropped as I sulked.
When I looked up, half the dining room had turned to look at me. It shouldn’t have surprised me that the entirety of Firefly knew the situation. I’m sure they had caught wind that the ex-wife had returned. That Lucy hadn’t heard a rumor spoke volumes. Firefly had closed its ranks to protectone of its own. Martha and Walter got up from their table. He put a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze before they exited the Bistro.
Operation Wingman hadn’t ended with Simon’s request for a date. The gesture might be reassuring, but it didn’t change the facts. Though, knowing Firefly, it was only a matter of time before somebody slipped. I’m sure fireworks would go off when that happened.
Dorothy set our food on the table.
“Would you mind if I went for a walk?”
Amanda made a heart with her hands. “I’ve got you, boo.”
I needed time to sulk without the looks of pity from Firefly. Not even food would fill the void in my gut. It looked delicious. Homemade bread and a perfectly cooked egg sat in the middle of the plate. Unfortunately, I had lost my appetite.
HOW'D I GET HERE?
I tossed back the beer. Before I set it down, the bartender slid another in front of me. Matt didn’t ask questions, but with the speed, he popped the top and fed me another. He must know something had gone wrong.
“I can ask what happened, or I can get you drunk enough to forget it ever happened.”
Matt had once been an outsider. I think he grew up in Portland, and for those in the north, he might as well have come from Europe. If he hadn’t been straight, I’d have swooped in and flirted. He hooked his thumbs in the metal links of his leather harness.
“Anything to do with the guy I saw you dancing with?”
Did all bartenders have that sixth sense? I traded beers, and he grabbed the empty.
“Sort of… yeah. All to do with him.” It was a slow night at Spectrum, which meant Matt didn’t have a line waiting for drinks. We were friendly, but I wouldn’t call us friends. Our relationship remained strictly transactional. I gave him money, and he got me tipsy.
“Why did you move up here?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Not the question I expected. Are you sure you don’t want to hit me with tales of woe?”
I wasn’t coherent enough to talk about my life. My train of thought had derailed. Somebody else needed to do the talking. Matt might have a fresh perspective on me moving.
“I don’t want to hear about my life.”
“The Flannel Festival.” He made the statement as if it explained everything. If I made my eyebrow go any higher, it’d be part of my hairline. “Oh. When I was a kid, my parents brought me up here. I remember the Flannel Festival. I don’t know why, but that stuck with me.”
“Don’t you miss… well… everything? A grocery run that doesn’t take all day. Fast food? There must have been plenty of bars down there.”
The music changed to what could only be described as techno country. Whoever played DJ tonight would not be getting cheers from the audience. We might be from the middle of nowhere, but even we had standards.
“I did all that in my twenties and thirties.”
“How oldareyou?”
He gave me a grin and a wink. “You’d have to buy me dinner to find out.”
I threw my hands up, shaking my head. “Nope. One straight guy on my plate is enough. I can’t juggle more.”
“That’s a shame.” Was there something in the air? Did aburst of radiation from the sun send all the straight men into a frenzy? Or were they all looking for a quick thrill? “Portland was a fun place to live. But it’s not where I wanted to settle down.”
