by A. J. Truman
“Did you see that?” Heath asked, like a sports announcer. “How he swooped right in and took away those two pint glasses without interrupting the customers’ conversation?”
“Rafe belongs in the pantheon of great runners.”
“He brings tears to my eyes.”
“Oh? What’s this? Rafe is carrying a container of lime wedges and he…look at that! He refilled the garnish tray without a single wedge falling onto the bar.”
“We are watching history being made,” Heath said.
They burst into applause again. Louisa shielded her face.
“Can you take it down a notch?” Rafe approached their table. “Like 100 notches?”
“We are witnessing greatness, mate,” Heath said.
“We’re proud of you, Yank.” Eamonn flashed him a smile that shot right to Rafe’s core. He gave Rafe a surreptitious pat on the ass. Rafe had to step away because if Eamonn did that again, he was going to pitch a tent, like he did when they played snooker. He doubted that was acceptable employee behavior.
“You’re doing a really good job.” Louisa shook the last bits of alcohol from her drink into her mouth.
“What’s this?” Heath pointed at Rafe, then at the glass. “Rafe, I will let you do the honors.”
Rafe shook his head, half-embarrassed and half-loving the attention. “Louisa, are you finished with your glass?”
She gave him her glass, and as if on cue, Heath and Eamonn gave him another damn standing ovation. Rafe walked back to the bar, feeling heat on his cheeks. When Rafe got his first paycheck, he looked at it for a long while, thinking about whether to frame it or cash it. That decision only took a second. He cashed his check and earmarked most of it for groceries and social events. He went into the kitchen and waved a twenty-pound note in the air for his friends.
“Drinks are on me tonight.”
* * *
Rafe loved getting to buy rounds at the bar for his friends. He could be the one to help others and take charge.
He brought a round of drinks to the table. Heath and Eamonn only gave him a short round of applause.
“You don’t have to do that. I’m not working tonight.” Rafe put the drinks on the table.
“We’re just happy that we’re getting pissed for free.” Heath took his drink and slid Eamonn his pint. Louisa had to reach in and grab her drink. Heath always passed Louisa her drink. It was a subtle moment that Rafe picked up on and wondered if he was overthinking it.
Rafe sat next to Louisa, another change up. He wondered if he was the only one who noticed.
Eamonn raised his pint glass. “Cheers to Rafe. Runner extraordinaire.”
They brought their glasses together to clink.
“I wonder if they’ll ever let you tend bar one shift. Say it’s your one wish before returning to America and not being allowed to drink.”
“Are you bleeding serious, Louisa?” Heath asked with a mean spark in his eyes. “You think they’re just going to throw him behind a bar without any experience? That’s probably illegal. Don’t be daft. Just drink your Midori sour.”
Awkward silence hit the table. This was far from typical Heath sarcasm. There was a noticeable chill in his voice that shut Louisa up well. The not-so-gentle giant took a gulp of his beer.
“Don’t mind, Heath,” Louisa said to Rafe for the whole table to hear. “He acts like a baby when he doesn’t get his way.”
“Only Louisa gets to have her way and fuck all to everyone else,” he muttered.
Louisa got up so quickly that their glasses shook. She joined a group of girls she knew standing around a high top table.
“Mate,” Eamonn said.
Heath raised his hands, not wanting a word of it. “I’m tired of her bloody games. I’m serious this time.”
A little bit later, Rafe went up to the bar to get the next round of drinks. As he waited, he heard the distinct sounds of an American accent. He was almost nostalgic for it.
“I can barely understand anyone here, Mom. These accents are so thick,” a girl with wavy blonde hair and red, puffy eyes said into her phone. “Okay, okay. We’ll talk later. Call me when you get home from book club. I’ll be just waking up.”
“Hey. You were in my orientation.” Rafe recognized her as one of the kids in red T-shirts up front. He thought they only traveled in packs avoiding all British students. “It’s great running into other Yanks here.”
They reintroduced themselves. Her name was Allison.
