Alarm

“Damn, I’m stuffed.” He looked down at his not-quite-finished half-omelet and moaned. “Can’t let it go to waste, though.”

“I’m stuffed, too,” I said, giggling.

He grinned his intoxicating grin at me. I looked away, and I saw my phone lying on the table.

“Oh yeah,” I said, “I was going to ask if you might have a phone charger I could borrow. I forgot mine.”

“What kind do you need?” he asked.

“I have an iPhone.”

“Hmm,” he mumbled. “I only have one for a Galaxy. We could go pick one up for you.”

“No, that’s okay,” I said, not wanting to be a bother. “I’ll just switch it off when I don’t need it.”

“Up to you.”

Despite being full, we ate everything Aiden had cooked and then took our coffee to the patio. On the beach, several people with tall fishing poles lined up near the water. Joggers dodged the fishing lines as they went by, and one hopeful teenager walked along the sand sweeping a metal detector in a wide arc.

“That same kid is out there every morning,” Aiden commented. “I see him pick things up out of the sand every once in a while, but I have to wonder if it’s really worth all the time he spends doing it. He’s got to find more roach clips than anything else.”

“Roach clips?”

Aiden looked at me skeptically.

“You don’t know what a roach clip is?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “What is it?”

Aiden smirked and leaned back in his chair, watching me closely.

“You really are quite the sheltered one, aren’t you?”

I glared at him.

“What does that mean?”

“You’re sweet,” he said. His smile softened. “That’s all it means.”

He went back to sipping his coffee.

“Are you going to tell me,” I asked, “or do I have to Google it?”

He reached up to scratch the back of his head as he looked toward the water.

“It’s slang for the little alligator clip people use to hold the end of a joint.”

“Oh.” I didn’t have another response. I looked down at the ice floating in my glass and bit down on my lip.

“Not your thing, is it?”

“What isn’t?”

“Weed.” Aiden tilted his head

as he looked at me.

“I’m all Clinton there,” I said with a wave of my hand.