My second thought was that my first thought was silly. He had to go back to Virginia. He lived there.
The bartender brought our bill, and Tommy and I fought over who was going to pay.
“I’m the reason you’re here, eating,” I argued.
“But I ordered more food than you.”
“How about we split it?”
He sighed, probably realizing he wasn’t going to win. “Fine.” He put some money down on the bar. “We need to go to a store, so I can get some things before we go to your house.”
“Kinky things?” The question popped out before I could stop it.
He chuckled. “I was thinking more like a toothbrush.”
“Oh.”
He put his arm around me and led me out. “Don’t be so disappointed. I already did my kinky shopping this morning.”
I laughed. “That’s funny.”
“That’s what you think.”
I looked at him in confusion, but he didn’t say anything more.
19
Tommy
Olivia and I were in the health section at Walmart, picking up a toothbrush and a few other toiletries for me.
“I also need to go back to the books.”
“What for?”
“Since I didn’t know we were staying here tonight, I left my book at home. I need something else to read.” I grabbed a deodorant, dropped it in my basket, and took off for the back of the store.
“Why don’t you read on your phone? They have apps for that, you know.”
“That’s blasphemy.”
She laughed. “For suggesting you read on your phone?”
“Yes. I would never do that to my books.”
“You’re a strange man.”
“Why?”
She shook her head and smiled. “Because I can’t believe that—”
I stopped walking and faced her. “That I’d be a reader?” I finished her sentence. “Yeah, a lot of people think I’m a big, dumb jock because of the way I look. I’ll have you know, I was salutatorian of my class.” I took off, walking faster now.
Sometimes, people assuming I was unintelligent worked in my favor. But I didn’t like it coming from Olivia.
She ran to catch up to me. “Tommy.”
I kept moving.
She put her hand on my arm. “Tommy, stop.”
I halted and looked at her. “What?”
“I don’t think you’re stupid.”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
“I’m serious. I thought some bad things about you, but that’s not one of them.”
“Then, what were you going to say?”
“If you had let me finish, I was going to say, I can’t believe people read physical books anymore.”
“Oh.” I had overreacted. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m guessing, that’s happened to you before? Where someone assumes you lack intelligence?”
“Once or twice.”
“I’m sorry people do that. I have the opposite problem. Everyone thinks I’m super smart because I’m Asian.”
I wrinkled my forehead. “But you are smart.”
She leaned forward and whispered, “But I’m horrible at math. There’s a reason I became an attorney and not a doctor or scientist.”
I chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go look at the books.”
We made our way to the books and started looking around.
“We can always go to Barnes & Noble if you can’t find what you want here.”
I picked up a book and started reading the synopsis. “Nah, I’m okay. I’ll find something. Thanks for the offer.”
I looked at about six books before I decided on two. One was the book I had been reading since the plane ride here—I didn’t care about spending money on another copy—and the second book was for when I finished my current read.
“I’m ready,” I said. “Do you need anything else before we leave?”
“Nope. I’m good.”
We left the book aisle, but I stopped in my tracks when I saw who was standing over by the video games.
Hasn’t enough bad stuff happened today?
“What’s wrong?” Olivia asked me.
I pointed in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. “Let’s go that way. I’ll explain later.”
“Ok—”
“Hey, asshole.”
“Fuck,” I said under my breath. “Hold this.” I handed her my shopping basket.
I stepped around her and squared my shoulders. “Frank.”
The asshole from the airport just had to be here at the same time I was. At least he was alone.
“Lucky meeting you here.”
“I would more go with unlucky.”
Frank barked out a laugh. “You’re funny. Which is good because you need to make up for the fact that you’re a pussy.” Frank looked around me, trying to see Olivia.
I tried to block her, but she made it easy on him by stepping out beside me.
“Your man is a pussy, did you know that?” Frank grinned. “Did he tell you about what happened at the airport and how I almost kicked his ass?”
I knew I shouldn’t say anything because someone like this was just looking for trouble, but my pride wouldn’t let it slide. “For fuck’s sake. You didn’t almost kick my ass. I told you I didn’t want to fight.”
And when I thought the situation couldn’t be worse, Franny showed up. “What’s this dickhead doing here?”
“He’s trying to tell me I didn’t almost kick his ass last week,” he told his sister.
She snorted. “He’s lying. Like when he said he didn’t touch me.”
“How do you two function when you are constantly getting your facts wrong?”
“What do you mean?” Frank asked.
The fact that he was asking me instead of telling me I didn’t know what I was talking about proved that I was right.
“First of all, I never said I didn’t touch you,” I said to Franny.
I saw Olivia’s head jerk back at my words and tried not to wince. Let me finish explaining, Liv.
Franny snickered. “Ha.”
I sighed. “I said, I technically touched you, Franny, because you’d tried to touch me first. On my dick. I simply removed your hand from my private area. So, yes, I touched you but not in the way you are implying. You were the perpetrator, not me.”
Franny’s face turned red, and she clenched her fists.
“And, Frank, I’m not a pussy.” I pointed to my chest. “See, I am smart enough to know when to fight and when not to fight. I was literally trained to do these things. And you, Frank, are not worth fighting.” I grabbed Olivia’s hand. “Let’s go. I’m done with these two.”
As we walked
