Read Online Random (Going the Distance) by Lark O'Neal - Free Book Online

my phone. Does that look like the phone of a computer owner to you?”
    For a minute he only looks at me, and I can’t decide what he’s thinking, so I eat some more.
    “I guess I thought everybody had a computer.”
    “They probably do.” There’s a particularly beautiful mouthful of waffle awaiting—butter and syrup swirled together in three squares. Carefully, I use my fork to cut it free. “But even if I had an old junky laptop or something, I wouldn’t be able to pay for Internet. It’s like a hundred bucks a month.” I pop the waffle in my mouth.
    “True.” He nods in acknowledgment. After a second he starts to eat his omelet again. “What do you read?”
    “Everything. How about you? Do you like reading?”
    “Love it. Right now I’m reading Herman Hesse. Are you familiar?”
    I’m glad to be able to nod. “ Siddhartha , right? I read it for English class last year.”
    “I’m reading Narcissus and Goldmund . Maybe you’d like it, too.”
    “Maybe.” I give him a mockingly dark frown. “It always seems like guys want you to read these big heavy, complicated things. I’m not really into that.”
    His eyes narrow. “You don’t read romances, do you?”
    “Yep. As a matter of fact, I like romances a lot. And science fiction, and those big thick paperbacks you find in used bookstores about some poor person who makes good.”
    “Genre, then.”
    “Sometimes.” There are two bites left of the waffle, but my belly is about to split and I put my fork down. “Last month I read Steinbeck. The month before that, my neighbor loaned me a bunch of James Baldwin.” I meet his eyes. “Are you only a serious reader?”
    He seems to think about this. “Maybe.”
    “Do you ever read just because it’s fun?”
    That sideways smile slips upward. “Not so much.”
    I grin back. “Maybe you should try it.”
    A sudden darkness swallows the sunlight shining on us and we look up. A fat fluffy cloud is puffing across the sun, leaving swathes of blue on either side. “A warning,” he says. “Read only for serious purpose!”
    I laugh. “Or maybe you’re supposed to read genre.”
    He laughs, too. “Do you have time to walk around Manitou for a little while?”
    “Dude, I’m unemployed, remember?”
    “Let’s do it.” He pulls out some bills and throws them on the table.
    * * *
    We weave through the heavy tourist traffic, families with kids sweating in the heat and puffing with the altitude. I feel superior, as always, because I grew up here and I’m used to it. “So, Rich Boy, where are you from?”
    He glances down, and I think he’s going to object, but he says, “Philadelphia. My dad is in finance.”
    I have no idea what that actually entails, but it sounds like big money. “Did he buy you the car?”
    “Yeah. A reward for turning my life around and getting into CC.”
    Colorado College, the ritzy private college downtown. “If you went to CC, why are you working as a cook?”
    He pauses, not looking at me, and I notice a cord in his jaw. “It’s…um…complicated. And I don’t want to turn into my dad.”
    I turn sideways to let a woman pass me, and when I look up at Tyler his face is set in hard lines, which warns me off asking what it is about his dad is that he hates so much.
    Interesting, though. I slip the information away. “What did you study?”
    “Environmental science, but I switched to art.”
    “Really.” I grin. “How’d that go over with your dad?”
    He inclines his head, the softness back around his smiling mouth. “Not well, as you might imagine.”
    “Is that why you did it?”
    He looks down at me. “You ask a lot of questions.”
    “I know. Sorry.” A breeze blows hair in my face and I catch it back. “People interest me. I like the stories.”
    “I guess I’ll have to be careful, then.”
    “Is there a deep dark secret?”
    “There always is, right?” The words are light, but his eyes are less glittery than they have been.
    “Now that sounds