Page 18 of Mending Me

“Oh my god, no! This is so fun!” Her warm laugh made me grin and I felt myself start to relax. Going out with her had made me nervous even though I wasn’t normally one to get nervous. There was just something about this girl that had me all out of sorts.

When we got to dinner, I hopped off the bike first then helped her off. We took off our helmets simultaneously and she handed me hers before I unzipped the leather jacket, helping her out of it with a spin. I couldn’t hold back my laugh when I watched her shimmy her sweats down her legs, step out of them, and then swap out her sneakers for the heels we had stowed away in the saddlebag.

I watched in awe as she went from wearing baggy sweats and sneakers to transforming into a true Southern beauty in less than thirty seconds. She flipped her head over, shook out her hair, and flipped herself back up, smiling at me when she was standing upright again.

“What’s the face for?” she asked as she stuffed her sweats and sneakers into the saddlebag on my bike.

“What face?” I felt all the muscles in my face fall. Had I been making a face?

“You were giving me a look.” She laughed as she slung her purse that I’d handed to her over her shoulder. One of the straps of her dress was starting to slip and I reached out to fix it. When my fingers brushed the curve of her shoulder, our heads snapped to where our skin had made contact, then back at one another.

“I was just looking at you. It’s hard not to look when someone is as beautiful as you are.” She was standing within a few steps of distance from me and my voice came out low and gravely. Her eyes were locked on mine and I didn’t miss when she licked her lips. It took everything in me not to close the space between us and press my lips to hers right there in the parking lot.

I suddenly felt very aware of how much I wanted to kiss her and took a step back, afraid to cross a line I wasn’t sure if she wanted to cross so soon. Who was I to think that someone as gorgeous and outgoing as her would want to kiss someone like me? A man who hadn’t been on a real date in over ten years and hadn’t even been with a woman in almost just as long. I was lucky she’d even said yes to going to dinner with me. The last thing I wanted to do was fuck it up by trying to kiss her before I knew she wanted me to.

“Let’s go get some food,” was all I could think to say before turning and heading towards the restaurant. While we walked, I wanted to take her hand and hold it but wasn’t sure if that would be okay either. Without saying anything, she took my hand and pulled herself into me, looping her arm around mine and smiling up at me. I couldn’t help but smile down at her in return.

Dinner was amazing when I wasn’t acting so fucking shy. I wasn’t a shy guy really, but she made me second guess everything I said or did. Multiple times she had to repeat herself because I had been distracted by her. Not that she was doing anything abnormal, I was just completely awe-struck by her.

How she carried herself. How she spoke. The way she laughed. The way she watched me so intently as I talked,clinging to every word I said. She was kind to the servers and complimented a random woman’s shoes as she passed our table. She wasn’t just beautiful on the outside, she was beautiful on the inside too.

“So while my family moved away, I’m still here living in Charleston. I’ve loved this place ever since we came here in second grade as a family for my dad’s job,” she explained.

We had been talking for over an hour, our empty plates sitting abandoned because we had gotten lost in the conversation we were having.

“Have you ever thought about leaving?” I asked, leaning my elbows on the table and staring at her intently. Talking with her was easy because she told every story as if it was happening for the first time and made you feel like you were living in it right along with her.

“I did, for a brief moment, but I love it too much to leave. I grew up here, went to school here, got my degree in hospitality at the College of Charleston. This city is my home, I don’t think I could leave it without missing it too much.”

“Do you like what you do for work?”

She paused and I saw the joy in her eyes falter for the first time since sitting down for dinner. She took a sharp inhale in and dropped her head before giving me an uneasy half smile.

“I’m kind of just working odd jobs here and there, planning small parties and functions for people around the city. I used to work at an event hall downtown but left two years ago…” her voice trailed off. She wrapped her lips around her teeth and tucked a piece of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear without looking at me. I got the sense that there was more to this story but I didn’t want to pry.

“What about you? What do you do for work?” She perked up in her seat and looked at me expectedly, ready to change the subject.

“Oh, me? I work in security for one of my friends. He owns a big security firm that covers businesses and private residences around Charleston. He was nice enough to give me a job when I came home about a month ago.” Her eyes beamed at me with admiration.

“I think that’s so cool that he helped you out like that. Your friends seem really important to you.”

“My friends are everything to me,” I said earnestly, nodding my head. “They’re like my family and have been since we met in third grade. Those guys are more like my brothers than my friends. They were there at my swearing in ceremony after I enlisted once we all graduated from high school.”

That is a day I will never forget. How I stood at the front of the room standing next to several other kids my age and recited the Enlistment Oath back to the officer standing before us. How, when I turned around, I saw my three best friends standing in the pews with proud smiles. How they all drove me to the bus stop and dropped me off as I left for bootcamp and we all pretended to not be crying when we all actually were.

“That’s really special. Your parents weren’t there?” She reached across the table and tucked her hands into mine. I tried to not laugh too loud as she asked the question.

“No. My dad wasn’t there and I wouldn’t want him there anyway.” The words tasted bitter on my tongue as memories from my childhood started to float to the surface of my brain.

“What about your mom? Is she not in the picture?” I could tell she was trying to be delicate, but I had learned quickly over the last few hours that this girl wanted to know everything about you if she could.

“My mom passed away when I was nine. It’s just been my dad and I ever since.” Thinking about my mom always put a sour taste in my mouth but I tried my best to not sound angry. My mother wasn’t around because of my shithole of a father and Ihad never forgiven him for it. Bailey squeezed my hands tighter in hers and rubbed the backs of them with her thumbs.

“I’m really sorry, soldier.”

After a while, we decided to head out and I helped her back into her helmet and my leather jacket before we took my bike back over the bridge. She scootched her hips forward on the seat, making her entire body flush with mine, and it took everything in me to not come in my pants. Even with her back in her sweats and sneakers, feeling her pelvis pressed against me almost had me completely undone.

I walked her back to the front door of her condo and we stood facing each other for an awkward moment in the hallway. I wanted to kiss her goodnight, but I didn’t want to be too forward.Stop being such a chicken shit and just do it. You’ve kissed a girl before, just do it!

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