Hot Summer (Part 3)

His eyes lingered on my finger as I withdrew it, meeting my eyes with another smile. “No.” He admitted, “I grew up in Illinois actually.” And he crossed his arms.

“You’re a long ways from home.” I had to continuously crane my neck to meet his eyes above me, “What brought you down here?”

“Work.” He said easily, “I manage a local firm.”

I nodded, drawing my brows at the mysterious response. A local firm? That could literally mean anything. But I wasn’t going to pry, not when he just bought my lunch. Though it did raise the suspicion that he was older than he looked, I mean– I was still in college. And he was here for work.

I looked behind me at an open metal table under the cover of an umbrella, “Wanna sit?” I asked him, needing to get out of the sun before my skin actually burned. All he did was nod as he followed me to the table, sitting across from me as our knees lightly grazed each other.

And an awkwardness fell between us, a pause of words and emotion as we both sort of stare