11. Trevor
11
TREVOR
I toss Kayla’s jeans in the dryer and turn it on, taking a moment to lean against it and bury my face in my hands. She’s wearing my pants and I don’t understand what about that is so appealing but it doesn’t really matter. I have to be cool. I can’t let her see how attracted I am to her right now.
Work, Trevor, she’s here to work on the set. Focus, man.
With a bracing breath, I emerge from the laundry room and go meet her in the garage. She already has the door up and stands waiting beside our fireplace.
“I would offer to help you carry it out, but I think you can handle it based on last time.” She gathers up the box of paint supplies and walks out, leaving me to follow in her wake. I watch her for about two seconds, noting the way her blonde hair fans in the breeze before I get ahold of myself and heft the fireplace up and out.
“Okay, what are we doing now?”
“We’re going to paint red and yellow right here to look like flames.” I indicate the inside of the fireplace with a paintbrush. “And when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘you’ because I can build things but I am not an artist. ”
“Flames, got it. What are you going to be doing?”
I hold up a finger and jog back into the garage to grab the two giant plywood candy canes I cut out this week. “I am going to attach bases to these guys so they can stand up on their own and then I’ll paint red and white stripes. I can handle stripes.”
“Oh, those are so cool! The kids will love how big they are.”
“Well, they aren’t done yet.” But I smile, glad she’s pleased.
We fall into a rhythm, her painting, me drilling and I can see we are making good time.
“I think we’ll be able to finish up today. When should I bring them to the school?”
“I was thinking about that. What are you doing Friday?”
“I work until six. After that I’m free.”
“Great! How about this – I’ll meet you at the school whenever you think you can get there after work and then you can come with me to the Christmas party that my roommate and I are throwing at our place. It’ll be a good chance for you to practice some of your new people skills. And there will be several single ladies there, so you might even meet Miss Right.” She wiggles her eyebrows.
“Oh, uh…” I swallow, trying to think of a reason why I can’t go. But I already said I was free so there’s no way out of this without being rude or a complete coward. “Sure, sounds fun.”
Kayla snorts. “You said that like I asked if you wanted a root canal.”
“No, really.” I try to muster up some enthusiasm. This is what I wanted, after all. For her to teach me how to talk to people. I have to put the things she’s teaching me into practice at some point. “I’ll come. It’s better than spending a Friday by myself, right?”
“Technically, you wouldn’t be by yourself – you have Luke and Leia now. How did you come up with those names, anyway? They’re cute. ”
I blink at her. “They’re from Star Wars. You know, Luke Skywalker and his sister Leia?”
“Oh.” She shrugs. “I’ve never seen the Star Wars movies.”
I nearly drop the paintbrush I just pulled from the box. “Never? None of them?”
“I know, I know. I learned a long time ago not to tell just anyone that dark little secret. You’re not the first person to look at me like I’m a complete weirdo.”
I school my face back to a neutral expression and dip my brush into the red paint. “You’re not weird. I was just surprised, that’s all.”
“I’m just not a big fan of sci-fi movies. Space and aliens do not interest me.”
“Science fiction is more than just outer space and aliens. Sure, that’s a lot of sci-fi stories, but it’s really any story based on future science and technology. Jurassic Park is science fiction. So are Minority Report , The Matrix , Back to the Future , Inception – ”
“Okay, okay!” Kayla laughs. “I get it. Maybe I do like science fiction. I mean, who doesn’t like Jurassic Park ? It’s a classic.”
“Totally. Still holds up today.”
She stops painting and watches me with a thoughtful expression. “It sounds like you’re really into sci-fi stuff.”
I shrug, trying to be casual, but on the inside, I’m excited to be talking about this. “I wouldn’t say I’m an expert, but that is my preferred genre of books and movies.”
“Maybe you could make a recommendation for my book club. I don’t think we’ve ever chosen a science fiction book before and I’d love to try something new.”
“Sure, I’d be happy to.”
“And maybe you could come talk to us about the genre and what all it encompasses.”
“Oh, yeah…” I hesitate at the thought of being in front of a bunch of strangers. I look up and realize her eyes are twinkling. Sh e can tell she’s got me again. “You’re really taking your duty to socialize me seriously, aren’t you?”
“I have to hold up my end of this exchange. Alright, how do my flames look?”
I nod approvingly. “Much better than mine would have.”
She moves over to help me with my red and white stripes. When she leans forward, concentrating on staying inside the lines I penciled on, her forehead nearly touches mine. She glances up and catches me watching her.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I bounce back from her like a rubber ball. “I think I’ll just start on this other candy cane. Maybe we can get done quicker.”
“Good idea.”
I focus as much as I can on creating neat, festive stripes, but it’s impossible for me to completely rid my mind of her big, golden-brown eyes only inches from mine.
She glances over at me. “You up for one more ‘peopling’ lesson before our deal expires?”
“Bring it on.” Something else to think about sounds good right now.
“Okay, my wisdom bomb for a good conversation is to find common ground. If you can identify something you have in common, it makes people feel connected to you. And it doesn’t have to be something you both love, it can be something you both hate.”
I nod. That makes sense. “But how do you find out if you have anything in common?”
“I’m so glad you asked. This tip pairs up with the ‘asking lots of questions’ tip we practiced last week. Asking people what they do for fun usually works pretty well. People love to talk about their hobbies, and with any luck, you’ll like some of the same things. ”
“But what happens if you can’t find anything at all in common?”
She considers this for a second, then shrugs. “Then I guess it’s not meant to be. You can’t be besties with every single person you meet.”
I snort.
“What?”
“Guys don’t have besties.”
Her response is dry. “My bad. But that’s not the point. The point is finding common ground whenever possible.”
“You mean like agreeing that Jurassic Park is a cinematic masterpiece?”
“Exactly. Or agreeing that biting into a chocolate chip cookie and realizing it actually has raisins is the worst.”
I shudder. “It really is. So, Kayla, what do you do for fun?”
“What an interesting question, Trevor.” She strokes her chin and pretends to contemplate her answer. “You probably guessed I like to read. I also enjoy theme parks, going out for sushi, and helping people organize their closets.”
“I’m on board with the reading and sushi but I’m out on the theme parks and closets. What do you like to read?”
“Books. Seriously, I’ll read almost anything.”
“Except sci-fi?”
She winces. “Guilty. But I’m open to it. Give me your best recommendation and I promise I’ll give it a try.”
I lay my paintbrush down. “I’ll be right back.”
When I return a few minutes later, she’s finished the last candy cane stripe and is wiping her hands on a paper towel. I hold out the book I retrieved for her. “Here.”
Kayla accepts the book and reads aloud from the cover. “ Timeline by Michael Crichton. Why does that name sound familiar?”
“He wrote the Jurassic Park book that the movie is based on. I figured if you liked that movie, maybe you’d like some of his other non-dinosaur stories. I’ve read all his books and this is one of my favorites.”
Her eyes sparkle. “Thank you, Trevor. I can’t wait to read it.”
“You don’t even know what it’s about.”
“Doesn’t matter.” She lays her hand on my arm and looks up at me. “I can see how excited you are about it and that makes me excited to read it, too.”
I gulp, unnerved again by her closeness. “Hope you enjoy it.”
“I’m positive I will.”