Wayward Love

by Rhys Everly

  It was impossible not to stare at him from the edge of the kitchen where I was keeping an eye on both him and the front door, waiting for the emergency plumber to arrive.

  A young, blond woman, who appeared to be in her thirties, walked in dressed in black overalls, carrying a toolbox.

  “Are you Kyle?” she asked.

  “Are you the plumber?”

  “What do I look like?” she said and served me a fierce eye roll.

  I clapped my hands excitedly and stopped myself short of hugging her. “I’ve never met a woman plumber before. This is so exciting,” I told her, and her face softened.

  “Y’all got a burst pipe? I assume it’s where all the water is coming from?” she said and pointed at the puddle of water coming from the kitchen.

  I nodded.

  “All right folks, if you want to step aside, I’ll take over from here,” she said and approached the broken pipe.

  “Who are you?” Andy grumbled.

  “I’ve already had that conversation. I’m the plumber,” she said and unwrapped the cloths from the pipes.

  Andy turned to me and stumbled toward me, splashing water with every footstep.

  “I thought I told you not to call anyone,” he shouted, his face turning a shade of red that didn’t suit him.

  I knew I should have been scared of him and his loud voice, but all I could think about was what Nathan had told me earlier at home.

  That his dad was a real softy underneath and all he needed was for someone to tell him what to do sometimes. That thought alone made me want to take his hand and cuddle him reassuringly.

  Instead of making me jumpy, his shouting simply confirmed my assumptions. He probably thought it was best to handle everything himself, but he didn’t.

  “I think the situation got out of hand very quickly, so I thought we should call the professional who can actually fix it,” I said.

  His nostrils flared as he stared into my eyes only inches away from me. His breath blew hot on me, and his chest inflated and deflated with such intensity that I felt like he was pinned against me.

  I stood there not falling victim to his attitude, and he breathed in and out as if time was running out. We stood there for a few moments. Moments that felt like minutes.

  Then, just like that, like someone popped a balloon with a needle, Andy deflated, his shoulders sagged, and he stepped out of my way and toward his office.

  “Thanks, but you should have listened to me,” he said and shut the door behind him.

  I didn’t get a chance to go and apologize because there were customers at the bar that needed to be served. It was better that way, anyway. He probably needed some time to cool down, and I didn’t want to upset him even more by invading his personal space. Besides, I needed to calm myself. It’d be no use if I apologized to him and brandished a boner.

  The lady plumber came out of the kitchen half an hour later, dripping with water from head to toe, but with a satisfied smile on her face.

  “All done. Although, the piping will definitely need to be changed. It’s very old and this is only a temporary fix,” she said.

  “I’ll make sure to tell the boss,” I said, even though I was pretty sure he wouldn’t like it. “Let me get him for you.”

  I walked to the office and knocked.

  “Come in,” I heard from the other side, and I opened the door to find Andy wearing a clean Jersey top and looking at an Excel sheet on his computer monitor.

  “The plumber is done. She is waiting outside,” I said.

  Andy took a deep breath and followed me out.

  The plumber gave him the low-down and wrote him an invoice for her services.

  When Andy took the slip of paper into his hands, I was convinced he was going to have a heart attack. Instead, he composed himself, approached the register, and counted three hundred dollars which he gave to her with a heavy heart.

  She took the money and left the bar as had most of the customers by that point. Andy took a look around, but before he could escape again, I put my hand in my pocket, taking my wallet out.

  “Here,” I said and gave him a wad of notes. “I can get some more from the ATM tomorrow, but that’s all I have on me at the moment.”

  “What is this?” he asked, looking at my hand.

  “You didn’t want to call her, and I did it anyway. It’s only fair I pay for it,” I said.

  Andy bit his lip and looked at me with sad eyes.

  “Keep your money, kid. It’s okay,” he said.

  “I insist,” I said.

  “I insist harder,” Andy said and pushed my hand to my chest where his palm lingered for a second over my heart.

  “If it wasn’t for you, the damage would have been bigger. I was just being a jerk thinking I could fix it myself. I’m sorry I shouted at you. You didn’t deserve that.”

  I almost didn’t hear what he said because looking into his eyes and his hand still on my chest was all the apology I needed.

  “In fact,” he said and opened the register again, “here’s your pay for today. I feel bad you’re doing this for free. It’s not fair on you. From now on, you’re getting paid for every shift.”

  He was truly a softy underneath. Nathan was right.

  Nathan! Fuck.

  Was I really swooning over Nathan’s dad?

  Crappy craperson and mother of all craps!

  Nine

  Andy

  I still couldn’t decide if texting Kyle for help had been a good choice or not. I wasn’t ungrateful. He’d come in just in time and not only given me a hand but actually took control of the service, which was more than I could ever ask for.

  If only he hadn’t called that fucking plumber.

  I know I shouldn’t be mad at him. It’s what anyone would have done. But paying emergency repair fees at a time when every penny counted wasn’t my ideal day at work.

  And offering to pay for her? I still couldn’t believe it. It was sweet of him. But I couldn’t, wouldn’t, ever take advantage of him in that way.

