It was a beautiful and sunny winter afternoon, so the pub was busy. Jeff found us a small table near the back. He seemed to know everyone. The pretty waitress smiled gleamingly at him as he ordered our drinks. People would walk by and slap his back with a hearty, "Hey, man!"
He was at ease in this place. Comfortable. Which makes sense, considering this was one of the only places for a casual lunch in this cute wintry town.
As for me, I felt like an outsider. Not only was I a stranger, I was also an older woman in Jeff's much-younger company, wearing borrowed winter gear, my cheeks bright red from the snowmobile ride. Thankfully, nobody paid me much attention. Although if they had a glimpse into my earlier fantasies about me and Jeff, they might look at me with more interest.
Putting my fantasies aside and focusing on other appetites, I studied the menu. "What's good here?" I asked.
"Not much, to be honest," he said with a grimace. "It's mostly pub grub, but they do make a good chicken pot pie on Saturdays."
"Yum. Okay, I'll try that." I watched as yet another pub patron dropped by to say hi to Jeff.
"Sorry 'bout that," he said. "I do a lot of work for the businesses in town -- and it's looks like they all had the same idea about where to grab lunch."
"Do you like your job?" I asked, after Jeff had placed our order with the waitress.
"Sure. Every day is a bit different. Plus the money's good." He talked more about how he had recently hired another electrician to help keep up with demand, and how he had held a trouble-shooting workshop at the local Home Hardware to help spread the word about his business.
I was surprised. I had assumed he just did the odd job here and there. Instead, he was a full-on business owner. "That's impressive! I think the last time I saw you, you were just starting your first year at college. That must be, what, four years ago?"
"More like six. College wasn't working for me, so I went the apprenticeship route instead. Turned out to be the best decision I ever made."
"Look at you, all grown up." He ducked his head and smiled, looking more like the young man I remembered. "I think I'm finally warming up after that ride," I said. I unwrapped the scarf from my neck, wondering what my hair looked like. Nothing like a snowmobile ride at light-speed to mangle a woman's hairstyle. "I must have the world's worst helmet-head," I said with a laugh.
"No worse than your bedhead this morning." He was looking at me as he sipped his beer.
It was so hard to tell if he was making a perfectly innocent observation, or if he was flirting with the boundaries. But that simmering attraction that was never far away when I was with him started to burble up again. Jeff's long legs were stretched out next to mine under the table. I let my ankles rest against his shin. He didn't move away. It was a casual, innocent touch, but I was hyper-aware of everything about him. He had such a physicality about him. Virile and vigorous. A strong, lean, youthful presence. One that I was attracted to.
He kept his eyes on mine, not letting me off the hook with a carefree comment or a joke. Just when he opened his mouth to say something, the waitress came by with our lunch. As she placed the food in front of us, she kept her attention on Jeff. "Hey, are you coming to the show on Thursday? There's a whole group of us going. Should be fun." She was ignoring me.
"I've got plans. Maybe next time."
She stood there a bit longer, while Jeff started to dig into his chicken pot pie. I nibbled on a French fry. The moment stretched awkwardly until she finally left us to eat.
I looked at Jeff, one eyebrow raised in a silent question. He shrugged. "I dated her for a while," he said before taking an enormous bite.
"It didn't work out? She's very pretty."
And young too
, I thought.
"Not my type," he answered between bites.
I took the hint and dropped it. We ate the rest of our food in comfortable silence. The chicken pot pie really was delicious, and I used my fries to scoop up every drop of the sauce.
After finishing our meals, Jeff paid the subtly-pouting waitress and we got ready to leave. On the way out, he stopped to talk to a group of guys his age who were playing darts. He motioned me over to join them.
"This is my mom's friend Nika," he said to group. To me, he said, "And I play hockey with these guys." They raised their pints in my direction as a greeting.
"Grab a drink, stick around for a bit," said one of them to Jeff.
"Next time. I've got to take my Aunt-- I've got to take Nika back home."
The guy -- I think his name was Andrew -- gave me blatant once-over. "If my mom's friends looked like that, I'd probably go home more often too," he said to one of the other guys. I pretended not to hear him, while Jeff gave him a friendly-but-not-too-friendly shove.
"You can play with us anytime!" Andrew said with a wink, while Jeff and I re-bundled ourselves into our parkas.