Page 35 of A Minute More

A noise in the background, Lucas and Seth entering the room, has us breaking apart. But I’m not done. I don’t want to be done. But it’s too late.

He moves away from me, his cheeks flushed and his chest heaving as Seth and Lucas stride into the room, their low rumbling voices breathing through the thick tension coiling around us.

Oh, I fucked it up again.

“You guys okay?” Lucas asks as Seth moves toward Simon and places a hand on his shoulder. Simon stares at the floor and they shuffle to the door. They must know each other very well for Seth to be able to read Simon like this.

Fuck. Who is this guy to him? He couldn’t have been someone romantic or else Simon wouldn’t have kissed me like that, right? Shit. I should have asked him earlier, but I was too distracted by his fucking mouth.

“Wait!” I say and then shake my head, moving toward the door, blocking their way out. “Simon and I aren’t done talking.”

“I think he is,” Seth retorts, and I beg Simon to stay with my eyes, to talk with me some more. I’ll sit across the room with my hands under my thighs if that’s what it takes.

“Please move, Wesley.”

The way he says my name makes everything inside of me combust.

“Come on, big lug,” Lucas says, pulling me to the side. I stumble into him and let him wrap his bulky arm across my shoulders as he holds me in place. And then I watch Seth and Simon escape, my eyes tracking their every movement until I can’t see them anymore.

And then it’s just me in Lucas’s arms, not really wanting to move but knowing I’ve overstayed my welcome.

“You need to get your head out of your ass,” Lucas says, and I meet his stare.

“You have wood in your beard.”

“Makes it more interesting,” he retorts as he lets go of me and ambles off.

My eyes settle on the darkness outside. I don’t even shut the door, I just sit on the porch steps with my head in my hands. I can still taste him on me, my lips still swollen from his kisses.

And what a kiss it was. One of the best. So different and yet, so familiar.

Fuck, why did I call him a hobby? What the hell is wrong with me? I mess up far too often when it comes to him, fumbling with my actions and my words. Maybe I should just stop talking altogether to even out the chances of me not acting a fool.

But when I see Simon two days later, my mouth has done the opposite and developed a terrible case of verbal diarrhea.

“Hi there, Simon Wise,” I say dorkily when he strides into the shop. His footsteps stutter and my word vomit comes out even faster. “How did you get that last name? I mean, where is it from? Where are you from? I mean, America obviously, but your ancestors….”

Jude slaps me in the face with a plastic glove and I sputter to a stop.

“I’m saving you from yourself,” Jude mutters as Simon moves to put his stuff away. When he strides out and stands next to me at the counter, my mouth opens once more to spew nonsense. But Jude slaps me with the glove again and it puts a stop to it for a few more minutes. But I’m so goddamn nervous that I can’t quite contain myself. I speak to everyone that comes in, drawing out long conversations from even the grumpiest of customers.

One man just glowered at me and told me to stop. I couldn’t. I just pontificated about the word and what it meant, not that I was even making sense, but it just tumbled out of me.

I was slapped with gloves multiple times that day and sent to the back to cool off. I found myself talking to the loaves of bread and bags of chips.

It was a low point for sure.

“What are you doing? Play it cool, man,” Jude hisses. But I can’t. I’m already running down this hill. I can’t stop. It’s full speed ahead into madness now.

“I can’t. I’m not. I am so uncool. Send help,” I squeak out.

“Did Simon break your brain or something?”

“He broke me,” I nod and then determine that yes, Simon did. He did something to my brain the minute I set eyes on him. I will never be the same.

“You need to like…do something. You’re scaring off the customers.”

“I’m delighting them with my friendliness!” I try and insist, but Jude’s probably right. I am a bit frightening at the moment, manic almost. “Well, just suck the guys’ dicks to entice them to come back.”

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