for me. It just didn’t seem appropriate today.
Things were different at this moment in time, the two of us acquaintances, and acquaintances ordered for themselves.
Yes, that.
Anyway, I got my favorite donut, a chocolate-covered long John. He’d chosen about half a dozen donut holes and black coffee. My bottle of water was good with my food after that terrible coffee at the meeting.
We joked about that again as we sat down and after taking off our coats, found ourselves once again in easy conversation. I didn’t know what it was about this guy who was over a decade my junior. He was just freaking easy to talk to. He told me about his day of work after class, and I told him about my day teaching. It hadn’t been hard for either of us, and though I think we both had a few questions about how the evening began, we didn’t talk about it.
At least, not at first.
I saw the topic shift into something different quickly. How the easy stuff started to lull and the harder stuff poked toward that awkward silence. How the urge to find out something about each other besides the physical or the trivial stuff on paper was there, and really, that was when we had left together last time. We’d didn’t want to talk once we hit that point at the pizza place. We’d wanted to avoid.
Because if we had, we would’ve had to look in each other’s eyes.
We had to see each other, flaws and all. We had to reveal truths and the struggles of our pasts, and that night at the wedding, I didn’t think either one of us wanted to do that.
We’d shown that in spades.
“So, your mom thinks you have an attitude,” I chose to say, still easy and way more painless to endure than his eyes on me, searching me. I found myself avoiding their probe behind my bottle of water, the perfect way to avoid the seemingly endless press of his gaze.
Perhaps, he noticed what I did there, turning the tables and topic in his direction. If he did, he didn’t call attention to it, wiping his hands on his napkin before leaning back. He once again filled the entire booth, a mighty titan and the world his tiny abyss. His smile lifted right. “I do have an attitude. Honestly, I find it hard to believe she hasn’t disowned me at this point.”
Well, I found that hard to believe, this guy a perfect gentleman to the point I thought I should search for his robotic wires. I crossed my arms. “You’re messing with me.”
“Not messing.” A chuckle as he tapped his cup. “I’m a smart ass and you yourself said I was arrogant.”
He was, sometimes. I eyed him. “Why on God’s green Earth would Evie,” I stopped when I realized I was talking about his mother. Dumb, I knew. “Why would she think you have an attitude?”
“Because I push. I push her. She doesn’t get me sometimes, and when she pushes, I push right back. I’m stubborn that way.”
He stole a drink of his coffee, cold at this point, but then the guy behind the counter came over and filled him up.
Ramses grinned. “Thanks, Charlie.”
He passed a bill Charlie’s way. Not quite a hundred but way more than the dollar and a half that brew had cost him.
“I have no idea how I didn’t know you were Evelyn’s son.” I uncapped my water, taking a drink. “She’s very generous too.”
Not to mention, he looked quite a bit like her. They had the same smile and same eyes, despite the color. There was that other part, though.
I tilted my head. “Where is your dad from? Well, I guess I mean his heritage.”
I, too, had a few in there: Mexican, Puerto Rican, and a myriad of others that made me tick quite a few checks on the European spectrum in addition. I sort of knew the breakdown since I did one of those cheek swab things about a year ago. I didn’t do much with it after that, since I started getting notifications about distant family members wanting to connect with me. One of them had been one of my high school teachers and that had just been friggin’ weird.
Ramses hadn’t said anything after my question, adjusting himself in his seat. He angled his neck back and forth before popping his fingers and I wondered if I said something.
“He’s Syrian.” Gruff, rigid before he took another sip of coffee. He put his