“What dorm are you in?” Allison asked.
“Sweeney.”
“Oh. Those are nice. We’re up in Jones.”
Rafe had only passed by Jones once, when he and Eamonn went to the soccer field. They were on the opposite end of campus, which explained why he hadn’t seen her around.
“So how are you liking it?” Rafe asked.
Allison shot him a look, as if to say “look at my face.”
“Isn’t there a whole group of you?”
“They’re in Edinburgh this week.”
“During the week? What about classes?”
“They pay kids to write their papers and attend classes for them. They try to spend as little time as possible here. Most nights, we go into London to party with UCL kids. I don’t go to Cornell with them. I’m camp friends with one of the girls, and this was supposed to be our adventure in Europe. But then we got in a fight because this Dartmouth guy she likes at UCL hit on me, and it’s my fault. So now they’re all traveling in Ireland and Scotland, and she didn’t invite me. Bitch.” Allison dressed for Apothecary like she was going to 7-Eleven to pick up a carton of ice cream to bring home.
No wonder Rafe never saw those Americans around. He did not miss their presence, and he was ticked off that they just left their friend behind.
Rafe handed Allison a cocktail napkin.
“Thanks. I’m just a little homesick, too,” Allison said, with a sniffle. “It just hit me how far away we are. And I miss Syracuse. The buildings back home are old on the outside, but at least they’re updated inside. Everything here is so old and so much smaller.”
That was part of the charm of being abroad. They were living in history. England wasn’t bland and cookie-cutter.
“And I hate watching soccer and having to convert things to the metric system and using a power adapter to plug anything in. Why are plugs different? Could they really not be standardized?” Allison sniffled again.
“At least we can drink legally,” Rafe said.
“It’s not the same. There are no parties. Just going to the pub. It’s just different here.” She shrugged, like there was no other way to put it.
Rafe glanced around at the packed bar and his friends in their booth. It was different but in the best way.
“You seem to love it here,” Allison said, a hint of jealousy in her voice.
“I do.”
“That’s so wonder—” Allison cried into her napkin.
“Do you want to come sit with me and my flatmates?”
“You’re friends with your flatmates? That’s so cute. No, I’m going back to my dorm room to binge-watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
“If you ever want to talk to another American about malls or driving on the right side of the road, give me a call.” He gave her his number.
He returned to his table with a huge smile on his face.
“Did you get a handy in the bathroom or something?” Heath asked.
“Better.”
Eamonn looked the tiniest bit concerned, which Rafe took a moment to enjoy.
Chapter 15
EAMONN
Over the next week, Heath and Louisa didn’t say a word to each other in the flat. That made the times when they were all in the kitchen very uncomfortable. At least Eamonn had Rafe to help relieve the tension with a joke.
October was in full fall mode. Eamonn smiled as he walked through piles of leaves to the gym. He had woken up early this Sunday morning, and instead of lying in bed, he decided to get
some gym time in. As he lifted weights and jogged around the indoor track, he found himself thinking about Rafe. No one memory in particular, just a montage running in his head. Rafe smiling, Rafe cooking at the stove, Rafe lining up his snooker shot. He also realized that it’d been weeks since he thought of his ex-boyfriend. He hadn’t even been tempted to check his Instagram feed to see what stars he’d taken selfies with. Those years with Nathan seemed to have happened another lifetime ago. With each loop around the track, he moved further away from that pain.
It was just before eight when Eamonn returned to Sweeney Hall. He put on a fresh pot for tea. Nathan had preferred using the electric tea maker, but Eamonn would never convert. He heated his water the old-fashioned way in a kettle.
The door swung open. Rafe placed his backpack on the table. Since it was the first truly chilly day of autumn, he wore a corduroy jacket, and he looked damn good in it.
“You’re up early,” Rafe said.
“Likewise.”
He filled up his water bottle at the sink.
“Going somewhere?” Eamonn asked.
