Hidden Gem Short Story Collection (9781301405985) (9 page)

“
I had a lot of fun up in
Vermont,” Tyler said, breaking the silence in the back of the car.
“I really appreciate you putting that together for me.” Mike
cracked a sleepy but happy smile. Perhaps Tyler didn’t express his
appreciation often enough.

“
I kind of thought you
were having a shit time,” Mike replied. “I forget how Rufus and
Moss can be. Probably wasn’t the type of relaxation you were
looking for.”

“
No, no,” Tyler shook his
head. “I really did have fun. Ultimately.” He laughed.

“
Yeah?” Mike raised an
eyebrow. “But no thanks to me, I’m assuming.”

“
What? Why would you say
that?”

“
Where did you
really
go this morning?”
Mike said. “Were you meeting someone?”

“
Why would you ask
that?”

“
Because you came back
with this expression on your face that I haven’t seen in
awhile.”

“
No I didn’t.”

“
Uh, yes you did,” Mike
laughed. He tried to recreate whatever expression he claimed Tyler
had returned with, twisting his face into his best impression.
Tyler squinted at him, smiling with an uncomfortable
amusement.

“
I wasn’t
intentionally
meeting
with someone. But I guess it ended up being sort of something,
maybe? God, I don’t know.”

“
Oh my
God,
man!” Mike punched Tyler in the
shoulder. “Who was she? Why didn’t you say something earlier? Is it
someone I know? Oh my God, it wasn’t Azura was it?”

“
No!” Tyler said, shaking
his head. “She’s back in L.A. as far as I know, anyway.”

“
Well? Then who is it? And
when are you seeing her again?”

“
I don’t know,” Tyler
shrugged. Mike’s excitement was causing his heart to speed up,
racing without the caution that he had since forced upon it. It
made him feel nervous, unprotected. He inhaled sharply. “I went
back to the restaurant to ask our waitress, Sophie, if she was that
last fan that had gotten injured at the concert.”

“
What?” Mike raised an
eyebrow. “Why? I told you, if she
was
the girl, she would have been
flipping out over you. That’s how they all got hurt to begin with,
remember?”

“
Yeah, except it
was
her. It
was the same
Sophie.”

“
What?
Seriously? How?” Mike leaned back in his seat, rubbing his
chin in thought. “She didn’t say
anything
to us about that. She
barely even acknowledged you.” Tyler shrugged, concealing the smile
that crept up on his lips. Sophie
had
acknowledged him, but in a way
so subtle that he had thought he was imagining it. Throughout their
dinner, she had shot him quick glances whenever appropriate, but
always left the table to tend to others before Tyler could get in a
word.

“
She had driven down to
the concert on her own,” Tyler recalled their conversation. “It was
a long drive. Her grandpa had to come pick her up afterwards and
she left before we got to the hospital. She helps her grandpa run
the restaurant.”

“
That grumpy dude was her
grandpa?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Damn!” Mike said.
“That’s
so
weird.
You don’t think so?”

“
I mean. I guess, a
little.”
I mean, it’s all weird,
Tyler thought. Everything from his first bout
with performing on stage again to the fact that Sophie was a fan of
his, enough of one to go to a concert of his
on her own
, and not be the type to
freak out over his presence. Tyler wasn’t sure if his ego was
bruised by the fact. He had never considered himself the type to
care too much about it, but Sophie was throwing him in for a loop.
She didn’t make a whole lot of sense to him, but that only made him
all the more intrigued.

“
Was she pretty? I don’t
remember,” Mike asked.

“
Seriously?
” Tyler stared at him,
mouth agape. He had recognized the general lack of reaction from
Mike, Rufus, and Moss when Sophie had first come to the table. They
had apparently only seen a girl in a sling and not the absolutely
gorgeous woman that had suddenly sidled up to their
table.

“
So she was pretty,
then?”

“
She was
breathtaking,
” Tyler
exhaled. As soon as he said it, he knew he was in too deep.
You’re doing it again, Tyler. That thing where
you fall too hard, too fast.

“
Damn, well, okay,” Mike
laughed. “Guess I missed it. Or was still hung up on our mean
waitress before her, Jana. Was she really that great? I feel bad
for not spotting it now, you know, since it’s clearly such a
thing
for
you.
”

“
I seriously don’t
understand how no one else saw it,” Tyler said. “She had this
beautiful golden hair, these sparkling blue eyes, the sweetest pink
lips. She couldn’t be more
obviously
beautiful.” He stopped for
a moment, recalling Sophie’s demeanor as she walked around behind
the counter of the restaurant, busying about the kitchen. She was,
without argument, incredibly
beautiful –
but there was that weird little detail about her that made her
different, that perhaps was the same reason Mike hadn’t picked up
on her allure immediately.

Mike liked his girls “bad,” the way that
Rufus and Moss liked their girls. He liked his girls brazenly sexy,
like the Aubrey Gracielles and Azuras of the world. He had approved
of Tyler’s pick in the smoky Desiree Silver and even in the
heavily-adorned Queen Bee, though less interested in Gemma Hunter
as a person outside of her costume. He liked things out there and
obvious.

Despite the radiance of her classic beauty,
there was nothing “out there” or “obvious” about Sophie. She had
drifted about the restaurant, refilling people’s drinks and cashing
out checks without causing a blip on the patrons’ radars. She made
things flow and function with a quiet ease. She seemed to shy away
from attention, not even bothering with a goodbye before she had
left the other night. She watched as things moved about her,
seemingly happy as a silent observer, as if her world was just a
movie she was watching, or a book she was reading – just a story
she wanted to see unravel.