  Today was going to be quiet. There wasn’t a game on, so I didn’t expect a rush. I’d asked Rachel to come in a few hours early so I could take Summer to the store with her girlfriend, and even though I wasn’t looking forward to spending a ton of money, I was excited to spend some precious, extra time with my daughter.

  At half past twelve, a couple walked in, and as I was on my own, I sat them down at a table and took their order. As soon as I put the order through the POS system, another table walked in. I sat them down next to my other table. It helped having them all in one place so that I didn’t have to run from one end of the bar to the other.

  I took the drinks to my first table and took the order for the second one when seven more people walked in, requiring two more tables.

  Without giving it too much thought, I sat the new tables and managed to take their orders and fix their drinks when yet another three groups entered, and I officially went into panic mode.

  I didn’t usually have a Tuesday lunchtime rush, and if more customers decided to come in, I was gonna be screwed. And so was Eric in the kitchen.

  I could manage the tables I had. It was a stretch, but by spacing out between seating them, getting their drinks, and putting their food order through, it would make it manageable for both me in the front and Eric in the back.

  But when another five tables walked in, I realized if I didn’t stop taking food orders, we’d be fucked five ways to Sunday. There were only so many food tickets Eric could handle at one time, and the last thing I wanted was for the service to turn bad by rushing food out or risking walk-outs.

  I decided the new arrivals would be the last tables I took before turning people away, and since I was mostly caught up with my other customers, I took extra time seating a family of five. I needed to know what had made them come in and if I needed to change the way I staffed my weekdays.

  “What brings you in, folks?” I asked.

  The mom distributed
the menus to her young kids and the dad rested his car keys, to a Porsche nonetheless, on the table.

  “This kid outside is handing out two-for-one lunchtime deals,” he said.

  “What kid?” I asked.

  The man pointed through the window at Main Street and a petite young man holding a pack of flyers, pointing tourists toward the bar.

  “We assumed he worked here.”

  My gaze remained glued on Kyle, who was wearing a black pair of trousers with a black and white striped sweater, the red hair standing out like a buoy against the blue backdrop of the sea behind him.

  What the hell did he think he was doing? Why was he even here? I hadn’t told him to come in today.

  The kitchen bell dinged and I went over to take the food out, and as soon as I placed it in front of my hungry customers, another three groups of people walked in and started seating themselves. My breath caught. Sweat rolled down the side of my face. This was getting too much.

  I walked past the new patrons, informing them I’d be with them shortly, and marched right up to Kyle who looked way too happy doing whatever was bringing people in, considering that Eric and I were struggling inside.

  “What the hell?” I said, and he jumped.

  He turned around to face me, clutching his chest, eyes wide open for a moment, before dropping his hand to his side and smiling at me.

  Even when I was pissed with him, he still managed to look fucking adorable. Even when he wasn’t colorful like he’d been the first day he walked into my bar, I still couldn’t keep my eyes off him.

  “Oh, hi Andy,” he said.

  “What are you up to?” I grumbled and tried without much success to restrain my frustration.

  “I am trying out this ‘2 meals for 1’ thing to see if people are interested in your food. It seems to be working,” he said.

  He was trying to help. I kept repeating it inside my head to keep from snapping at him. He was only trying to help. He doesn’t know.

  “Oh, it’s working all right. I have about twenty tables in there and only one chef and myself. Did you think to ask me before you went ahead and did this or was stressing us out part of your ‘thing?’” I struggled to keep my voice down, but I had to. The whole town didn’t need to know what we were talking about. There was enough chatter about me as it was.

  Kyle’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed slowly, and he looked from me to the bar behind me.

  “Uhm…I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I didn’t check with you first. Gah! I’m so stupid. I’ll come and help,” he started, and any anger threatening to come out washed away in an instant.

  Hearing his voice so shaky, seeing his body so hunched and his face so white made me angry at myself.

  Well done, Andy. So much for keeping your cool.

  For some reason, I couldn’t help how I reacted when I was around him. I was like a grenade and he was the pin. It wasn’t my intention to be hostile to him. But the way I spoke to him every time he was around me, I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought I was a monster.

  “Come on then,” was all I managed to say, and Kyle stepped in front of me and walked into the bar. I followed behind him, trying really hard not to stare at his ass so perfectly defined in the chinos he was wearing.

  What the hell was going on with me? As if it wasn’t enough that I couldn’t keep my eyes off him last night when we worked together or that I couldn’t stop shouting at him for no reason, I also couldn’t stop being a creep.

  “Oh Mother of all craps,” he exclaimed when he walked in and saw the chaos.

  He took his jacket off and placed it on the hosting table, then turned around to look at me.

  “Okay, boss, what’s going on with the tables?”

  Once I told him what was happening with everyone, he didn’ miss a beat before ordering me to go behind the bar and fix the drinks while he took over the floor.

  “I’m not leaving you on your own to handle all the tables,” I said.

  Kyle shook his head and put his hand up to stop me.

