Page 58 of Kings Fear No One
I clear my throat. “So, Hope, how did you and Ozzie meet?”
Hope shares a bashful smile with Ozzie. “At the Titty Bar.”
Sydney almost chokes on her coke. Blake and Korine turn their heads away to disguise their quiet laughter.
“Sorry,” Sydney says, clearing her throat. “It’s just… you don’t look like an exotic dancer.”
“I get that a lot. It was my first day on the job when Ozzie came in.”
“I took one look at her and knew,” Ozzie says, throwing his arm around her shoulders. He leans in close to kiss her on the cheek. “I told her, get off that damn stage right now and put some clothes on.”
“And he took me for milkshakes at the Dairy Shack,” Hope says brightly.
The rest of us are silent, unsure of how to react to their story. Finally Blake cuts in to give Ozzie a hard time about how he’d said he was swearing off women forever after Sparkle. Ozzie shrugs him off.
“What can I say? Hope is one of a kind.”
“Good,” Sydney teases, “now you’ll stop asking me if I have any single cousins.”
The conversation evolves from there as our server finally arrives with our food. Even Mason starts participating as he moves onto his second beer and dines on smoked ribs.
Logan’s the only one holding back.
The tension hasn’t let up. His muscles feel harder than usual, like he’s on guard. He’s ready at a moment’s notice if something were to pop off.
Every time the restaurant door dings open and people walk in, he’s watching. He’s tracking everyone’s movements around the dining room. Is this what he’s always done when out in public or is this a new habit of his?
It’s like he won’t take his mind off our surroundings long enough to enjoy the moment.
Blake makes an attempt at roping him into the conversation once it turns to bikes and the Chop Shop. He gives a one word answer and goes back to his silent, disgruntled surveillance of the Smokin’ Pig.
I’m so tuned into Logan and his reactions that I begin checking out of the conversation too. I try to reach for his hand, but he moves it away before I can. I’ve tried to catch his eye for a smile, but he’s refused to look at me.
The rejection heats up my skin. I roll my lips together, holding it in. Reminding myself patience is key. We’ve been making progress.
Logan’s not there yet… but he can be someday.
He cared for me once. He can do it again…
Yet as I tell myself these things, my heart wilts inside my chest. I feel acutely aware of the other three couples seated with us at the table. Blake and Korine can’t keep their hands off each other—Blake’s stroking her thigh and she’s practically propped up against his chest. Mason and Sydney have been flirting with the heated looks they exchange from their verbal sparing, like it’s some form of foreplay for them.
And then there’s Ozzie and Hope, who seem so smitten with each other it’s almost sickening.
Meanwhile, Logan hasn’t touched me. He hasn’t so much as looked at me.
If we weren’t seated together, you’d never know we were a couple at all.
Husband and wife.
A sudden wave of tears emerge from my eyes, and I do my best to ward them off. I blink them away and dab at my eyes with a napkin.
“So when’s the wedding?” Ozzie asks Mason and Sydney.
They share a look, then Sydney says, “We’re thinking end of summer. On our one year anniversary.”
Hope smiles. “That’s so sweet.”
“How about we make it a double wedding? We drive to Vegas and two for one that shit.”
