Page 35 of Falling for You

“Oh you know, the hot bartender at The Flying Goat who flirts like it’s his job.”

I laugh hard. “Hot bartender, huh? I’ll make sure to tell my boss that I have a new job title. He’ll be thrilled.”

“I’ll make you a nametag.” She’s finishes her slice and grabs for another and I do the same.

“Perfect. Here’s a fun fact about me: I used to be a sharp shooter in the Army.”

Her mouth drops open and she squeaks. “No way.”

“Yeah, no. I just wanted to see if you were listening. I do go to a shooting range pretty frequently but I was never in the Army.”

“You shit! I totally thought you were like the guy Bradley Cooper played!”

“Ha! Sorry to ruin your fantasy. I’m not nearly as badass as he was.”

“Great movie, yeah?”

“It is. Okay, here’s arealfact about me. I own thirteen computers and have a spare bedroom dedicated just to parts and pieces of others so I can tinker with building computers and messing around with them.”

“So you really are a computer nerd by day.”

“That I am, much to my family’s dismay.”

I don’t go into how much they still hate that I went into something with computers for my career, or the fact that we don’t speak.

“Thirteen, huh?”

“Yup. Most of them I use, actually.”

“Wow. Want to know how many I have?”

“Probably not.”

She circles her thumb to meet the tips of her fingers and says, “Nada.”

“How do younothave a single computer? How do you take care of bills and work and…”

“And?”

“I don’t know. You have a tablet, don’t you?”

“Yup. I read from it and use it for everything else I could possibly need.”

I shake my head. “That’s so wrong,” I joke.

“What? Computers are expensive and I don’treallyneed one!”

“Well when you get your own salon, I’ll hook you up with what you need.”

The light in her eyes doesn’t even dim. She simply grins, takes a large drink of her soda and says, “Might take you up on that. You’ll be proud to know that I included a laptop and accounting software in my line items I brought to the bank.”

“Good girl.”

“Right? I think I includedtoomuch, actually. Know what I mean? Like, I didn’t skimp anywhere and so they took one look at me and went ‘yeah, uh no. This chick’s crazy’,” she giggles at her own expense.

“I doubt that. So your water heater is still working?”

“Sure is.”

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