“So, who are we watching today, Gracie?”
No one in my life had ever called me Gracie and the fact that Clive had given me my own nickname made me feel beyond special.
“Young couple across from us and a little to the left on a bench.” I scanned the park around me until my eyes found the cute boy and girl again.
“And are they providing any decent fodder for your debut romance novel?” he asked through a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie.
I’d told Clive why I liked to people watch the first time I’d met him and he seemed to be totally on board with my cockamamie idea.
“Maybe,” I half whispered, entranced with the couple again.
He leaned back on the bench, getting comfortable. “Well, tell me.”
“They look to be in their early twenties. Probably college sweethearts. He’s tall with dark hair and she’s tiny with light brown hair. They are sitting so close together, she’s practically on his lap but the sweet part is that their hands are so close to touching. His right pinky finger is so dang close to her left pinky finger. But they are each just leaving their hand on their knee, too scared to go for it. Which tells me this must be new. And I love new love.” A dreamy sigh escaped me.
I could see Clive nod his head in my peripheral vision. “Yeah, young love is the best. But old love is the sweetest.”
“Yeah?” I asked, not knowing a damn thing about old love because my last boyfriend had crushed my soul after giving him the best damn two years of my life. And from my poor dating track record, I doubted I’d ever make it to old, sweet love. Especially since I was swearing off men. Except for Clive. I wasn’t swearing off him. He was the best thing about New York so far.
“Mmmhmm.” He nodded, grabbing every bit of my attention. “A love that is old is sweeter because there’s a comfort there you never find in young love. An ease, an effortless love that takes years and years to build on and it’s made sweeter by all the wonderful memories of young love.”
Gah. I bet young Clive made all the girls’ hearts go pitter-patter.
“That makes sense,” I breathed, slouching down into the bench, thinking that maybe Clive was a closet romance novelist. He sometimes said the swooniest damn things.
“What are they doing now?” He snapped me out of my romantic thoughts and I looked again at the young couple.
I flew to the edge of my seat when I realized I’d almost missed it. “Oh, oh. It looks like they are going to kiss. He’s leaning into her.” And the more he leaned in, the more I teetered on the end of the bench, waiting for it. It looked like we were going to witness a first kiss and those were just magical. I felt Clive lean forward with me, like he could see the gorgeous pair just as well as I could and for a moment it felt like both of our breath halted.
And closer and closer they inched, their lips a mere breath apart. Their hands were almost in each other’s hair, the moment inexplicably romantic. My heart felt like it stopped in anticipation.
Until, all of a sudden, her head turned away from the boy as if in slow motion. Nooooo, my mind screamed. What was happening?
But it became all too clear as I watched another man walk past the couple as if he was walking straight out of a movie instead of just taking a stroll around Central Park.
He was tall, and dark, and handsome and wearing a black leather jacket and for a moment, I thought that maybe the girl knew the mystery man in some way, but no, he kept right on walking and she kept right on staring. And I knew exactly why. I could hardly take my eyes off of him either. He was a bad boy. It was abundantly clear from the leather jacket down to the cocky walk.
Eventually, his eyes found mine and the wink he threw my way, like he knew I was looking, sealed the whole bad boy deal. I was embarrassed to say I couldn’t look away. I blushed down to the bottom of my feet. My skin prickled and my heart kicked up a notch in my chest.
“What’s happening?” Clive asked. “Did they kiss?”
He was still sitting on the edge of his seat and there I was salivating over the stranger whose face I could see even more clearly as he continued to walk past me. And God, I understood that girls needed to look at him even though they didn’t want to. He was beautiful. Chiseled face that rivaled even Adonis. Dark enough eyes to get lost in. Hair thick, shiny, and curly. And there was no doubt in my mind that he was sporting muscles on top of muscles underneath that black t-shirt and jacket. His jeans were so snug, I was half tempted to do a crotch check. But I held myself back. Barely. For Clive. And for me.
Because I knew what kind of man he was. And he wasn’t for me. I’d given that type a try. I’d even hopped on and given that type a good joy ride. Nope. I wasn’t doing that again. And if the pretty, young girl on the bench was smart, she’d focus on the good thing she had right in front of her. Because the sexy distraction walking by was nothing more than bad news.
“Well, come on, Gracie. Don’t leave me in suspense here!” Clive nudged my shoulder with his own.
“Sorry,” I breathed. Turned out the girl on the bench wasn’t the only person distracted. “No. No kisses. Someone walked by and distracted her.”
“Mmm. Sounds to me like you got a little distracted, too.” He paused for a moment before asking, “Who walked by?”
I huffed out a breath. “Oh, you know. It’s a tale as old as time, Clive. Every story has a villain and this one was a hottie in a leather jacket that our young girl couldn’t keep her eyes off of. He walked by and she was all gaga and stupid.”
Like me. She was like me and probably every other woman in this park. But I wasn’t falling for it anymore.
A low laugh hit my ears. “What makes you think he’s the villain?”
“Because I know his type. Heck, I’ve dated his type plenty of times. And I’ve finally learned my lesson. He’s the type of guy that you have fun with. Not that you settle down with and marry and definitely not one that you dare to fall in love with. Because he will break your dang heart and ruin your life and you will regret ever setting eyes on him in the first place.”
“Wow. That’s a lot. Kinda extra.”
I nodded, pulled an apple out of my backpack, and leaned back on the bench. “It is.” I took a bite of my apple. “Just look at him. Walking off without a care in the world. Like he just didn’t ruin a momentous kiss. He’s a romance ruiner. A date destroyer. A kiss mutilator. A love demolisher. The sexy mofo,” I finished under my breath.
A low chuckle interrupted me. “You know what I think, Ms. Gracie?”
I smirked because he was gonna tell me whether I wanted him to or not.
“What’s that, Clive?”
“I think that you shouldn’t always judge a book by its cover.”
Oh, Clive was going all bookish on me. But he was right. I hated when people judged a book by its cover, but most did. This was different though. Book covers and people were a completely different deal. The outside of people was easy to read. It was a rare occasion when someone surprised me nowadays. People were easy to read. But it didn’t matter. I never planned on seeing the romance ruiner again.
But sometimes fate had other plans.
Grace
I needed a job. Like ASAP. But finding a job wasn’t as easy as I thought it should have been in this big city. There were plenty of jobs to be had. Maybe it was the fact that I was being particularly particular about what job I was willing to take. But there was no way in hell I was waiting tables. I’d tried that back home in North Carolina and that had been a huge mistake. The kind of mistake that had costed hundreds of dollars in broken dishes and dry cleaning bills. I wasn’t about that life anymore. I was a girl who could accept my limitations. And waiting tables was a hard limit for me.