But she had caught Tyler’s eye and perhaps a
little bit more. Sophie seemed to have a bit of a pull on his
heart. In the past year, he had stamped down his feelings the best
he could, cursing himself for being the romantic that he was. He
would scold himself for anything that could be deemed a dramatic
reaction, anything that was perhaps just a little too “passionate”
a thought. He allowed himself the feeling now, as he thought about
the way that Sophie had so nonchalantly made him breakfast, with so
little fanfare. How she had created something so incredible with so
little. How she had known who he was but treated him like anyone
else.

“
Mike,” Tyler said,
breaking himself from his daydreams.

“
What’s up.”

“
We need to turn
around.”

~

Thankfully, Mike was happy to do another
couple of days holed up in the Vermont cabin, snuggled up to his
Xbox. He was also seemingly excited for Tyler and the notion of him
seeing Sophie again. Tyler was pretty sure Mike could sense that
this wasn’t some fleeting crush – after all, Tyler didn’t have many
of those.

They were halfway to
Manhattan when they turned around, arriving back at the cabin
around the same time that they would have gotten to the
pied-à-terre.
Tyler
didn’t have Sophie’s number and was just a little bit nervous about
running into her grandfather again, but he calmed his nerves by
taking a quick shower. He was probably being stupid, making his
short exchange with Sophie into something more than it was. He was
probably making a huge mistake, allowing himself to feel for anyone
again, let alone someone he had known for less than twenty-four
hours. Besides, he had also never dated a fan, though it had become
clear that Sophie wasn’t exactly the type of fan that he had come
to known.

The restaurant closed at
11pm and they had left well past 1am the night before. He had a
couple of hours before the restaurant would close once again and he
wanted to catch Sophie at the perfect moment, so they could do a
little more talking, maybe. Tyler tried not to get too excited,
tried not to make such a big deal about the moment he’d see her,
but his old habits were returning with full force. When he crushed,
he crushed
hard.
He just couldn’t help himself.

~

Tyler stepped into the restaurant, scanning
the small space for both Sophie and her grandfather. Behind the
counter, her grandfather was cheerily preparing dishes with the
chefs, looking brighter than he had earlier that morning. Jana was
working as well, stomping her tattooed body across the floor of the
restaurant. She glanced at Tyler, once again without recognition,
as she continued on her way.

And like the ray of sunshine that she was,
Sophie emerged from the back – at the booth that they had been
sitting the night before. Her hair was back in that same little
knot and she was dressed again in her forest green apron and
uniform. She spotted him immediately, giving him a smile as she
glided past him and towards the kitchen to put in an order. Tyler
had hoped she’d be over-the-moon excited to see him return,
especially since he had told her he’d be leaving Vermont. He wanted
to see her be crazy, fangirl excited that he was there again, that
they could continue where they left off.

But then again, Tyler had
been attracted to her calm, unassuming demeanor. He had liked the
matter-of-fact way she carried on, with plenty of appreciation but
little regard to how people thought she
should
react. Tyler stood there,
watching her bend over the counter to shout orders into the
kitchen. He couldn’t help but admire her figure – a rather perfect
hourglass – and wonder how Mike had missed such a bombshell. Tyler
didn’t have time to wonder for very long, because she had turned
around to walk towards him.

Sophie reached into her apron, pulling out a
couple ten-dollar bills. She slipped the bills into the front
pocket of his button-down shirt, patting it lightly with a
smile.

“
We weren’t open this
morning,” she said. “So that meal wasn’t for sale.”

“
I’m sorry,” Tyler
blushed, embarrassed that he had left any money at all. He wasn’t
sure what he was thinking. He wondered if he had insulted
her.

“
And you didn’t even
finish it,” Sophie chided.

“
I know,” Tyler shook his
head. “I’m really sorry. For paying for a meal I shouldn’t be
paying for, for wasting your food. I’m just terrible.” He cracked a
smile, allowing himself to admire her dewy skin and rosy cheeks as
she smiled back.

“
You’re not so bad,” she
shrugged. “And the tart didn’t go to waste. I was really hungry
this morning.”

“
Oh, well then,” Tyler
raised his eyebrows as Sophie threw her head back, laughing in that
same unbridled way she had that morning. Tyler laughed with her,
willing himself not to reach forward and push back the stray
strands of hair that had fallen into her eyes.

“
Would you like something
now?” Sophie asked.
Yes,
Tyler thought, though he knew he couldn’t say
what it was he wanted.

“
Surprise me with
something,” he said, following her to the counter. He took a seat,
watching as she leaned forward on the counter, calling out an order
again. Tyler couldn’t make out what she was ordering for him with
half of the words being in what he assumed was some sort of kitchen
code. He smiled, charmed by his surroundings and Sophie’s mere
presence. She turned back to him, her eyes sparkling like a clear
blue sky, her hair like a splash of sunshine, her warmth like
something he wasn’t sure he had ever felt before.

Though he suspected she was probably not
supposed to sit in the middle of a busy shift, she did, pulling
herself up on a stool and allowing her knees to graze his. She
reached forward, breaking through whatever was left of the strange
haze that had been following Tyler around for so long, breaking
through the smoky air of the kitchen. She brushed back a lock of
hair that had fallen into his eyes, smoothing it before sitting up
again and laughing that laugh of hers.

Tyler smiled, his heart beating freely
without the restraints that he had put it in for so long. He had
let it go the moment he asked Mike to turn around, the moment he
had stepped into that restaurant once again. There was no sense in
keeping it caged, he was never the type who could hold back his
emotions, his feelings, his passion.

And yes, his heart had been wrong before.
His heart had put him through pain he never wanted to feel again.
But maybe it deserved another chance. Maybe, this time, it would
get things right.

HARPER

THE GIRL WHO GREW UP