Page 6 of Almost Dating
His eyes lit up. “I’d love to.”
~ ~ ~
Barry knew he’d be up for hours with a cup of coffee, but no way was he turning down this golden opportunity to sit in Pink Hair, er, Amber’s apartment and get to know her. Her place was a mirror image of his place, but much cozier. The walls were painted with golden swirls that reminded him of an Italian restaurant, Tuscany style, he thought it was called. The living room was spare, just a purple sofa and coffee table on one side, the other side had an easel with canvases and art supplies nearby. A TV sat in the corner.
He followed her to the kitchen, trying very hard to push his fantasy of a naked Amber lounging among the floral pillows in her queen-size canopy bed out of his head. She’d look so hot there with the floral comforter and the white gauzy canopy framing her in all of her pink glory. He got hard and quickly sat at the round kitchen table with a mosaic top he was sure she’d created herself. He watched her prepare the coffee and racked his brain for conversation that didn’t involve asking why she was with a two-timing lunkhead like Rick.
“So who do you know in Clover Park?” Amber asked. “We’re all connected by six degrees of separation.”
He grinned. “Like Kevin Bacon. I’m not all that well connected. I just moved here a year ago from California.”
“What made you move here?”
“My dad died.” His throat went tight. “I came home to Eastman for the funeral and stayed for my mom.”
He still missed his dad. He was a good man, a hell of a mechanical engineer too. His parents had been close, and his dad’s death from a heart attack at seventy had been a shock to them all. His two younger brothers stopped home briefly, but they couldn’t stay long. Daniel was in military intelligence, and Ian was a grad student in computer science at M.I.T. He knew some people thought it strange for him to move home at thirty, but for him it was no big deal. He’d been in between gigs since he’d sold his app, and his mom had been in bad shape. It was a hard year of mourning for her, and he’d done what he could to make it better. He knew she was doing okay when she told him to go ahead and find his own place.
Amber cocked her head. “I’m sorry.”
He put up a hand. “It’s okay. How about you? Who do you know?”
She plopped into the seat next to him. She had blue eyes the color of the sea. “I teach art at Clover Park Elementary, so I know all the teachers, all the kids, K through five, and all the parents. I’m close with Daisy O’Hare. You know her? Her sister, Liz, works with me, but Daisy and I really hit it off.”
He brightened. “Sure I know her. I spend a good amount of time at her parents’ restaurant.”
“Yeah, everyone knows Garner’s. So how’d you get into the fro-yo business?”
He shook his head. “Thought it’d be fun. It is. Fro-yo bars were really big in California. I just saw an opportunity here and ran with it. It’s definitely more fun than what I used to do—software engineering.”
“That does sound more fun.”
“I develop apps on the side.” He shrugged. “Just a hobby.”
“Yeah? Anything I might know?”
“Have you heard of Giggle Snap?”
“I love Giggle Snap! So fun! That was you?”
He beamed. “Yeah, that was me.”
“Awesome! What other apps have you made?”
“That was the first. I’ve been noodling around with another one for bird watchers.” He waved that away. “I won’t bore you with all the gory details.”
“I love gory details.”
He raised a brow. “Yeah?”
She nodded encouragingly.
“Well…” He checked in with her again, and she smiled. She wassopretty. “It’s basically a database with information for a bird, like its relative size, color of plumage, shape of bill. It helps you figure out what bird species it could be from a narrowed-down selection. You know, since so many birds match similar descriptions.”
“Sort of like a field guide.”
“Yes!” He pointed at her. “Smart lady.”
She grinned.
