Divine (11 page)

“
Jeez, I didn't
realize how much I told you about him,” I laughed, embarrassed
that I had apparently rambled on about him before.

She went back to her
sweeping. “It's okay, that’s what I'm here for. So, what
about him?”

“
Well, he came in
here while you were gone.”

“
What! And I
missed him! Darn,” she moaned. She looked genuinely
disappointed that she didn't get to see him.

“
That's not all,”
I continued. “His uncle invited me to watch the fireworks so I
went.”

She looked puzzled.
“You went and watched fireworks with his uncle?”

“
No, no,” I
laughed. “His uncle was with him and he invited me so I went
and met Jonah there.”

“
Oh, I see. So
why didn't Jonah invite you?”

I stood in silence for
a moment, unsure of how to answer. “I don't know why he wasn't
the one to ask me. He actually seemed like he wasn't sure if he
wanted me to go or not. It was kind of confusing.”

She looked at me
neutrally, as if not wanting me to realize how much it sounded like
he
wasn't
interested in me. “Well, tell me how it went
then.”

I looked out the
windows at the drizzly rain. I thought about that night once more,
and wondered to myself if it was really as great as I thought it was.

“
Well,” I
began, “we sat by this huge bonfire that his uncle made and
talked about a lot of stuff; he seemed to be comfortable talking to
me. Oh, and I found out that he's nineteen.”

“
That’s
cool. He's closer to your age then.”

“
Yeah, he is. And
he gave me a nickname, Ash, from my middle name.”

“
Ooh,” she
teased, “that sounds like a good sign to me.” Her energy
was starting to pick up now.

“
And he wanted to
walk me to my car, and he told me he wanted to start coming here for
lunch more,” I babbled on, slowly releasing my excitement.

Brittany
squealed. “That sounds so good! I mean, it sounds like he
does
really like you!”

“
Do you really
think so? I mean, he hasn't shown up here yet . . .”

“
Give him time;
he'll show up.”

I hoped that she was
right.

By the time the lunch
rush had passed I figured that it was going to be another day without
seeing Jonah. It was still slow in the restaurant, so I walked over
to Brittany at the front counter and waited with boredom while she
finished taking a customers order. She turned around and took the
slip over to Kevin and handed it to him through the hole in the wall,
he in turn giving her a flirtatious smile. When she came back I could
see that her face was about three shades redder than the norm.

“
What was that
all about?” I teased.

“
Nothing,”
she mumbled. “We just smiled at each other, that's all.”
She was clearly in denial about what was going on between them. Her
eyes jumped toward the opening of the restaurant door. “Wow,
hot guy at twelve o'clock,” she whispered toward me.

I looked over to see
who she was whispering about: it was Jonah. My racing heart flung up
in my throat as he locked onto me with his blue eyes and smiled.

“
That's Jonah,”
I managed to whisper back.

“
That's
Jonah?”

He looked similar to
how he had looked that last time I saw him in the restaurant, with
his greased up jeans and tight black t-shirt. But this time he had a
gray sweatshirt on that was zipped up half way, still opened enough
to show off the contours of his chest that I knew existed underneath
his clothes.

He made his way up to
the counter and smiled warmly at Brittany. “Hi, I'm Jonah.”

“
Nice to meet
you, I'm Brittany,” she bubbled.

His attention turned to
me. “Hi, Ash.”

“
Hi,” I
shyly replied; I could feel my face redden. The sudden feeling of
self-consciousness overcame me as I scolded myself for how messy my
hair was.

Why
didn't I take the time to do my hair today?

“
Did you want to
order something?” Brittany chimed.

He pushed the sleeves
of his sweatshirt up to his elbows and crossed his arms in front of
him, revealing pure muscle. Brittany and I exchanged silly glances as
he read the menu above our heads.

“
Um, yeah. I had
the Western Burger last time, what else is good here?”

Brittany threw out a
popular suggestion. “How about just a regular cheeseburger with
curly fries? It's what most people order . . .”

“
That sounds
good.”

She wrote the order
down and stuck it over on the order wheel. Kevin shot his head up
again, this time giving her a wink. Just as before, when she came
back to my side I could see that her face was flooded with red; love
was certainly in the air in the restaurant.

“
I'll bring your
order out to you when it's ready,” I told Jonah as he pulled a
twenty out of his wallet and handed it to Brittany.

“
Okay, I'll go
find a table.” He got his change and stuffed it neatly into his
wallet before sticking it into the back pocket of his jeans.

“
Isn't he
gorgeous?” I bragged quietly as we watched him walk away.

Her head nodded without
hesitation. “Very.”

I went back to the
kitchen to wait for his order. Kevin was busy with it already,
cooking the juicy meat on the hot, sizzling grill. He took a moment
to look up at me with a friendly smile. “Hey, you. Are you
gonna eat lunch today?” he asked.

I took a seat on a
small wooden chair that was positioned snugly next to the kitchen's
giant refrigerator. “Yeah,” I sighed heavily, pulling one
leg up and crossing it over the other. “I guess I'll take my
break now and eat something. Can you make me a cheeseburger please?”

“
Coming right
up,” he sang. He went right to work, cooking our food and then
ringing the silver bell when it was done.