“I’m going on a day trip to Stonehenge as part of an assignment for my sedimentology class.” Rafe capped his bottle and placed it in the side sleeve of his backpack.
“Are you hiking there?” Eamonn nodded at his backpack, which was packed to the gills.
“There’s this tour group. You go out to the site on a chartered bus, and the leader gives a guided tour. And they provide lunch.”
“What do you need a guided tour of Stonehenge for?” Eamonn pointed at the fridge. “Here are old rocks.” He pointed at the microwave. “Here are more old rocks. End of tour!”
“Stonehenge is one of the great geological and historical mysteries of our planet. I think it’ll be a little more in-depth.” Rafe opened one of the cupboards and retrieved a bag of trail mix. He brushed against Eamonn on his way back to the table, giving his body another morning workout. “Have you ever been?”
“In primary school, but I just remember being bored out of my bloody mind. When does the tour leave?”
“Not until eleven, but I want to give myself enough time to get to London on time.”
“London?” The tea kettle screamed on the stove. Eamonn turned off the burner and moved the kettle off.
“That’s where the tour leaves from.” Rafe poured some trail mix into his hand and knocked it back like pills.
Eamonn pulled out a map of England on his phone. There was Stonehenge, there was Stroude, and then there was London completely in the opposite direction. He showed it to Rafe.
“You’re going to travel all the way into London just to drive all the way to Stonehenge, then all the way back to London to come back here.”
“That’s where these tours leave from.”
“And all this for what? Some tour guide to tell you something you could’ve read about online. And where’s lunch coming from?”
“I think it’s just sandwiches. What? It’s not like there are tours leaving from Surrey. It all leaves from London.”
“You are not a tourist. You came to England to get the real British experience. No real British person would be caught dead on one of those tour busses.”
Rafe seemed to absorb what he was saying. “Well, I want to see Stonehenge. What other option do I have?” He checked the clock on the wall. “I need to get going.”
“I’ll take you,” Eamonn said just as Rafe swung the door open.
Rafe came back inside. “Really?”
“Really.” Stonehenge was only an hour drive. They could leave now, look at the rocks for a few minutes, and be back by lunchtime. Eamonn would finish his class assignments tonight. “Just give me a few minutes to shower. And you can leave that ghastly knapsack here.”
“How are we going to get there?”
“You leave that to me.” Going to a tourist trap. What a way to spend a Sunday. But when he saw Rafe’s face light up, and he felt that light deep in his heart, he knew he’d made the right decision.
* * *
They took the train to Guildford, and as they walked to Eamonn’s house, he gave Rafe a guided walking tour of his hometown.
“That Tesco on the corner used to be this massive arcade. I would go there with mates everyday after school. My mum was pretty pissed when I’d spend half my newspaper route money there. They had this game where you could pretend to play football with Beckham and all these great players. You would stand in this booth and wear this boot, and it was just like being on the pitch with these greats.”
“Sounds just like that.”
“Sod off.” Eamonn gave him a playful shove. “It felt real when I was eight.”
Leaves blew in their path. Eamonn kicked them aside. They walked down the middle of the street through the main strip. Most stores were closed on Sundays, so the town was theirs. Eamonn had been down this street a million times, but Rafe soaked it all in with wide-eyed wonder.
“It’s just stores,” Eamonn said.
“But these buildings!” Rafe pointed to a two-story building with a barbershop on the bottom. “This one could’ve been the home of a Redcoat. He could’ve hugged his family goodbye when he was sent overseas to fight some obnoxious colonists. And that little cottage right next to it could’ve been where guilds met in the Middle Ages.”
“That’s where this girl Lisa Book lived. She had a fondness for kicking boys in the stones.”
“We don’t have this in America. It’s just strip malls and maybe something from the Civil War that isn’t shrouded in a Confederate Flag.”
Eamonn wouldn’t mind living in a city where buildings were modern and updated. Those only seemed to exist in London, and only for loads of money.
He had them turn down a side street that reminded Rafe of Privet Lane in Harry Potter.