  “I’ll be all right. I can manage. But they won’t if they don’t get their drinks ASAP. Besides, if we both go behind the bar and the pass, we’ll confuse ourselves,” he said and walked away to the first table that needed drinks.

  Hesitantly, I took my place behind the bar, unable to keep my eyes off Kyle even as I made the drinks for him. He jumped from one table to the next with so much enthusiasm, returned to me with drinks tickets, then hopped back to the other tables to make sure they were all okay.

  His happy-go-lucky attitude didn’t even falter when some patrons got rowdy with the delay on their food order. Instead of snapping back at them like Johnny used to do or running to me for help like Rachel before her promotion, he apologized, flashing them his beautiful smile, and explained to them that everything was cooked to order, and since it was a bit busier than usual, it was taking the chef a bit longer.

  How was it possible that a twenty-one-year-old was better at this than I was after twenty-odd years in the industry? How could he keep so calm when the world around me was crumbling?

  “Could you get that, Andy?” Kyle appeared in front of me and pointed to the kitchen.

  I shook my head and tried to focus on his words instead of his lips.

  “Huh?”

  Nice one, Andy. Way to keep your cool in front of your son’s friend.

  He already thought I was an asshole and a grump. He didn’t need to add creepy old man to the list.

  “The food? Could you get it? I need to take the payment from that table.” Kyle pointed to the first couple that had come in an hour ago.

  Get it together, Andy.

  “Yes. Sure,” I said and walked over to the kitchen.

  “That kid is on fire, boss,” Eric said as I picked up the three plates and checked which table they were for. “I’ve never seen it this busy on a Tuesday, and he’s not even breaking a sweat.”

  “Yes,” was all I managed to say without making myself look like more of a fool.

  The rest of the afternoon went by in a Kyle breeze. All handled perfectly and with a big smile. By two we were empty again, but the registers were full.

  When Rachel walked in, she took her jacket off and looked over at Kyle who was drinking a soda behind the bar.

  “God, it’s like a museum in here,” she said looking around her.

  Kyle choked on his drink and giggled, and a cough erupted from my chest—a cough that turned into laughter at both what Rachel had just said and with Kyle. He was so sweet when he laughed. The freckles on his cheeks seemed to become brighter and his eyes greener.

  “Did I say something funny?” Rachel asked.

  “It’s nothing. Really,” I said between bouts of laughter.

  She turned to Kyle and whisper-shouted at him.

  “Did you, like, give him laughing gas or something? Because I haven’t seen him this happy in a few years,” she said, and Kyle looked at me.

  What did she just say? How dare she say that? I stopped laughing as if that would teach her a lesson and reached for my keys.

  “Are you okay to take over? I need to go,” I said.

  Rachel pointed a gun-shaped hand at me and winked. “You got it, boss.“

  I made to leave the bar when Kyle ran up to me and reached for my arm. It was soft and delicate on me, like a breeze.

  A Kyle breeze.

  Yeah, that sounded fitting. Because he was like a breeze. He moved like it. And his face was the sun.

  “What’s up?” I said, trying really hard not to think about his hand on my arm.

  “I just want to apologize for what I did. I should have checked with you first. Or at the very least, checked that you had enough people on. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said, and his gaze dropped.

  “It was stupid,” I said and he squeezed his eyes shut. “So don’t do it again.” He nodded with his eyes closed. “But…it was fun.”

  Kyle opened his eyes and looked up at me
with uncertainty.

  A crooked smile appeared on his face as he mumbled, “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded.

  “Is it okay if I try something new tomorrow?”

  I shrugged. I didn’t know what he was doing to my insides, but I couldn’t let it come between Nathan and me. I didn’t want to do anything stupid and jeopardize my relationship with my son and his best friend. “I dunno. We’ll see.”

  I tried to inject as much apathy as I could in my tone and face, and it seemed to have worked because Kyle’s smile disappeared, but he didn’t stop staring at me.

  I could get lost in those green eyes, and it felt ridiculous to admit it to myself. I wasn’t even gay. And it’s not like I had any problem with gay people considering almost my entire family was gay, but that wasn’t me.

  Was it?

  Even if it was, I couldn’t flirt with my son’s best friend. It was wildly inappropriate. Not to mention the age difference.

  I shook my head as I walked out of the bar trying to put my thoughts in order. Where had that even come from? From just looking into his eyes?

  It must be the abstinence that was fucking me up. It had been way too long since I had sex, and it was just manifesting itself in weird ways.

  I didn’t like Kyle.

  Not in that way, anyway.

  Ten

  Kyle

  I was such an idiot.

  I’d been so excited to try and bring more customers into Andy’s bar that it completely escaped me to actually check with him before handing out flyers like there was no tomorrow.

  Thankfully, he didn’t seem to have taken it too hard. And if my tips were anything to go by, we’d made a lot of money in those two hours. He actually looked happy that his bar was busy for once, which in turn made my heart skip a beat at the thought I was the one to make that happen.

  Andy was a gentle giant. I didn’t need to know him for years to know it. Hell, Rachel commenting on his attitude was proof that I was right if Nathan’s words weren’t proof enough.