Read Online Bankers' Hours by Wade Kelly - Free Book Online Page B

my speech on purpose.
    He stopped, regarding me seriously. “You’re kidding, right?”
    I smiled. “Of course I am. My head might feel a little woozy, but I’m not drunk.” I scoffed at the notion.
    Tristan smiled. “Come on, you.” He rolled his eyes and pinched my sleeve, bidding me to follow. I’d probably follow him anywhere—he had a nice ass. We got in his truck, and Tristan backed out of the parking space.
    I commented, “I had a great time. I kind of wish it didn’t have to end, but we both work tomorrow.”
    He stopped at the light, looked my way, and smiled. I think he’d smiled the entire night. “Me too. But hey, we can do it again another time. I’d like to take you out on a real date. We could have dinner and maybe catch a movie.”
    Maybe I was drunk, because it had sounded like he said date. “Wait… what?” I screwed up my eyes and stared at him across the seat.
    “ What , what? Do you not want to go?” he asked.
    I was still confused. “Did you say you wanted to take me out to dinner?” Because that didn’t make any sense. My mind was all kinds of confuzzled.
    Tristan turned onto Route 140 and answered, “Yes. I hardly call one drink and a calamari appetizer a date, so yeah, I want to take you out to dinner.”
    I dropped my eyes to my clasped hands in my lap and mulled over what was happening. Tristan had asked me out. On a date . Another thought occurred to me, so I turned my attention back to him. “Was this a date?”
    He gave me a weird look, then slowly pulled his truck to the side of the road and came to a stop. It wasn’t abrupt, but it did make me a little worried. I leaned closer to the door. When the truck was in park, he turned on the seat. “What did you think this was, Grant?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know. Two buddies having a beer.” My heart was racing. I squeezed my hands together as my only form of security. I didn’t understand what was going on. It was dark, and sitting on the side of the road made me a little scared. I estimated we were over eight miles from my house, so if he made me get out and walk, I’d have a long trek back.
    His shoulders sagged, and he leaned against the door, resting one arm over the steering wheel. “Grant, I’ve been flirting with you for two weeks.”
    “You have? When?” Rewinding our interactions, doing a mental assessment of everything we’d said to one another, I couldn’t remember where I’d gone off track.
    Tristan said, “Well, for one, I’ve turned the pens upside down every time you weren’t looking.”
    My mouth dropped open. “That was you?”
    He chuckled. “Yes.” He seemed so pleased with himself.
    His posture didn’t suggest anger, so I eased away from the door and relaxed my hands. I still fussed at him. “I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how they ended up like that. It drove me nuts.”
    He grinned. “I know. I thought it was adorable.”
    “My pain was adorable?” I bristled. I had to admit, now that I knew it was Tristan who’d flipped the pens, it made more sense. “Did you shuffle the bills in your deposits on purpose too? Because that was ridiculous.”
    Tristan nodded.
    “Oh my gosh! I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to be rude, but you were the only customer who didn’t arrange his deposits and stack the bills all facing in the same direction, lumped by denomination.”
    “It was the only thing I could think of to extend my visits. I knew it would take you longer to count it,” he explained. “I’ve never been in the bank so many times, Grant. I used to send one of the guys in on Fridays. I only went to the bank that first Friday, the day I met you, because Will was in the middle of a job and I’d finished rotating a set of tires on a Pilot sooner than expected. But I have to say, I’ve never been happier rearranging my schedule. As soon as I saw you, I knew I had to find reasons to go to the bank. I even took money out of the ATM over the weekend so I