Slipperless (2 page)

“Good one, Fiona,” he said, with a wink and a bit of a chuckle. “That was clever. Well, in any case, congratulations on beauty contest victories
and
the interview.”

“Thank you.”

I nodded and prepared to speak, but before I could, Gabe gestured across the room to a group of men as they entered the bar.

“My buddies are here,” he said, just before he polished off the last of his beer.

With that, he stood from his barstool and after reaching in his pocket, he tossed some money on the bar for his drink. He walked by me and pressed his palm into the small of my back. He leaned in towards me, stopping only six inches or so short of my ear. He lingered there for a moment and his scent caught my attention—and my breath.

“Good luck at your interview, Fiona. Congratulations again.”

GABE

As I walked away from her, I dragged my fingertips across Fiona’s lower back for a fraction of a second. My gesture didn’t go unnoticed. I felt her twitch into an upright position but true to the shy behavior she'd shown me so far, she didn’t turn to look at me.

Fiona wasn’t ordinarily the type of woman I found myself attracted to, of course. I was all but sure the guys wouldn’t let my interaction with her go unnoticed. I wouldn’t have, if the situation was reversed.

But in this case, I didn’t care.

She had an angelic face, with absolutely perfect lips, the most spectacular ones I’d ever seen on a woman. And believe me, I’d seen my share. Beyond that, she had flawless, creamy skin, bright powder blue eyes and silky blond hair.

I’d never seen anything like her, in spite of her covered up appearance. If I was a betting man, I’d say maybe she’d lost some weight and hadn’t quite adjusted to her new look. And anyway, she was young. I guessed early twenties at the most, so that would explain her awkwardness to a degree.

But all that was okay by me. I liked her feisty attitude. It was so much different than the other women in my life. Yet, that’s the advantage of meeting someone like her in a place like this, anonymity. No pretense. I get to just be myself and not the person everyone imagines me to be.

So yeah, it was pretty obvious she didn’t get hit on much. But I didn’t see things staying that way for long. Once you got past her gruffness, it was pretty obvious there was someone worth getting to know beneath all that clothing and standoffishness.

I made my way across the restaurant, dodging waiters and waitresses as I went.

“What’s up?” I nodded as I approached my friends.

“Man, I should be asking you the same question,” my friend Brad replied, as I stepped towards him.

“What are you talking about?”

He nodded, lifting his chin in Fiona’s direction. “Not really your type.”

“Mmm, yeah,” I began as I glanced towards her. Without turning back to face Brad, I continued, “You’re right, she doesn’t look anything like your mom does she?”

“Fuck off, Gabe.”

I chuckled when Brad gave me a small shove to go along with his insult. As I did, the rest of the fellas laughed right along. A few seconds later, the hostess approached and led us towards our table. Walking across the room, I glanced at Fiona and caught her doing the same at me. Her eyes widened as my gaze locked on hers and almost as soon, she turned her attention back towards that ridiculous planner.

I bet she slept with the damn thing.

We’d been seated for about ten minutes or so when I noticed Fiona headed in my direction, surrounded by what I guessed were her friends. I glanced up over the top of my menu and got my first good look at her body. She was a bit bigger than her friends, who were more like the type of woman I typically preferred.

Even so, I was familiar with women like Fiona.

Ten times out of ten, she was usually the woman I had to get close to so I’d have a chance to seduce her attractive friends without having to worry about her cockblocking me at two o’clock in the morning. In my experience, it was always worth the time investment to get women like Fiona on your side.

Yet, as I watched her draw near, I realized that wasn’t the case with her. She glanced at me once more as she passed by the table and held my gaze with the first show of confidence I’d seen from her. It sent a charge through my body, straight to my crotch. My head swiveled as she continued by and I watched her ass snap while her hips swayed back and forth.

“What are you getting, Gabe?” Brad asked. “Didn’t you say the steak tartare was good here?”

Barely listening, I kept my eyes glued on her as she slid into the booth, surrounded on all sides by her friends. One by one, they each looked at me, only to turn back to Fiona a moment or so later. Teasing her, from the looks of it.

“Gabe…” Brad said, as he spoke up.

“Hmm?” I replied. I turned back towards him. “Yeah?”

Brad scowled in my direction and looked past me towards the booth where Fiona sat.

“You’re
way
out of her league, man,” he said as he shook his head. Turning his attention back towards his menu, he continued, “What’s gotten into you?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

Without lifting his head, Brad arched an eyebrow in my direction. “Really?”

“Yeah,” I said, as I crossed my arms at my chest. Leaning back in my chair, I nodded in Fiona’s direction. “Tell me what’s wrong with her.”

Brad closed his menu and after a hard swallow, decided to take me up on my challenge.

“Well, I mean, look at her. Yeah, she’s pretty enough but she’s…” his voice trailed off.

