Seven Year Switch (2010) Read Online Free PDF Page B

have to go away?
    Â 
    A ll I do is miss you all day long
    Â 
    D o you have to stay so long?

6
    WHEN I GOT TO STARBUCKS, BILLY SANDERS AND TWO venti cappuccinos were waiting at the same table we’d sat at last time.
    He stood up, put his palms together, and bowed.
    I burst out laughing.
    â€œ What ?” he said.
    He was wearing a knee-length red silk kimono, tied around the waist with a white obi that matched his sneakers.
    I knew it was unprofessional, but I couldn’t seem to stop laughing. My eyes were tearing, and I was gasping for breath. When I tried to get myself under control, I made a sound that was a cross between a neigh and a snort.
    â€œNice,” he said.
    â€œSorry.” I cleared my throat.
    â€œTell me you didn’t ride your bike in that,” I said. I bit down on my lower lip so I wouldn’t lose it all over again.
    He held out my chair. “Why, is there some sort of Japanese bicycle/kimono rule I should know about?”
    I burst out laughing all over again. Most of Starbucks was looking at us. I sat down fast and reached for my cappuccino.
    â€œ Not that it’s any of your business,” Billy Sanders whispered, “but I’m wearing bike shorts under it.” He raised an eyebrow. “Matching.”
    I put my head on the table. “Stop,” I said. “Please stop.”
    Finally I lifted up my head.
    â€œSo,” I said. I reached for my folder.
    â€œSo,” he said. He handed me a check. “Nice to see you laugh, even if it was at me. You were pretty uptight last time.”
    â€œExcuse me?” I said.
    He smiled. “I know uptight when I see it.”
    He had one of those vast, infectious smiles that probably made everyone he met want to hang out with him. I thought there might even be a little spark between us, but it had been so long since I’d been in such close proximity to a man, albeit one wearing a kimono with bike shorts, I could easily be hallucinating. If I had the extra energy, or could even remember how to flirt, I might have considered testing the waters. “Okay,” I said. “First thing. I hope you saved the receipt on that kimono….”
    Billy took a sip of his cappuccino. “I don’t know what the problem is. It worked for David Bowie in Ziggy Stardust .”
    â€œIt makes you look like a total weeaboo.”
    He crossed his legs, and I got a little peek of his red bike shorts. He had amazing thighs, wiry and muscular. Must have been all that bike riding.
    â€œA whatahoo?” he said.
    â€œA weeaboo. It’s short for ‘wannabee Japanese.’ You know, someone who wears manga T-shirts, lives on ramen noodles, and bows a lot.”
    â€œHey, I only bowed once. But I see your point. Kind of geeky, huh?”
    I smiled. “Historically, it’s geek meets goth.”
    â€œYou mean the vampire kids?”
    â€œNo, goths and vampires both wear black, but goths smoke and drink, while vampires are actually healthy, at least the New Bloods inspired by Twilight . They’re more into drinking tomato juice and pretending it’s blood. All of this, by the way, issimply an extension of the whole jock-versus-stoner thing from our own high school days.”
    â€œWow,” he said. “Remind me to hire you again when my kids get a little older.”
    My stomach fell like a descending elevator missing a floor. I hadn’t realized how much I’d been kind of hoping that Billy Sanders was single. I glanced at the ring finger of his left hand.
    He saw me do it. I looked away quickly.
    â€œDivorced,” he said.
    â€œExcuse me?” I said. I could feel a blush burning my face. I flipped my hair out from behind my ears to camouflage it.
    â€œYou were looking at my ring finger,” he said.
    â€œNo, I wasn’t,” I said.
    â€œSee,” he said. He adjusted the front of his kimono. “You are uptight.”
    â€œWell, compared to a guy