"See, I'd been watching
you sit in that cafe for a couple of months. I knew who you were.
I saw the way you looked. I saw the way you didn't look, too, at
anything around you. It was in your face, that you wanted to be
left alone. I knew I couldn't introduce myself to you, not for a
while, anyway. So I waited. Until the other day, when that new
Joey Plus was introduced. Hell, I figured it was as good a time
as any to throw a line to a fellow sea dog. All along I've been
hoping since I saw you the first time that we'd get it on in the
brain, like we are now. You know?"
A beaming grin peeled across Peter's face. "Yes. I know. And so
what I was really wondering is, do you think maybe we could work
on some of this stuff together?"
Byron scratched his head. "Sounds like I've got a new hobby," he
said. He raised his can of beer. "Partners?"
Peter felt a little sting in his eyes. It was the briny ocean
mist, he told himself, blinking behind his sunglasses to rid his
eyes of the moisture that had abruptly formed there as he touched
his beer can to Byron's.
"Partners."
Chapter 11
Her tears had caused her mascara to run all over the pillow in
black streaks. Applied two nights ago, the night of their
anniversary, her makeup was all gone now from her puffy red eyes.
She turned the pillow over, revealing more smears, then reached
across the bed for one of Matthew's pillows, which she punched it
into shape and stuffed under her head.
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