I tented my eyebrows at him, daring him to continue. All the other guys at the table watched as tension between us grew with each second that passed.

“She’s
what
, man?”

“Gabe look, just forget it. If you want to hook up with a big girl, be my guest.”

I thinned my lips and glared at him. “Take it back, shithead.”

Exasperated, Brad looked back at me. “Man, I don’t care. Go talk to her.”

“Take it
back
or we take it outside.”

“What?” he scoffed. “Come on man, chill. I’m not trying to start anything with you.”

A couple of ‘take it easy’s’ and ‘calm down’s’ filled the silence between us as the rest of the guys tried to soothe my burgeoning anger.

“Take it back!” I said, pointing at him across the table.

“Dude, fuck. Fine!” Brad said as he leaned away from me. “Forget I said anything.”

After I glared at him for a moment, I reached for a glass of ice water. Tilting it up to my lips, I hammered it back until the cubes collected around my mouth. After a final hard swallow, I placed it back down on the bright white of the tablecloth.

“We good?” he asked.

“Don’t talk to me right now, man.” I muttered as I waved him off.

An uneasy peace returned to the table as everyone raised their menus back to eye level. Instead of looking at mine, I glanced back towards her, and once again I caught Fiona looking. Her gaze fell away from me with an unhurried pace as she rejoined the conversation with her friends.

I shook my head for a moment, wondering what had come over me. Even though I might have disagreed with him, Brad did have a point. But, so what? It’s not like I was going to see her again.

And the way she behaved, Brad had her pegged. She wasn’t comfortable with herself. She probably had her hands tucked inside of her sleeves this instant. I chewed my lip as I considered the challenge a woman like her would present. That’s not something I wanted any part of anyway. I wasn’t in the people-fixing business.

But she did have some pretty friends.

FIONA

“Quit looking over there you guys,” I groaned.

“Why?” my friend Christine replied. “You keep doing it.”

I slunk down into the booth a bit, horrified I’d been caught looking at Gabe and now having to explain myself.

“He’s cuuuute,” hummed my other friend Ellie. “What's his name?”

Clutching my sweater sleeves inside my palms, I felt moisture come to my skin as my friends interrogated me about him. Besides Ellie and Christine, there were my two other friends, Kelly and Cheri. They were all beauties, who unlike me fought men off on a daily basis. In fact, the only time men usually talked to me was when we were all out together and they wanted to get close to one of them. Now that the situation reversed itself, I was literally like the proverbial fish out of water.

“Fiona…” Ellie said with a leading tone in her voice. “I’m not gonna ask you a third time. What. Is. His. Name?”

I chewed the inside of my lip for a moment before reaching up and tugging a strand of hair behind my ear.

“Gabe,” I muttered.

“Wooo…” Cheri cooed. “Angelic.”

“You’re going to have to get used to this kind of thing, Fiona.” Ellie added.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You’re gorgeous.” Ellie said. “You know, finally coming out of your shell. Men
are
going to notice.” She glanced back over and sucked her lower lip in as a flash of lust came to her eyes. “I wish he'd notice me. If you don’t want him, I’d gladly take him off your hands.”

“You guys are being ridiculous, okay?” I groaned, as I shrugged off their comments. “Our conversation was
really
awkward. And anyway, it doesn’t matter. There’s no way he’d be interested in me.”

Just then, the waitress appeared, providing me with a much needed respite from their relentless grilling. As the girls asked questions about the menu, I peeked over Ellie’s shoulder back in Gabe’s direction only to find him staring straight at me.

What the hell am I doing to myself? This is ridiculous, Fiona. Stop it. Now.

Sinking down into the cool leather of the booth a bit further, I tugged my sweater down over my curves before reaching up to grab my menu. I was being stupid. Now was not the time to lose focus. Not after all the years I’d put in to get to where I was. Tomorrow was too important and this discussion was nothing more than pure silliness.

Wasting time fantasizing about it wouldn’t help me one bit when I interviewed at Hawkins Biotech. It literally was my dream job. Something I’d lusted after ever since I decided what I wanted to do for a career ten years earlier. I've heard that’s what tragedy does to a person. It focuses their priorities in life. I’d never really given the notion too much credence though. It was natural for me to plan, think ahead. You know... budget, calculate, count, save and control.

My friends teased me with comments about having chronic OCD and the like. Frankly, I didn’t understand how anyone got by without discipline in life. Most people could do with a little more organization, structure and control in their lives,
not less
. But anyway, I’d grown used to the jokes. What stung at first, maybe even hurt, rolled right off me now.

I was in charge and doing exactly what I wanted.

Besides, I wasn’t the girl who got the guy, and a random encounter in a stupid bar wasn’t about to change that fact. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was inexperienced, but one drunken screw in my sophomore year left me with little interest in chasing men around, so I didn’t bother. Of course tonight, the girls weren’t having any of it.