"What do you mean? Not something you would normally do?"
"Oh," I said with a hard swallow. "What I meant to say is I don't like being the center of attention."
"Why?"
Why?
Well, let's see … Um, it's because I'm the mom of the group? The one everyone comes to for help with their problems. They talk to me about everything that's wrong, with men most of all. It's not that I minded so much. I liked helping my friends. But sometimes it would be nice if someone did the same for me.
Just once.
Of course I could say all of those things to him. But what would be the point? It's not as if I would ever see him again, or if I did, he would remember my name, or hell, even talking to me.
So instead, I did the sensible thing.
I lied.
"Well, when I was a child, I won a lot of beauty pageants," I began. "The attention I received in those early years scarred me for life. So nowadays, I much prefer to keep to myself. I'll leave the attention-getting to the other girls."
I raised my arms, clutching my sweater-clad fingers for emphasis. For an instant, Gabe tented his eyebrows at me in confusion before a smile came to his face.
"Good one, Fiona," he said, with a wink and a bit of a chuckle. "That was clever. Well, in any case, congratulations on beauty contest victories and the interview."
"Thank you."
I nodded and prepared to speak, but before I could, Gabe gestured across the room to a group of men as they entered the bar.
"My buddies are here," he said, just before he polished off the last of his beer.
With that, he stood from his barstool and after reaching in his pocket, he tossed some money on the bar for his drink. He walked by me and pressed his palm into the small of my back. He leaned in towards me, stopping only six inches or so short of my ear. He lingered there for a moment and his scent caught my attention-and my breath.
"Good luck at your interview, Fiona. Congratulations again."
GABE
As I walked away from her, I dragged my fingertips across Fiona's lower back for a fraction of a second. My gesture didn't go unnoticed. I felt her twitch into an upright position but true to the shy behavior she'd shown me so far, she didn't turn to look at me.
Fiona wasn't ordinarily the type of woman I found myself attracted to, of course. I was all but sure the guys wouldn't let my interaction with her go unnoticed. I wouldn't have, if the situation was reversed.
But in this case, I didn't care.
She had an angelic face, with absolutely perfect lips, the most spectacular ones I'd ever seen on a woman. And believe me, I'd seen my share. Beyond that, she had flawless, creamy skin, bright powder blue eyes and silky blond hair.
I'd never seen anything like her, in spite of her covered up appearance. If I was a betting man, I'd say maybe she'd lost some weight and hadn't quite adjusted to her new look. And anyway, she was young. I guessed early twenties at the most, so that would explain her awkwardness to a degree.
But all that was okay by me. I liked her feisty attitude. It was so much different than the other women in my life. Yet, that's the advantage of meeting someone like her in a place like this, anonymity. No pretense. I get to just be myself and not the person everyone imagines me to be.
So yeah, it was pretty obvious she didn't get hit on much. But I didn't see things staying that way for long. Once you got past her gruffness, it was pretty obvious there was someone worth getting to know beneath all that clothing and standoffishness.
I made my way across the restaurant, dodging waiters and waitresses as I went.
"What's up?" I nodded as I approached my friends.
"Man, I should be asking you the same question," my friend Brad replied, as I stepped towards him.
"What are you talking about?"
He nodded, lifting his chin in Fiona's direction. "Not really your type."
"Mmm, yeah," I began as I glanced towards her. Without turning back to face Brad, I continued, "You're right, she doesn't look anything like your mom does she?"
"Fuck off, Gabe."
I chuckled when Brad gave me a small shove to go along with his insult. As I did, the rest of the fellas laughed right along. A few seconds later, the hostess approached and led us towards our table. Walking across the room, I glanced at Fiona and caught her doing the same at me. Her eyes widened as my gaze locked on hers and almost as soon, she turned her attention back towards that ridiculous planner.
I bet she slept with the damn thing.
We'd been seated for about ten minutes or so when I noticed Fiona headed in my direction, surrounded by what I guessed were her friends. I glanced up over the top of my menu and got my first good look at her body. She was a bit bigger than her friends, who were more like the type of woman I typically preferred.
Even so, I was familiar with women like Fiona.
Ten times out of ten, she was usually the woman I had to get close to so I'd have a chance to seduce her attractive friends without having to worry about her cockblocking me at two o'clock in the morning. In my experience, it was always worth the time investment to get women like Fiona on your side.
Yet, as I watched her draw near, I realized that wasn't the case with her. She glanced at me once more as she passed by the table and held my gaze with the first show of confidence I'd seen from her. It sent a charge through my body, straight to my crotch. My head swiveled as she continued by and I watched her ass snap while her hips swayed back and forth.
"What are you getting, Gabe?" Brad asked. "Didn't you say the steak tartare was good here?"
Barely listening, I kept my eyes glued on her as she slid into the booth, surrounded on all sides by her friends. One by one, they each looked at me, only to turn back to Fiona a moment or so later. Teasing her, from the looks of it.
"Gabe … " Brad said, as he spoke up.
"Hmm?" I replied. I turned back towards him. "Yeah?"
Brad scowled in my direction and looked past me towards the booth where Fiona sat.
"You're way out of her league, man," he said as he shook his head. Turning his attention back towards his menu, he continued, "What's gotten into you?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.
Without lifting his head, Brad arched an eyebrow in my direction. "Really?"
"Yeah," I said, as I crossed my arms at my chest. Leaning back in my chair, I nodded in Fiona's direction. "Tell me what's wrong with her."
Brad closed his menu and after a hard swallow, decided to take me up on my challenge.
"Well, I mean, look at her. Yeah, she's pretty enough but she's … " his voice trailed off.
I tented my eyebrows at him, daring him to continue. All the other guys at the table watched as tension between us grew with each second that passed.
"She's what, man?"
"Gabe look, just forget it. If you want to hook up with a big girl, be my guest."
I thinned my lips and glared at him. "Take it back, shithead."
Exasperated, Brad looked back at me. "Man, I don't care. Go talk to her."
"Take it back or we take it outside."
"What?" he scoffed. "Come on man, chill. I'm not trying to start anything with you."
A couple of ‘take it easy's' and ‘calm down's' filled the silence between us as the rest of the guys tried to soothe my burgeoning anger.
"Take it back!" I said, pointing at him across the table.
"Dude, fuck. Fine!" Brad said as he leaned away from me. "Forget I said anything."
After I glared at him for a moment, I reached for a glass of ice water. Tilting it up to my lips, I hammered it back until the cubes collected around my mouth. After a final hard swallow, I placed it back down on the bright white of the tablecloth.
"We good?" he asked.
"Don't talk to me right now, man." I muttered as I waved him off.
An uneasy peace returned to the table as everyone raised their menus back to eye level. Instead of looking at mine, I glanced back towards her, and once again I caught Fiona looking. Her gaze fell away from me with an unhurried pace as she rejoined the conversation with her friends.
I shook my head for a moment, wondering what had come over me. Even though I might have disagreed with him, Brad did have a point. But, so what? It's not like I was going to see her again.
And the way she behaved, Brad had her pegged. She wasn't comfortable with herself. She probably had her hands tucked inside of her sleeves this instant. I chewed my lip as I considered the challenge a woman like her would present. That's not something I wanted any part of anyway. I wasn't in the people-fixing business.
But she did have some pretty friends.
FIONA
"Quit looking over there you guys," I groaned.
"Why?" my friend Christine replied. "You keep doing it."
I slunk down into the booth a bit, horrified I'd been caught looking at Gabe and now having to explain myself.