She did a fairly good job of it.
“So have you always lived in Holbeck?” I asked.
“Yeah, always here. I’m still young and maybe I won’t always be here, but so far… I am.”
I pulled my pool stick back as I looked at my target. “Do you want to live somewhere else?” I wasn’t about to bring up her brother. It was always painful enough to see the others from the car accident around town. Delphia had to feel comfortable before she shared that with me.
“I’m not sure yet. I feel like there’s been so much happening to me and my family that sometimes I just want to escape and leave it all behind. I want to start again somewhere else maybe,” she confessed.
I played my shot, pocketed my ball, which allowed me another shot. “Things can get rough in life. I get it, more than you know,” I said sympathetically. The whole story was too heavy for her. She had enough on her mind, so I just gave her a smile instead. “I’m ex-military. Things getting tough was something we faced daily in our unit. Call me a glutton for punishment.”
Delphia gasped from the other end of the pool table. “Are you for real? I mean, I can see you’re buff, but I didn’t know that. Do you miss it? Did you ever shoot anybody?”
I played my second shot and missed as Delphia slinked around behind me, putting her hand across my back. I wish she wouldn’t though. A rising feeling in my pants made me cough and forced me to move myself around to the other side of the pool table. “No to the first question and yes to the second—several times. They were criminals on every occasion, no civilians, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“I didn’t think I did. You seem like a nice guy. Helpful.” She shrugged, looking intrigued.
People often looked at me differently when I told them I had to kill people, but not Delphia. She took me by surprise a little. She didn’t know that part of me was helpful and the other part wanted to ‘help her’ out of her clothes. I would keep that secret to myself for the meantime. It was confusing in my own head. “I can be. I don’t know, you look like you’re going through it, so I wanted to help you out.” I didn’t know what she’d think of my offer. Angie wasn’t about to back off the pedal with Delphia. She might have given her some breathing room, but she would be back around like the hound dog she was.
“Thanks. I guess I have been, but that’s life, right?” She pocketed a ball of her own.
As she bent over the table, I eyed the sliver of her luminescent shoulder blade. I suppressed the urge in me wanting to touch her. “Doesn’t have to be like that all the time. You can have fun, too.” I looked at her as I said it, wondering if my cheering up tactics were too over the top. I didn’t want to make what she was going through seem trivial. Losing someone you loved was like losing a limb.
“I’m trying to. Tell me more about the army thing. Did you always want to be in it?”
Delphia’s questions snapped me back to the present. “Sort of. Kind of a life change I felt I needed,” I proposed quietly. “Problem is when you go to war it’s nothing like you imagine. It was hell, but I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t wish for that life back either.”
“Your life sounds memorable at least. Mine’s nothing like that. I just work at a gas station.” She was waiting for me to take my turn at the table.
I took another shot and missed two balls as they went wide. “It’s not. I’m relatively normal these days. I do have some of my unit coming down here for a reunion. I’m hyped up for that. We have been through the wringer together, that’s for sure. And to your statement, everybody needs gas. It’s a community service.”
“I still have some friends from high school, but we don’t hang out like that. I’m too busy working.”
“Okay.” Slow and steady, Bear. Let her open up. “Maybe you can meet my whole crew.” I was optimistic this wasn’t the last time we’d connect.
“Why do you want me to meet all these people?”
She didn’t have a clue as to how I felt about her and it probably was out of line due to the circumstances, so my response was a careful one, “I like hanging out with you. It’s like I introduced you to people tonight. I wanted you to meet some new people. You seem to work a lot. Got any hobbies?”
“I like video games and eating ice cream. That might not count, but that’s all I got. I like bikes because my brother liked bikes.”
“Cool. We’ll have to get some ice cream some time then.”
She didn’t answer but at least there was a smile.
We kept playing and I watched her put the last two balls in their homes, wondering how I got beaten again. The last time I played, Harper beat me and she barely played pool. “Looks like you won. I don’t know what happened to my stick. I think something’s wrong with it.” I held it up, trying to be funny.
She broke into a cute giggle. “Yeah, maybe.”
We put our sticks back and she said her goodbyes to everyone as I walked her out to her car.
“I hope you had fun tonight and thanks for coming down. You got my number, give me a call from your cell phone next time, then I’ll have your number.” I figured she was being cautious. A definite swirl of chemistry was in the Holbeck air, but I let her take the lead on it. I could have kissed her easily. But I didn’t. I let it be.
“Oops, I’ll text you. I called you from the gas station to make it easier for the company to pay,” she smirked.
I raised an eyebrow as she opened her car door, looking at her shining in the moonlight. “Fair enough and thank you. Drive safe, okay?”
“I will, thanks for a fun night. See you soon.” She waved at me and shut the door.