Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
FRIDAY
Ben
I was up early and out the door for my usual run. As I ran my usual route, I scouted the beach, mainly focusing on the surfers in the water, hoping I’d see Paisley. No luck. As far as I could tell, she wasn’t there. When I got home, I showered, changed, and went into the garage to start building the last two chairs of the dining set. The day went by pretty fast, and I was getting hungry. After I cleaned up the garage and myself, I headed to the Sunset Bar. When I walked in, David was sitting in the same spot as the last couple of weeks.
“You’re back,” I said as I sat down next to him.
“Couldn’t stop thinking about those fish and chips all week. It’s too bad they only serve them on Fridays.”
“Hey, Ben.” Damian smiled as he set down a bottle of beer.
“Hi, Damian,” I replied as I took a drink.
“How was your week?” David asked nonchalantly.
“Busy. What about you?”
“Busy as well.”
“What do you do for work?” I asked out of curiosity.
“I’m an independent business consultant.”
“What kind of business?”
“Mostly real estate. Did you end up going to that meeting last week?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” I replied as Damian set our fish and chips down in front of us.
“How was it?”
“It was okay. I didn’t go unnoticed, though. I had to stand up in front of everyone and talk about Amy.”
“That had to be rough.”
“It wasn’t that bad. I met a girl there.”
When he turned his head to look at me, the corners of his mouth curved up. “Really? Who is she?”
“Her name is Paisley, and she’s around my age. Her husband passed away on their first wedding anniversary.”
“Wow. I can’t even imagine. Losing someone would be hard enough but on your wedding anniversary? Poor girl.”
“It was her first time there, too. She was just as uncomfortable as I was.”
“Did you talk to her?” he asked.
“Yeah. A little bit, and then the next day, I ran into her at the beach. She was going surfing with some guy. I will take a leap and say it was her brother because they looked so much alike.”
“Interesting. How weird is that?”
“What?” I asked.
“That you ran into her the next day.”
“Yeah. I’d say that’s weird.”
“Are you going back tonight?” David asked as he ate a French fry.
“I don’t know. I was thinking about it.”
“If you’re thinking about it, then you should go. Maybe that girl – what’s her name again?”
“Paisley,” I replied.
“That’s right. Maybe Paisley will be there.”
“Yeah. Maybe she will be.”
When I looked at the clock on the wall and saw that it was seven fifty-five, I paid my bill and said goodbye to David.
“Have a good week, David. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you next week.”
“Bye, Ben. Enjoy that meeting.” He smiled.
As I pulled into the medical center's parking lot, I saw Paisley’s car. I smiled. She was here, and I was relieved that she showed up. I stepped out of the truck, and on my way into the building, I stopped at her car because I noticed she was still sitting in it. As I lightly tapped on her window, she looked startled.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She rolled down her window. God, was she pretty.
“Hey. I’m fine,” she replied with a strange but cute look on her face.
“Are you going into the meeting?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’m still thinking about it.”
“Well, it’s eight o’clock, and I’m sure they’ve already started,” I said as I looked at my watch.
“I’m surprised you came back,” she said.
I could tell she was nervous. “I’m actually surprised to see you here.”
“Yeah, well, I haven’t made it into the building yet.” She smiled.
“You know what? This group makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Why don’t we skip it and get some coffee? You know, the coffee we were supposed to have last Friday night?”
Paisley
I sat in my car and scraped my top teeth along my bottom lip, contemplating whether or not to have coffee with him. But really, what was the harm? I couldn’t come up with an excuse quickly enough, so I said yes. Ben smiled and asked me where I wanted to go.
“There’s a Starbucks right down the street. We could walk,” I said as I climbed out of my car.
“Starbucks it is, then.” He smiled.
I could already tell this would be one of those awkward moments where neither of us knew what to say next.
“How was surfing last week?” he asked.
I let out a sigh of relief that he started the conversation. “It was nice. It felt good to hit the waves again.”
“Again?”
“Yeah. I haven’t done much surfing since—” I looked down.
“If I surfed, I probably wouldn’t have either.”
I looked up at him and smiled because he got it; he understood.
“My brother, Keaton, the guy I was with, didn’t give me a choice. He just kind of showed up at my house and dragged me out.”
“Yep. I have one of those brothers, too, except his name is Finn.”
“Isn’t it just annoying that family thinks they know what’s best for you?”
“Totally annoying. My parents and my brother are constantly trying to get me to go out. What they don’t realize is that I don’t want to, and if I did, I would.”
“Yes! Exactly.” I smiled.
We reached Starbucks, and Ben held open the door for me. “What would you like? It’s on me,” he said.
“No. I can pay for my own.”
“I know you can, but I’m a guy. How would I look up at the counter if I let you pay for your own coffee, considering we came in together? I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Is that so?” I laughed.
“It is.”
“Fine. Then the next coffee is on me.”
“There’s going to be a next coffee?” He smiled.
I shook my head, and it was our turn to order. As Ben took his wallet from his pocket, I noticed he was still wearing his wedding band, just like I was. We took our coffees and sat at a table by the window. I didn’t know what I was feeling at that moment. I was nervous, scared, excited, happy, all of the above.
“What do you do for a living, Ben?” I boldly asked.
“I’m a firefighter. I work for the LAFD.”
That explained the buff body.
“What do you do?” he asked with a smile.
“I write for a column at the L.A. Times.”
He cocked his head. “What kind of column?”
“Relationships and love. Don’t judge.”
“Wow. That’s great. Do you have a name you go by for your column?”
“You’re not going to look me up, are you?” I asked.
“No. Should I?”
“No. I laughed. “I write under Dear Paisley.”
“Nice.” He smiled as he sipped his coffee.
“So I take it you’ve never heard of Dear Paisley?” I asked with the hope that he hadn’t.
“No, I haven’t. But I think now I’ll subscribe to the L.A. Times so I can read your column.”
“Don’t you dare.” I laughed.
Laughing. I hadn’t done that in a long time, and it felt good.
“Who taught you how to surf?” he asked.
“I taught myself.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” I smiled as I brought the coffee cup up to my lips. “My family loves the beach. My mom took us every weekend to unwind from the long school week. She told us to forget about school for a day and just have fun.”
“How many siblings do you have?”
“Three. Two sisters and Keaton. I used to sit on the sand and watch the surfers carry their surfboards down to the water and get in. I thought it was so cool that you could actually ride a wave, and I wanted to do it. A friend of mine had a sister who was away at college, so she let me use her surfboard to practice. I would sit on my board in the water and just watch people. I’d watch the way they positioned their feet and bodies so they could hold their balance. It took a while, but I learned, and I love it. When Keaton was old enough, I taught him to surf. Now that’s all he does.”
“Wow. That’s a great story, Paisley. Doesn’t he work?”
“Yeah. He designs websites and works from home. He’s super smart. He’s almost on a genius level when it comes to technology. He’s twenty-one years old and has the bank account of someone who’s been working for forty-plus years.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I guess you can have that when you live at home with your parents, and they don’t make you pay for anything.”
“I take it you’re really close to him.”
“I am. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very close with my sisters, too. But Keaton and I have a special bond. Maybe it’s all that surfing I taught him.”