“I knew you were going to say that,” Eamonn said, a smile crossing his lips.
“No, you didn’t.”
“A Harry Potter reference. Very original.”
Rafe went to push Eamonn, but Eamonn stopped his hand.
And held it.
Rafe’s warm palm fit perfectly in his. He didn’t try to pull away. As much as Eamonn’s heart wanted to leap out of his chest, he remained outwardly calm.
“I’ll bet you haven’t even seen a single Harry Potter movie,” Rafe said.
“Yes I did! Daniel Radcliffe is a good-looking mate.”
They walked the rest of the way to his house hand-in-hand, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
RAFE
Rafe took back his hand when they reached Eamonn’s house. Not that he didn’t love the contact. Oh, he did. Rafe could’ve floated down Privet Lane, but he didn’t want Eamonn’s family asking any questions.
A teenage girl with bright pink hair answered the door. “Eamonn!” She ran into his arms. He squeezed her tight.
“Well, this is a surprise.” The girl’s twin, whose hair was as reserved as her sister’s was wild, came outside. They each had the same squinty blue eyes as their brother.
Eamonn hugged one sister in each arm. He was officially the best big brother Rafe had ever met, and it made him regret being an only child.
“Who are you?” The pink-haired sister asked.
“Liv! You’re not interrogating him,” Eamonn said.
“I’m Rafe. I’m a friend of your brother’s.”
“You’re American?” Mary, the other sister, looked at Rafe like he was a science exhibit.
“Born and raised.”
“That’s so cool!” Mary and Olivia said. Rafe shrugged with fake modesty. He loved having this instant cache.
“We can’t stay,” Eamonn said. “Just here to borrow mum’s car for the morning.”
“We’re going to Stonehenge,” Rafe said.
Olivia and Mary seemed as excited by that as their brother did. Rafe supposed it was like someone wanting to go to the Washington Monument. He did that years ago, and it was just a lot of waiting to go up a sma
ll elevator and stare out on more monuments for a few minutes.
“Let me save you some time. It’s rocks,” Olivia said.
“Like brother, like sister.” Rafe smiled at Eamonn.
“It’s going to be interesting and educational,” Eamonn said.
“Two of your favorite things,” Mary said. “We were just about to eat breakfast.”
“Stay for breakfast,” Olivia pleaded with her brother.
“Mum’s making eggs,” Mary said.
“We want to get going and take advantage of the nice weather,” Eamonn said. There was not a cloud in the sky, and with the sun out, the temperature had the perfect fall crisp. This was a day not to be wasted. Rafe imagined Stonehenge would be packed.
“We can eat in the backyard,” Mary said.
“It’s just rocks. They’re not going anywhere.” Olivia crossed her arms, underlining her argument.
Eamonn looked back at Rafe for his opinion. Breakfast al fresco actually sounded nice, and he was getting a kick out of this sibling dynamic. Rafe gave him a thumbs-up. The girls cheered.
“It’s going to be a quick breakfast,” Eamonn said.
“Our mum makes really good eggs and bacon,” Mary said to Rafe.
“We can’t wait to hear all about Eamonn’s new boyfriend!” Olivia exclaimed.
“Boyfriend?” Eamonn’s mom came to the door. She kissed her son on the cheek.
Eamonn’s cheek went from zero to blush central in seconds. “What? Uh, no.”
“No, I’m not—we’re not boyfriends.” Rafe found himself stammering, too.
“We’re flatmates at Stroude.”
“I’m his flatmate.”
His mom nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced. The sisters burst out giggling.
“I’m Anna, his mum.” She shook Rafe’s hand.
“Rafe.”
“Nice to meet you, Eamonn’s flatmate,” Olivia said. She and Mary traded knowing looks.
“Right. Listen up.” Eamonn held up his hands. “I have two tickle monsters here, and I know how to use them.” He blew at them like gun barrels. The girls screamed and ran inside. Eamonn put his hands back down. “Works like a charm.”
