Beer, Burgers & Boyfriends

I had the chance to take a closer look at Simon while he was busy serving out our ordered food and drinks. However, I did not want to be caught staring at him like a creep by either him, or worse, Jacob, so I thumbed through the ugly restaurant menu and tried to appear interested in the menu items while I occasionally shot disinterested glances at him.

The first thing that I noticed was something that I had also immediately thought of when I had seen him outside, but sunlight can sometimes be deceiving and I had not actually expected him to have such a milky white, light skin tone. Then again, it did explain the seemingly permanent blush on his cheeks, which -on closer inspection- turned out to be sunburned skin instead.

Something else that pleasantly surprised me was revealed when Simon suddenly rolled back the mint-green sleeves of his work uniform. It turned out that Simon, in spite of his slender silhouette, was surprisingly muscular. I distractedly wondered how those muscles would feel beneath my hands... It was embarrassing to admit that those thoughts really made me feel a certain way, so I tried to focus my attention on something else instead.

The dark bags beneath Simon’s eyes were in stark contrast with his pale skin and I tried to imagine what could have caused them. He must have had a pretty bad day -or maybe even a bad week- to end up looking so tired and I felt bad for him. Having to deal with difficult customers and having to pick up the work of an injured colleague had probably not made the situation any better, so I could not help but ask: “Spotted you were having some trouble with customers outside, are you okay?”

“Who? Me?” Simon had clearly not expected that question and seemed surprised that someone showed concern for him at all. He then answered timidly: “Ah yes, thank you, I’m fine. They were just rude, is all, but I’m used to it at this point. We get a lot of customers like that here, unfortunately.”

“That sucks, man… Ever thought about complaining to your boss about it?” I asked him empathetically while placing the menu back in its stand on the table. “You should be able to refuse service to people that try to pick a fight or insult you.”

He shook his head softly with a defeated smile. “No, I can't do that. Don’t know if you’ve already noticed from my clothes or the layout of this place, but my boss is pretty old-fashioned. He lives by the mantra of ‘the customer is king’ and all." He sighed and rolled his eyes. “He’d be pissed if he saw me wasting my time by making small talk with you. I don't want to imagine what he'd do if he saw me talking back to a customer!”

Simon continued: “He’s very strict; technically I’m not even allowed to roll up my sleeves like this." He laughed. “At least I’m better off than my female colleagues! They don’t get to wear long pants like me. Don’t get me wrong, long pants still suck during the summer and sometimes I wish I could just take them off because they’re so damn hot, but it’s better than having to wear a skirt every day.”

Jacob, who was sitting next to me, was following the conversation between me and Simon with interest. When I took a sip of my Coca-Cola after Simon had finished his rant about his horrible, old-fashioned boss, he leaned towards me and whispered bluntly with a devious smirk: “I don’t think you’d mind it if Simon took off his pants like he wishes he could, ey Joey?” I choked on my drink and almost spilt its contents on the table.

Simon looked at me worriedly while I coughed up some spatters of coca-cola and asked: “Are you okay, um...? Sorry, I don’t think I’ve caught your name yet.”

I nodded and tried to hide my tomato-red face. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, thank you. My bad for not telling you my name sooner, sorry. My name’s Joey. I mean, your work uniform might be a bit uncomfortable and old-fashioned, but I think it looks good on you." I then quickly added with a furious blush: “a-and it fits the theme of the place of course.”

I tried to change the subject. “If you don’t like your boss and your work, then why do you still work here?”

Simon smiled sweetly and I was deadly afraid he could tell that I was very into him. Luckily, even if that was the case, he did not seem to mind it at all and answered a bit nervously: “I never said I do not like my work, but it surely has its ups and downs. This week there have just been more downs than ups so to say... I like doing ballet and photography in my spare time, but other than that I usually don’t have anything else to do during the weekend, so I primarily took this job so I wouldn’t be bored out of my mind. Besides, it’s a good idea to save up already for the study that I want to do later and having work experience will look nice on my resume.”

“Ballet? Well, that explains the muscles,” I accidentally blurted out. Simon looked perplexed and I awkwardly tried to talk myself out of the situation by saying: “Um, me and my friends are all part of the basketball team of st. Claire’s high school and we work out together often, so I tend to notice these things.”

Jacob saw right through my lie and gave me a stink eye, but Simon bought it. “Oh, you guys go to st. Claire's? Would’ve been my second choice if I hadn’t been accepted to Whitecliff College, but that school’s closer to home, so I ended up going for that one.”

He then added wistfully: “It’s a shame... I bet we would’ve become great friends if I had chosen St. Claire’s instead. Y’all seem very nice.” He suddenly snapped out of his bold, talkative mood and laughed airheadedly: “Ah, sorry, am I ranting? I should really be getting the rest of your food. I’ll be back in a second!"

“Is about damn time,” Nick sighed. He had still not received his highly anticipated strawberry milkshake.

I kept looking at Simon as he walked away until he finally disappeared into the kitchen. His adorable smile was etched into my mind’s eye and managed to make my heart flutter. Jacob had noticed my sudden fixation and once again leaned towards me to whisper something into my ear: “I think you’ve found something -no, someone- who can finally challenge your obsession with food, pal.”

---

I chatted a bit more with Simon when he came back to deliver the rest of our food. He struck up a conversation with my friends as well but was clearly more interested in talking to me. Sadly, our conversation was cut short when more customers started dripping into the restaurant and Simon was called back to the kitchen by Shania.

“It was nice talking to you, but I have to get back to work,” Simon sighed regretfully, but his tired smile did not stay away for long. “Enjoy your meal!” He gave me a playful wink and then turned around to go help out his colleagues.

I was in awe and my eyes were glued to him for the duration of our stay. The only instances when I would willingly look away from him were the moments when Simon had noticed my gaze and shot me a quick, sweet smile, causing me to look away to hide my blush. My friends must have noticed something was off, but they were way too busy enjoying their food, chatting and flirting with the passing waitresses to point it out. When it was finally time to go, Jacob had to forcefully push me out of the restaurant because I was desperately trying to get one last glimpse of Simon. I stopped struggling when I felt the familiar warmth of summer on my skin again and I realised something.

I had not even asked for his phone number.