“
I'm right here,
Kevin,” I laughed.

“
I know, I just
like ringing the bell.”

I got up from the chair
and grabbed our order with a smile. “Yeah, I know you like
ringing that annoying thing. You hit it so much I can hear it in my
dreams.”

“
Ha, sorry.”

“
Don't be sorry.
Brittany thinks it's cute that you do it so much.”

His head dropped shyly
to the grill. “That's good. I guess I'll keep doing it then.”

I left Kevin with a
smile and pushed through the swinging door with his two wonderfully
concocted meals, feeling the excitement grow in me as I searched the
restaurant for Jonah.

The hot plates burned
at my hands as I spotted him and carried them over to his table. “Do
you mind if I eat with you?” I asked as I slid his plate onto
the clean surface in front of him.

“
No, not at all,”
he said pleasantly.

I sat down with my
plate and watched as he grabbed the salt shaker from the condiment
basket and vigorously shook it across his already salted curly fries.

“
That's a lot of
salt . . .” I laughed.

“
Yeah, my mom
gets on to me for putting too much salt on everything. I've always
been kind of a salt freak.” He sat down the shaker and picked
up a fry, popping it into his mouth with a smile. “See, now
they taste perfect.”

My lips raised with a
smile as we picked up our burgers and took awkwardly juicy bites
together. I hated eating in front of people, especially since the
restaurant was slow and it was so quiet in there; you could hear
every chew that we made.

Jonah grabbed a napkin
from the dispenser and wiped his mouth. “Sorry I didn't come
here sooner. The last couple of days have been really busy at the
shop; I couldn't get away.”

“
Oh, that's
okay,” I said in my most understanding tone. “I figured
you were busy.” I was delighted that he felt the need to
explain the reason why he hadn't visited me sooner.

We spent the rest of
his lunch eating our burgers and laughing about things that irritated
us about our jobs. I told him about Fox being a Divine, and how he
always felt the need to turn off the lights at the end of the day as
if he were super powerful. In turn he told me about Tommy, a Divine
who he worked with who could apparently catch anything that was
thrown at him.

“
Me and Lou throw
stuff at him all the time,” he chuckled as he picked up a fry
from his plate. “This one time I snuck up behind him and threw
a wrench at him.” He animated the memory as he spoke,
pretending to throw his fry across the table like it was the wrench
from the story. “And then,” he continued, “he bent
his arm around his back and caught it, without even looking.”

“
Without even
looking? That's amazing!”

He shook his head in
agreement. “Yeah, he is pretty amazing. You should come by and
meet him some time; you could throw something at him.”

“
I would love to
throw something at him,” I laughed. “I can see it
already, 'Hi I'm Summer. Can I throw something at your head,
please?'”

“
Ha, that's
funny,” he choked out, joining me in laughter at the thought.

Our loud chuckles were
interrupted by the swift presence of Fox who was suddenly next to our
table. “How's it going today?” he chimed in with a
devilish, forced grin plastered across his face.

Jonah looked up at him
with a straight face. “Good, thanks.”

Fox brought his arms in
front of him and clasped his hands together in a professional manner.
“I trust your food was to your liking?”

“
Yes, it was
delicious. And the service here is exceptional,” Jonah
complimented, glancing at me and giving me an attractive smile. I
smiled back at his subtle flirtation.

Fox cut his eyes over
to me and observed my flattered expression. “Well,” he
burst out, sticking his pointer finger on the table and tapping it up
and down, “I think your lunch is just about over, Summer. It's
time to get back to your job.”

My head pulled back
with surprise. “Actually, I have five minutes left,” I
retorted back to him, annoyed at his demeanor.

His mouth twisted
around with obvious irritation as his eyes narrowed toward me. He
took his finger off of the table and wrapped his arms together in
front of him, making himself look as big as he could. “Alright,”
he finally said, “but don't be late.” He turned to Jonah
and flashed him a fake smile. “Have a good day.”

Jonah watched him walk
back to his office. “Wow. So that's the great and powerful Mr.
Fox, huh?”

“
Yeah, that's
him.”

He crossed his arms and
leaned back in his chair. “I wonder what his problem is?”

The conversation I had
with Fox about Jonah's age entered my mind. That had to be the
problem; Fox probably thought he was too old for me.

“
I bet I know
what's wrong with him,” I explained, “he thinks you're
like twenty-one years old.”

Jonah looked surprised.
“Why would he think that?”

“
Because I
thought you looked that age. We were talking about it the day you
invited me to the bonfire at the beach.”

A smile crept up in the
corner of his mouth. “So, in other words, you were talking
about me?”

“
Yeah,” I
chuckled shyly, “but don't flatter yourself. You were talking
about me, too.”

He sat forward with
amusement and folded his hands together on the table. “Oh yeah?
When?”

“
When your mom
said that you were right about me being beautiful.”

He laughed bashfully
but chose to stay quiet.

Well, he's not
denying it . . .

I thought about teasing
him some more but ultimately decided to quickly move along our
conversation, not wanting to embarrass him completely. “Well,
apparently I need to get back to work now or the world will end,”
I joked.