Drunk

Someone gave him my number. My money is on Caleb. I made a show of being annoyed when Caleb feigned innocence but something I won't admit is that I almost enjoy our meaningless conversation.

Harry text me a good morning before he leaves to teach his class and I'll wait until I arrive at Chop Shop to reply with my standard What's so good about it? and even though I'm obviously being sarcastic and the question is obviously rhetorical he'll humor me with at least one good thing that's happened to him in his day so far or something nice he saw on his way to work and I still ask because I like his optimistic answers and his ability to find at least one good thing in his first two hours of consciousness.

I hadn't seen him since I dropped him off at his house Sunday but the texting had become a routine for me through the whole week. That's why when I didn't get his text Saturday morning it threw me off to the point I was breezing into work thirty minutes late for my first appointment from a combination of looking at my phone waiting and distractedly having to do almost everything twice for having done it wrong the first time.

I walked straight to my station dropping my bag to the ground with a huff.

"I knew you couldn't make it a whole week on time. You're lucky I love your mother." Lou was my mother’s Cammi. Apparently when an infant comes along to ruin the party at sixteen not many people will stick around and let your responsibilities cramp their style but Lou never seemed to mind and at times my mother could be even harder to be around than me. She has literally been around longer than I could remember. She opened Chop Shop straight out of school with help from her parents and employed me straight out of my six month cosmetology school I opted for once I decided college was not as fun as it looked.

"I've had a shit morning." I replied not even looking at her as I began setting up my stuff.

"Kingsley Nicole Martin don't you swear in here and hurry up, Mrs. Delane has been waiting for forty five minutes and I wouldn't be surprised if she leaves."

If there was any one I could do without seeing this early in the morning it was Mrs. Delane. She wasn't a day younger than seventy but still insisted on dying her grey hair an obnoxious shade of red and complaining the entire time about how the world was going to hell and 'the end was near'.

I wasn't sure if I could deal with her attitude this morning but still I trudged my way into the waiting room and forced a tight smile. "Mrs. Delane?" I called and watched as she dramatically pulled herself from one of the chairs grumbling.

"How are you today?" I asked forcing pleasantries as I lead her back to my work station.

"Terrible." She grumbled. "You really should invest in more comfortable chairs if you're going to make a habit of making wait. I would have left if I wasn't worried about having greys for bingo night."

"I'll be sure to write you something for the suggestion box Mrs. Delane."

"Please do."

We didn't have a suggestion box but I guess she didn't need to know that.

I went and retrieved the usual dye I used in her hair and began mixing it in the coloring bowl.

"You really should start wearing a little makeup sweet cheeks and maybe you could find yourself a nice man." She said giving me a smile displaying her dentures.

"I don't need nor want a man Mrs. Delane."

Lou picked this time to breeze by collecting towels for the wash and chime in. "The way she's been looking at her phone this week you'd think she already found one."

I shot Lou a glare as Mrs. Delane went full on into a 'back in my day' speech about how cellphones were of the devil and an inadequate and impersonal form of communication.



Towards the end of my third appointment my nerves were shot and I was nearing the end of my capacity for human interaction and it was barely nearing lunch. In hindsight I probably should have chosen a work that required less social skills but doing hair was what I loved. It was just the obligation of small talk I found hard to tolerate.

I had just finished putting highlights in a very talkative pre-teens hair when I decided if I didn't have a cigarette soon I'd explode and probably express my lack of interest in her social life.

So I made some lame excuse and promised I'd be back in time to rinse her out before scurrying out the door.

Stepping out into the less than fresh open air was a slight relief. I slid down the wall and took a seat on the concrete before digging around in my apron to produce cigarettes and a lighter.

I had just lit my cigarette and took my first hit when I spotted him. He was hard to miss under any circumstances. Tall and lanky almost tripping over his own feet with every other step and with that god awful scarf thing tied in his curls but what snatched my attention wasn't even the scarf thing. Harry was wearing dark wash jeans and a long sleeved red flannel over his white t shirt.

He noticed me about the same time I noticed him. He ducked his head a little and gave me a sheepish smile and a small wave. For a second it dawned on me that maybe he looked guilty because he had purposefully not texted me and he was just happening on this side of town and now he had been caught and it should be awkward.

