Yet, I found myself letting my mind wander. It would make sense if it wandered to the conversation that I had the night before with Sammi, but it didn’t. It kept wandering back to Aiden. How happy he looked when I showed up with the cookies. How intense his eyes were when he talked to me. His attention was so pure, so electric, it was like everyone else who ever spoke to me did so through a filter. But Aiden spoke directly to me.
I spent the entire day trying to focus, and though everyone seemed happy or impressed with my work, my cheeks kept flushing. Not from their compliments but from memories. Memories of intense green eyes and chin-length blonde hair.
11
Aiden
Even though the snow still blanketed the mountain, it had ceased to become an obstacle. And after the buzz of having someone in the cabin for a couple of days, I felt like maybe I should interact with the world a bit more. Brett had been dropping hints that I should meet him at Sergio’s, considering they had a bar. Since I knew the place had good beer and delicious pizza already, I figured why not and texted Brett that we should meet up and have a pizza night again.
He didn’t take much convincing.
As I got to Sergio’s, I noticed that the bar was already filling up. Apparently, a game was on, and I was unaware. I was still getting used to the teams the folks in Ashford rooted for and which sports they seemed more into. It was a bit eclectic, as far as I could tell.
Brett had a booth in a corner by himself when I came in. That wasn’t unusual. Neither Brett nor I really seemed to fit with the rest of the town, and even though he had lived there for a lot longer than I had, he was still an outcast to most of the people around. Having been born on the north side of the train tracks, he was considered almost an outsider. Now that he was a mountain boy, it was like they looked at him as if he were a spy.
“Hey, man,” I said as I slipped into the booth with him. “What’s the score?”
He looked at me with a smirk and one eyebrow raised.
“What score?”
“For the game?” I turned to look at the giant screens on the wall that everyone was staring at.
“You mean the singing competition?” he laughed.
“What?” I said in complete confusion.
Instead of a game, there was a game show of some type. People in ridiculous costumes were singing. Or at least I thought they were singing. Their costumes included giant mascot-type heads, so I couldn’t see their mouths moving. I turned back to Brett, confused as hell. He got one look at my expression and burst out laughing.
“I know,” Brett said. “It doesn’t make any sense. But these people freaking love that damn show. They spend all week guessing who the singer is. It’s nuts.”
“How did I not know about this?” I asked.
“You never come down here on Wednesday nights,” he said. “I was surprised when you wanted to come down here tonight. I thought you must have drunk whatever Kool-Aid everyone else did.”
“No, I most certainly did not,” I said. “I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me this was a thing.”
“Right? At least it doesn’t get as rowdy as during the games. More women here too.”
My eyes scanned the bar, separated from the rest of the restaurant by a hallway with the bathrooms in between. He was right—there were more women here than usual. They were all with a man, though, and as I glanced at their hands, they all seemed to be married to them. Brett might not be the most perceptive of fellas, and I made a note to discourage him from getting a wild hair to hit on someone if he ever did.
Not that I thought he would. If there was anyone as reserved about meeting new people as me, it was him. The only reason we even met on accidentally was because we met while we were hunting. The hunting area near my place was just down the road from his, and we were both tracking the same deer. I happened to see him and waved, then moved on. A little later, I ran into him heading back to the path that led to both our houses. We ended up having a conversation while we walked and hit it off.
He was the closest thing I had to a friend. Not that I really remembered what having those was like anymore. The last time I had friends, it didn’t end well. After that, I just had fellow soldiers. Subordinates. Supervisors. Enemies.
No friends.
That was a dark place and an even darker time that lasted for the rest of my time in the service. When I finally left, the part of me that wanted to survive told me I needed to be alone for a while. To avoid the expectations of friendship and neighbors and acquaintances. To avoid reality.