Cement Heart(14)

I sat back against the booth and sighed as I crossed my arms over my chest. “You’re not getting the brush-off, but my memories of them are very different from yours. Can we just leave it at that, please?”

“No.”

“You’re a stubborn old lady, you know that?”

“Yes.” She smiled proudly.

“Hi there. Sorry about the wait.” A young waiter set down two glasses of water, spilling drops all over the table as his hands shook.

“You okay, boss?” I asked.

“Yeah. I just… I’m new and you’re… you, and I’m a little nervous.” He grabbed a napkin off of the table next to ours and wiped up the water as fast as he could.

“No problem.” I laughed. “You a hockey fan?”

“Uh, yes. Yes, sir,” he stammered.

“Well, I’m a fan of anyone who’s going to bring me food, so let’s take a picture together, I’ll sign whatever you want me to, and we’ll call it even, okay?”

His goofy, crooked smile let me know he liked my idea. After a few minutes of selfie taking and autograph signing, he finally seemed to calm down enough to take our drink and food order.

“That was sweet of you,” Gam whispered once he was out of earshot. She took a sip of her water, trying to hide her proud smile behind her glass.

“Stop it,” I grumbled.

“Stop what?”

“Smiling.”

“I will not,” she said stubbornly, lifting her chin in the air. “I’m having a nice brunch with my grandson, who happens to be a very sweet man.”

“I’m not sweet, Gam. I’m barely sour. In fact, most days I’m downright inedible altogether.”

“You may not think you’re sweet, but I do.” She nodded toward the door leading to the kitchen. “And so does that young man. He’s probably back there calling all of his friends to tell them how cool you are. You made his day.”

I stared at her with a deadpan expression on my face. “I just want pancakes.”





LATER THAT NIGHT, I was sitting at home playing Madden on my XBOX when my text alarm went off. It was from Darla.



D: Hey, you busy? Can I come over?



Hell yes. Bring a pizza.



“Hey!” Her huge smile was the first thing I saw when I opened the door a little while later.

“What’s up, baby?” I reached out and pulled her in for a hug.

“Careful.” She giggled, keeping the hand that held the pizza out straight. “You don’t want tomato sauce and cheese all over the floor of your foyer.”

I pulled back and took the pizza from her. “I’m so hungry I’d probably still lick it off the floor. Come on.” I took her hand and led her back to the kitchen.

We sat at the breakfast bar and stuffed our faces with pizza, barely even talking to each other, for the next half hour.

“Okay,” I sighed, wiping my hand on a napkin. “What’s going on?”

She froze, staring back at me with a bite of pizza still in her mouth. Covering her mouth with her napkin, she shook her head slightly. “What?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you’re different. Something’s up.”

“I’m not different.”

I read Darla like I read opponents on the ice. What came out of their mouths never mattered; that was just chatter. It was their body language that gave everything away. They would fake right and go left, but I was already on the left waiting for them. I knew what moves they were going to make before they did. It was the same with Darla. She was preoccupied, distant.

“You’ve been in my house for over half an hour, and not only have you been avoiding eye contact the whole time, you have yet to give me shit about… anything. Normally, you would’ve picked me apart for ten different things by now.”

She balled her napkin up and tossed it down on her plate, shrugging. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I turned my stool to face her and pulled her legs so that she was facing me. “Bullshit. Don’t lie to me. We don’t do that.”

She looked sad.

I cupped her face and rubbed her cheek with the pad of my thumb.

“Don’t do that. Don’t be nice to me.” She took my hand off her face, kissing my palm before resting it in her lap. Not making eye contact, she continued, “I did come over here for a reason, but it wasn’t to torment you like normal.”

“The doctor, right?”

Her face swept up to mine, her shoulders finally relaxing for the first time since she’d walked through the door. “How did you know?”

I laughed. “I knew it the other night when you started talking about him.”