I knew I was being irrational but I wasn't sure how these things went. I mean we had talked for the majority of the day all week and suddenly today there was nothing. I had been repeating to myself all day a constructed list of reasons why this shouldn't matter the number one reason on said list being that I didn't even actually like him.

If he was avoiding me he didn't show it as he walked straight up and sat on the concrete next to me spreading his long legs out in front of him.

"Are you aware how hot it is out here?" I questioned him with my eyebrows raised referring to his choice of clothing.

"Are you aware how hot I am?" He quipped and even though I knew he wasn't referring to his actual body temperature, I wasn't letting on.

"Then maybe you should try not wearing long sleeves in the middle of June in California."

His smirk was priceless. His lips were closed and only lifted up on the left side displaying one dimple in his left cheek.

"Kingsley, babe, if you wanted me to take my shirt off all you had to do was ask."

I chose not to even answer that.

"What are you doing here anyway? Are you stalking me?"

He shook his head the small smile never leaving his lips as he looked down at his hands clasped together in his lap.

"Well when you put it that way.... No. S'just my day off so I just woke up and Caleb may have mentioned it's close to your lunch hour. Thought you might want some company. There's this Italian place down the street."

Caleb.

Of course I had Caleb to blame for Curly sitting outside of my job with his stupid head scarf and this stupid look on his face that resembled something scarily akin to hope.

I liked him in a way. He was happy and light and made talking feel easy because he looked at you so intently when you spoke it was like every syllable mattered. But that was it. He was nice talk to. Nice to have around occasionally even but I could already see in his face that he was reading too much into this and expecting too much from me. I didn't want to disappoint him when he realized I wasn't capable of what he obviously wanted. He scared his last girlfriend away with an 'I love you.' And I was already anticipating when he discovered it takes a lot less than that to put me off.

I mean, he was sitting here flirting with me shamelessly and terribly. Not to mention he was asking me to lunch. This was a thing now and even though it had been him who suggested we be "friends that kiss", I wasn't quite sure how well he would be sticking to the friends part.

I looked at him dead serious with my mouth set in a straight line hoping to get my point across. Even though I knew sometimes no matter how much you drilled something into someone's head and no matter how much they agreed like they understood the terms and conditions in their own mind, they were already planning how to bend the rules.

"This is not a date."

He leaned his head back against the wall looking up at the sky and smiling in that way he did with his whole face where his eyes squinted and his dimples went deep enough to store water in.

"Ah, our second not-a-date."

I rolled my eyes and put my cigarette out before standing up.

"I have to finish this appointment. You can come in here and wait."

I knew the second we walked through the door and Lou laid eyes on Harry that she was going to make a deal of it and I regretted not leaving him outside to wait on the concrete.

She was ringing up a customer when we walked in and when her eyes landed on him - or his curls actually- her eyes went wide and she handed the girl at the register her change without another glance. She closed the register and walked straight up to us.

"Please tell me you're here to let me cut your hair."

Harry's eyes got even wider than hers and his hands flew to his curls as he took a step backwards.

"No." I answered for him with a bored expression. "He's waiting for me to go on lunch."

Her eyes got a little wider. As if she thinks I have no friends aside from Caleb and Cammi. Which I kind of don't. But whatever. Caleb came in all the time on break from his classes.

Her lips pulled up into an almost cheek splitting grin and I briefly wondered if it hurt her face. She extended her hand to Harry.

"Lou."

He smiled politely back and took her hand. "Harry."

If I thought her smile couldn't get any bigger I was wrong. I huffed in annoyance grabbing his hand pulling him back towards my work station. The girl that worked the station on my left didn't work on Saturdays so I sat him in her chair like a child and told him not to touch anything.

He of course completely ignored me and when I returned from rinsing the girls hair out he was sat in the chair at my work station fiddling with everything he could find like a curious child.

"You have two seconds to move before I shave you bald." I warned.

"You're bluffing. My curls are magic. You wouldn't dare." He smirked but moved back to his previous seat any way so my client could have her chair back.

He was so smug it irked me. I almost wanted to shave his head just to make him a small fraction less attractive.

"Is he your boyfriend?" The girl asked.

