“Yeah.”
I peel my coat off and sit in the chair beside him. I kind of hate being this close to him, but I also kind of love it. He smells like...a perfect spring day when the air is crisp and fresh and just slightly floral and grassy. Whatever he uses for shampoo or body wash is legit.
At that moment I realize I’ve been staring at him and now he’s looking at me. The intensity of his gaze leaves me momentarily flustered, speechless, as my brain searches for a reasonable explanation for being unable to take my eyes off him. Up close, his skin is perfect. There’s not a single scar or blemish on his sweet face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks, breaking the silence.
“Um…” I blink and swallow to ground myself. “I was just zoning off. I must have focused on you. Sorry if that was creepy.”
“Not creepy.” The corners of his lips upturn almost into a smile. “I’m doing a presentation today for a school field trip.”
“Oh cool. Do you do that often?”
“No. Usually they just filter in and out, but they asked if I could talk about Jupiter. The kids are doing a group project about it for the science fair.”
“Awesome. Do you like speaking or teaching groups?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve considered teaching in the past, but I don’t think my personality is great for something like that.”
“Why do you say that?” I sip my coffee, awaiting his answer.
“I’m not super comfortable with people in general. My temperament isn’t what I would call patient. I’m not...warm.”
“Is that how you see yourself or what you’ve been told?”
“I don’t think about myself often. I am what I am. For lots of reasons.”
“I get that. It can be hard to separate what other people have planted in our minds.”
“Yeah. Are you able to do that?”
“Not yet.” I smile. “I’m trying though.”
Jeremiah nods, eyes still fixed on me. His lips part as if to speak but instead he lifts his coffee cup and takes a sip.
“What do you do for fun?” I ask in an effort to find common ground.
“Fun?” He taps his chin. “I’ve heard the word before.”
I chuckle. “Not a lot of time for that?”
“I spend most of my time here. When I’m not here, I’m with Samuel or Aiden, but we’re usually just hanging out at home or sometimes we might go see a movie. It’s pretty boring, but I like that. I don’t want or need a lot of excitement.”
“What kind of movies do you like?”
“I’ll give you one guess.”
My eyebrow goes up. “Science fiction?”
“Ding, ding, ding.”
I laugh. “Me too. What’s your favorite?”
“You first.”
“I like The Martian a lot with Matt Damon. Can you imagine being stranded on Mars?”
“Yes, that movie was done well. I enjoyed it.” He searches my eyes for a moment. “I really like alien movies.”
“The Alien movies?”
“No, any movie with aliens. I like to think there’s more out there than what we know about. That’s why space exploration fascinates me so much. We don’t know what’s beyond our realm of knowledge so far, but there could be whole galaxies just like ours. They could be light-years ahead of us in technology and able to zip and zoom around to any planet they want.”
“Like this one?”
“Yeah. I like the idea of them being like us, more advanced in some ways but not in all ways. How we react to aliens coming to our planet says a lot about who we are as a species. Are we hostile and aim to exploit? Do we welcome them and hope to learn? It’s interesting to me.”
“It really is. I’ve always thought it was arrogant of us to believe we're the only intelligent life out there.”
“Agreed. But I don’t mind the terrifying alien movies either. Like The 5th Wave. Did you see that?”
“I did. The kids were saving the day.”
“Yeah, all the adults were wiped out. The aliens thought that would be easier, but they underestimated us.”
“They did. I really like when we go to their planet though. We think we’re just exploring space, but then we encounter hostile aliens.”
Jeremiah chuckles. “Serves us right for coming in uninvited.”
“Yeah. Okay, so Star Wars. Fan?”
“I like it enough.”
“All of them?”
“No. I grew up on the original trilogy, so it’s my favorite. I literally get chills when I hear the Darth Vader music.”
“Yeah, I like those too. What did you think of Gravity?”
“Stressful.”
I chuckle. “Do you think she survives at the end? There are theories—”
“That she didn’t.” Jeremiah nods. “I love endings like that. The ones you can decide. Like The Sopranos.”
“Mafia fan?”
“Huge.”
“Same.”
Jeremiah taps his coffee cup to mine. “The Sopranos was brilliant writing.”
“Absolutely. What do you think happened at the end?”
He exhales. “I always wanted to believe nothing happened. Dinner, and then they all went home and continued living their lives.”
“But?”
“When James Gandolfini died in real life, I felt like he took Tony Soprano with him. His end was tragic, and so was Tony’s, shot in cold blood in front of his family. He wasn’t a good man, yet, somehow, you were always rooting for him. Maybe that was just me.”
“It wasn’t. That was the allure of the show. This little sliver of hope that there were redeeming qualities in Tony, and that somehow he would walk away from his criminal life before it caught up to him.”
Jeremiah nods. “So what do you think happened?”
“It all caught up.”
“Yeah.” Jeremiah sips his coffee. “Man, that show was good.”
“One of the best.”
“Oh, May is Star Wars month here. We kick it off on the fourth.”
“Why?”
Jeremiah tilts his head with slightly narrowed eyes. “May the fourth be with you?”
I laugh. “Oh, shit, I missed that one. Of course.”
Jeremiah smiles, taking me by surprise with its warmth. It’s relaxed. And damn, he’s incredible when he smiles. Is that a dimple in his left cheek? Fuck, it’s a dimple. The only thing he could do to be even more my type is slap on a bow tie and some suspenders.
“Do you wear suspenders ever?” I ask, a complete non sequitur to our conversion, at least to Jeremiah.
He gives me a funny look. “Um, occasionally. Why?”
Thinking quickly, I reply. “Just wondered if that was a fashion thing here. It was in Italy.”
“I don’t know about fashion, but they hold your pants up.”
“They do.” Now I’m imagining him in suspenders. “Bow ties?”
He shrugs. “For special events.”
“Good to know.”
“I can’t see you wearing something like that. Not suspenders. Maybe a bow tie if you were in a tux.”