Page 18 of Charlie
I smiled and couldn’t get past the fact that she’d called me hot. “Don’t worry about it. I was entertained by you.”
“You were?”
A waiter brought us a basket of bread and asked for our order. I went with a salad while she ordered a pizza.
She looked around. “I’m so happy I ran into you, because I don’t like going to restaurants by myself.”
“No? It’s not so bad. You just have to get used to it.”
“Maybe, but I’m telling you that I’ve had the strangest guys approach me. It’s like a woman sitting alone at a table is seen as an invitation for them to join me. One of them wouldn’t stop talking about his collection of dried flowers, and another was a feces donor, which I didn’t even know was a thing. I mean it’s fascinating and admirable that he gets to help people with bowel problems, but I was eating when he brought up the subject.”
“A feces donor. Really?”
“Yup.”
“You sure he wasn’t making it up?”
“That’s what I thought, but I looked it up and it’s true. Doctors use fecal transplants where they clear out the patients’ digestive tract and then they infuse a dose of healthy stool containing the bacteria needed to digest food.”
Picking up a piece of the warm bread, I broke it in two parts. “Interesting.”
“Oh no, I’m doing it again. You’re eating and I’m entertaining you with stories of stool. I’m so sorry, Charles. I don’t know why I always behave so awkwardly around you. Maybe it’s because you make me nervous.”
I stopped my hand halfway to my mouth, and lowered the bread again. “I make you nervous?”
She was wearing a sweater again, this time gray and cozy-looking. “Yeah, you have such a refinement about you that’s a bit intimidating.”
I tasted the word. “Refinement.”
“Mmm, you just look like you’ve read a thousand books and that you’re eternally bored with us mediocre human beings.”
That made me laugh. “That’s your impression of me?”
“Am I wrong?” She flashed those perfect teeth of hers and swung her long brown hair back. I had seen her without make-up in the coffee bar, and with make-up outside of Lucy’s bar. Today, she was somewhere in between, with a discreet amount that emphasized her natural beauty without being overpowering.
“I certainly have read thousands of books or at least it feels that way, but I wouldn’t say that I’m bored. Didn’t I just tell you that I found you entertaining at the coffee bar?”
She picked up her napkin and placed in it her lap before giving me a playful smile. “Sure, but we both know that you and I have chemistry, so I’m different than all the other sad humans you have to endure.”
A tingle ran up my spine, and tics made me blink a few times. I should respond and keep the flirtatious energy going between us, but her comment about us having chemistry threw me off.
“Or maybe not?” She licked her lips, looked down, and shifted in her chair.
An awkward silence spread between us.
“Ehhm, you studied anthropology, didn’t you?” I asked to change the subject.
“Yes, I graduated with a major in anthropology and a minor in psychology. Now I work for an NGO but I’m not loving it as much as I thought I would.” She smiled at the waiter who brought us our drinks and then she took a sip of her Pellegrino.
“So, what are you going to do?” I lifted the cold lager that the waiter had placed in front of me.
“I don’t know. This is a weird time in my life. I feel like I’m standing in this huge roundabout with roads going in a hundred directions around me. I’ve worked so hard to get here. Gotten my degrees, cleaned out toxic relationships, and become independent. I finally have freedom to live my life, but I’m terrified of choosing the wrong path.
“Careerwise?”
She planted an elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm. “Career, relationship, family, what city to live in. I’m unsure about where to go from here.”
“Having choices can be stressful.” I thought about it. “I was a bit lost myself, but I’ve found an amazing group of people here in Dublin and things are beginning to make sense.”