I immediately shut that down with a firm "No." That may have fallen from my lips a little too fast and slightly harsh so I tried to lighten it with tossing a "He wishes." In and smiling lightly.

Harry leaned back in his chair and clasping his hands over his stomach. "She's in denial."

The girl gaped at my reflection in the mirror as I dried her hair. I just rolled my eyes. "Keep it up." I warned him and he kept quite after that mostly playing on his phone while I finished styling the girls hair and took her to the register to pay.



Angelo's was a hole in the wall in the most literal way. I never would have found it if Harry didn't grab my hand and pull me back when I tried to walk right past it. The door was set back in to the brick wall of the strip of businesses with no sign except for the name printed in white letter on the small glass door.

I briefly wondered how he knew about such a place after only a small time in LA when I had lived here my whole life and worked just down the street never noticing its existence.

Inside the restaurant was small but not cramped and tastefully decorated with dim lights and dark red colors and ball shaped lanterns hanging over each booth. It would be almost romantic if I was the type.

I followed Harry to a booth against the back wall and he grabbed two menus from behind a napkin holder and handed me one after taking the other for himself.

"So how'd you find this place?" I asked generally curious as I looked around for a moment taking it in.

"I painted that." He said pointing to a mural covering almost the entire wall on the left side of the restaurant. "It was my first job in California."

I surprised him by getting up from my seat and venturing across the restaurant to study his work.

It was gorgeous. There was a fountain in the middle with a large set of steep steps set to the back leading to a building. But even with the fountain dead and center and the building looming large in the background with the beautiful bright colors in the sky from a full blown sun shining and even with the dozens of people milling about in the picture doing daily things my attention was immediately drawn to a couple sitting mid-way up the stairs.

The girl had long light brown hair pulled up in a ponytail and she was wearing a long flowing blue skirt and seemed to be intently studying a bright red rose on her hand. A boy was sitting next to her with his arm around her shoulders watching her face with a dejected expression as if he had already lost. I ran my fingers over them for a reason I couldn't even really explain. They just felt so real to me.

"She was leaving." I was startled by his voice as I was so into the scene in front of me I hadn't noticed him.

"You knew them?"

"Nah. Made em up." He answered quietly.

My mind flew back to our conversation in my room just last week.

I was confused. He had said this was his first work here yet he and that girl had only just broke up.

"So that's not Mona?" I asked slowly and cautiously unsure if it was something he was willing to talk about sober but he had brought it all up.

"I mean it was done months before she left but I guess I had a feeling. This girl didn't want to leave though." He said steering us back to the painting. "She was on a temporary trip and she fell in love. She didn't want to but it was completely out of her control and he's begging her to stay or come back but she won't promise it."

"This is amazing." I said quietly still running my fingers over the mural. I was never one for compliments but I felt he didn't get told near enough just how good he was at what he loved and I couldn't imagine how that felt.

He just shrugged and grabbed the hand that was still at my side. "Come on, the waiter has probably been looking for our order."

Harry ordered some sort of pasta dish and I ordered spaghetti while he made incredibly lame Lady and the Tramp references that should have made me gag but the cheeky grin that accompanied them was just too much to put down.

"So about this whole friends that kiss thing." I said awkwardly looking down at my spaghetti and twirling the noodles around my fork. This was terrible. Communication was terrible and this was the first time I had felt so compelled to set out the basics but I felt like he wasn't getting it and I didn't want to hurt him.

"Yes?" he asked slowly leaning forward and cupping his hands together. I could feel his eyes on me so I eventually gathered it in me to look up at him with a stern face. I wanted to keep up that I was more annoyed with the prospect of him wanting more than I was concerned.

"Don't sleep in my bed again. It freaks me out." He raised his eyebrows at me but nodded slowly. "And for the love all things holy don't fall in love with me."

He rolled his eyes at this. "Kingsley everybody, god’s gift to men." He said talking to the invisible crowd of the restaurant.

"Don't be an ass." I clipped at him. Stabbing a meatball on my plate.

"Don't act like you're doing me favors Kinny. You want this too."

I did but not for the reasons he thought. I liked his company. He was a decent kisser and probably pretty decent at other things. I wanted to be alone without really being alone. I was done warning him anything he did from here on out would be his own fault.