“Well, I hope you’re feeling better now.” Brendon sat next to me.
“Much better. Thanks.”
“Would you like to have lunch with me today?”
Brendon wasn’t terrible looking. He had a great smile, and he was taller than me which was always a bonus. But … there was Fisher.
And … there was Rory coming home in a matter of days.
“Just lunch.” Brendon chuckled as if he could read my mind. “I don’t have that many friends.”
“Okay. Lunch would be great. I could use a friend too.” If Fisher had Angie in his bed … in whatever capacity … I could have lunch with a male friend.
After class, we raced to the parking lot to beat the crowd and congestion of vehicles trying to maneuver out of the tight spaces.
“Shoot. I’m trapped.” Brendon frowned at his car blocked in a parallel parking spot at the west end of the lot. He barely had two inches in the front or the back to maneuver. “Guess I’m waiting for the crowd after all.”
“Leave it. I’ll drive and drop you off after lunch.”
“You sure?”
I nodded.
He followed me to my car and gave me an extended glance over the top of it as I unlocked the doors. “How old are you?”
“Eighteen.” I unlocked the car and slid into the driver’s seat as he got in on the other side.
“Really? Wow. I thought you were older.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-four.”
I wouldn’t have guessed that. Maybe twenty. “You look young for twenty-four.” I smiled, giving him a quick sideways glance as I backed out of the parking space.
“Good thing this isn’t a date. I’d feel a little weird with you being eighteen.”
“I’m an adult,” I said my new and thoroughly recycled mantra.
We settled on a Mediterranean restaurant and a large booth near the open kitchen.
“We’re just a few blocks from my house. I’ve passed this place many times on my walks.”
“You live in this neighborhood?” He narrowed one eye. “With your parents? It’s just … a really nice neighborhood. I couldn’t afford to live here by myself or even with a houseful of roommates.”
I sipped my water then shook my head. “I live with my mom. And she rents the basement of a house. So I can’t afford to live here and neither could she if it weren’t a basement rental situation.”
“I see. Makes sense. So what are you doing this summer? Getting ready for college?”
“I’m taking a gap year.” There it was. My go-to. “But this summer, I’m working for a construction company doing random things in the office or delivering lunch to the crew.”
“Sounds…” he smirked “…fun.”
“It’s interesting. Fun? Probably not.”
“Do you like your boss?”
“What?” My head snapped up from the menu. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Uh …” His eyes rolled quickly to one side and then the other. “Just making conversation.”
I relaxed my defensive posture. “Sorry. Yeah. He’s nice. He’s actually my mom’s landlord. It’s his house. He lives on the main level. And he was kind enough to offer me a summer job.”
“That’s a cool situation.”
I nodded. It was cool. And sexy. And my newest obsession.
“So … what do you do?” I asked. “I assume since you’re twenty-four, you must be out of college, if you went.”
“I went.” He nodded while studying his menu. “I just graduated from law school, actually.”
“Can you be a lawyer at twenty-four?”
He laughed. “If you graduated high school a year early. Yes. You can.”
“Wow. Brainy.”
Brendon set his menu down and shook his head. I was pretty sure that was a blush on his face. “Good memory. That’s all.”
“Photographic?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve never been officially tested. I can read quite quickly too. My dad died when I was in fifth grade. And my mom spent all of her time working to put me and my sisters through school, so we didn’t spend a whole lot of time figuring me out. And we didn’t have a lot of money, so I spent more time reading than watching the single television we had in the house. No cellphone until I earned money to buy my own and pay for a plan. No computer outside of the ones we used in school. No video games. Pretty boring, huh?”
I felt an instant connection to Brendon in that moment. “Well, my dad died too. Three years ago. Then I moved to Texas to live with my grandparents until I graduated. I didn’t have a phone either until I bought my own … which my grandparents didn’t let me do until I was eighteen. So I’ve literally had a cell phone for less than a year. Now who’s boring?”
“Really?” Brendon smiled as if my confession, albeit a little sad and pathetic, made him feel some joy.
“However, we did have a computer in the house. I had one from the school that we could bring home. So it’s not like I didn’t have internet access even if it was monitored for appropriate content.” My nose wrinkled.