Chapter Four“Fuck him, baby girl,” Brooklyn said the next morning as we sat at a small café where we’d decided to get breakfast. Students paid $3 for a full breakfast, a cup of coffee and a glass of juice, so we often went there when we wanted pancakes or biscuits and gravy. “He’s just a stupid boy that doesn’t know what he’s passed up.”
She poured blueberry syrup all over her pancakes and dismissed Kenny from her mind.
She’d come into our room around 9 am, ten minutes after I woke up and she’d swept me into her arms. She’d seen the tide of emotions I couldn’t hold back anymore the instant she came in the door and she’d comforted me. She’d allowed me to blubber as I got the story out, and then she’d sat up to push me away.
She’d marched me into a pair of jeans, one of my school hoodies, and a pair of granny boots that had seen better days, but I loved. We were now in the sunshine outside the café, eating our breakfast. I pushed my egg onto the pile of biscuits and gravy on my plate and started to eat.
After I’d finished about half of my breakfast, I took a sip of my coffee and looked out at the street. There was a bistro next to the café, a florist, and a bookshop frequented by students. There were more stores, but my breakfast lured me back to eating.
I wasn’t quite awake yet, and the crying jag made me want to go back to sleep but I couldn’t. I swallowed the last bite of my food and looked at Brooklyn.
“I guess it’s on to the next one on the list,” I groused and wiped my mouth with a napkin.
“What about him?” Brooklyn smirked and pointed at the waiter behind me with her butter knife.
I turned to follow her focus and felt my left eyebrow rise in surprise. “Oh my…”
“Yeah, mouth-watering, isn’t he?” Brooklyn’s own eyebrows lifted and wiggled over her eyes. It made me giggle as I turned back to our table.
“Too bad he’s not our waiter,” I mumbled before I smothered another giggle.
“I’m sorry,” Brooklyn called out. “Could you bring me more coffee?”
I gasped and glared at her, but she just smiled at me.
Our own waiter had just left our table, but she ignored that as the young man came over to our table.
“Of course, do you need more cream?” His voice was deep and hinted with an accent I didn’t quite understand.
His name tag told me his name was Gerard but that was all. He was very tall with a broad, muscular chest, but it wasn’t the muscular frame that caught my attention. It was the piercing blue eyes, tilted up at the corners, that seemed to pierce into my very soul. I think my mouth must have fallen open but didn’t care.
“Would you like more? It’s on the house.” His dark eyebrows rose as he continued to stare down at me like he knew every secret I hid away.
“Um, sure. Yeah,” I smiled at him and held my cup out.
“Are you two students here?” he asked as he poured coffee out when he came back.
“Yeah/ Seniors, you?”
“I’m a transfer student, junior year,” he admitted with a wink in my direction. I thought he’d devote his attention to Brooklyn, but he didn’t. He seemed to only have eyes for me. “I left LSU to take a biology program that’s not available down there.”
“I see,” I whispered loudly, lost in his eyes again. “It’s a shame we’re leaving.”
“Isn’t it?” he said his eyes perusing me slowly as if every flick of his eyes removed an article of clothing. “I tell you what. I could take you to dinner tonight and we could get to know each other better.”
“I’d love to, but…” I was about to decline but Brooklyn kicked me under the table. “I’d love to.”
We exchanged numbers and then he went back to wait on his own tables. I waved with a smile of delight as we left the café, my woes of the night before forgotten now. I’d met a guy on my own and I hadn’t had to go begging a guy to go out with me.
For a moment, my heart thudded to a halt. Amanda was leaving the café, but she hadn’t seen me. I hoped. I had a feeling she’d ruined last night’s festivities. I didn’t want her to fuck this up too. She walked off in the direction of her apartment and didn’t even glance back at me. I felt the muscles in my chest relax and breathed life back into my lungs.
We paid our bill and left the cafe, a smile in place of the sad frown I’d worn earlier.
“See? He knows you’re totally fuckable, my love.” Brooklyn linked her right arm with my left one and we walked back to our dorm with much lighter steps. “Not all men are children. It’s just too bad Kenny was.”