Hidden Gem Short Story Collection (9781301405985) (8 page)

Tyler stood there, alone, staring at the
door and waiting for it to swing open once again. The moment it
did, he felt a strange rush of excitement. He hoped it didn’t show
as Sophie made her way back towards him.

“
Hi there,” she said. “Did
you forget something?”

“
No,” he replied. “I was
actually hoping for… breakfast or something.”

“
We’re actually not opened
for breakfast this time of year,” Sophie’s pretty lips turned down
into a slight frown. Tyler was mesmerized by it. “We’re just here
early to tap the trees and keep an eye on them.”

“
Oh, that’s a shame, I
really liked it here,” he shrugged. “I’m leaving later today and I
was hoping to eat here again before I left.” He felt the lie escape
his lips with so little effort, that he surprised himself. Sophie
looked at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes at him as her frown
turned back into the coy smile that she had worn the whole night
before.

“
You’re here to apologize,
aren’t you?”

“
What? No,” Tyler started.
“Why would I…” He stopped for a moment.
She’s not talking about the concert.
“Oh, you mean my friends yesterday.”

“
Yes,” she nodded. “But
don’t worry. I know you guys were just having fun. It seemed like
it’s been awhile since you all saw each other or
something.”

“
Yeah, sort of,” he said.
Tyler looked at her arm, resting in her sling. “So, uh…”

“
Hey, you know what?”
Sophie said. “I was actually about to make myself something to eat.
Do you want to come inside? I can cook for you too.”

~

The air was thick and
smelled sweet –
decadent
, even. He couldn’t see the
speakers, but the radio was playing softly and it filled the room
with a warm hum, the bass of the music thumping like a peaceful
heartbeat.

Sophie was surprisingly quick with her
hands, for a person with limited ability to use them. What had been
two apples and a slab of dough just moments before, quickly became
two handmade tarts ready for the oven. She poured Tyler a cup of
coffee, convincing him to try maple syrup as his sweetener over his
usual two cubes of sugar. While they waited for their food to bake,
she told him about herself, how she was a student at Bennington who
opted out of university housing and was living with her grandfather
to save money. She had grown up in New Hampshire, right next door,
but the commute was just easier from his place and she liked
helping out at his restaurant.

“
And I’m not the only
commuter. The states up here are small, so some of my classmates
are even coming from New York,” she shrugged, refreshing his cup of
coffee as it began to ran low. Tyler smiled at the gesture,
wondering if she was still in server mode, even if their breakfast
was technically unofficial.

There were no lights in the cabin, not
during the day. Instead, the sunlight came in through the slat
windows that adorned the wall of the entrance. It came in beams,
picking up the hazy smoke coming from the kitchen, looking almost
like a tranquil, country version of his view while performing on
stage. He laughed at the thought, remembering only then the reason
why he had come to the restaurant to begin with – he wanted to know
if Sophie the server was the same Sophie that was at his concert
that night.

But before he could ask, a
familiar melody came on the radio. It was an old song. A song from
his past, though not his own. And it had been
ages
since he had heard that song
anywhere.
God, why now.

Queen Bee’s song, “My
Choice
,
” was
suddenly playing over the speakers – coming through clearer than
any other song that had played before. Gemma’s voice wafted through
the thick air, penetrating his skin.
What
the hell…
He tried not to make a face, not
when Sophie was still talking calmly, telling him a story of the
restaurant’s history, how long her grandfather had owned and worked
at the establishment.

Well,
Tyler thought.
If that doesn’t
answer your question.
If Sophie knew who
he was, she would have had to have said
something
right? Acknowledged
how
awkward
it
was that Tyler had gone silent at the sound of his ex-girlfriend’s
song playing over the speakers?

He felt his hands gripping his coffee cup
tighter and tighter as the song went on.

“
Do you want your
tart
à la mode
?”
Sophie disappeared behind some shelves as she busied about the
kitchen. Tyler watched as she reached up for something on a top
shelf – and suddenly, the radio was off. “We have vanilla and maple
pecan ice cream.”

“
I’ll take vanilla,” Tyler
replied, trying to ease the tension in his chest by sipping on his
coffee. “Thank you.” Sophie returned from behind the shelves with
two white plates, the glistening warm apple tart sitting atop them.
She placed one in front of Tyler, scooping a generous scoop of
vanilla ice cream beside it. Tyler looked up at her, taking in the
sight of her moving about casually, as if her arm wasn’t in a
sling. Sophie’s eyes met his, crinkling with a warm
smile.

“
Vanilla’s my choice too,”
she said with a shrug, scooping some ice cream onto her plate as
well. “It’s underrated.”

“
Come sit with me,” Tyler
beckoned, watching her flutter about behind the counter. “I feel
bad enough that I’ve essentially forced you to open your restaurant
for me, cook me breakfast, and all the while you’ve got your arm in
a sling.”

“
It’s my pleasure,” Sophie
laughed, licking her spoon and throwing it into the sink before
coming around to the other side of the counter. She sat on the
stool next to Tyler’s, facing him. She let her knees graze
his.

“
So,” Tyler started. “What
happened?”

“
I broke my collarbone,”
Sophie explained, digging a spoon into her tart with her free hand.
“The sling is so I don’t put any excess pressure on it while it
heals. They couldn’t really do anything more than that for
me.”

“
How did you break it?”
Tyler asked. Sophie’s eyebrows raised, looking up at him with her
big blue eyes, a spoon still in her mouth. Flustered, Tyler let out
a nervous laugh. “From, I don’t know, snowboarding or something?
You don’t have to tell me. If you don’t want to. I’m being
nosy.”

Sophie replaced the spoon quietly onto her
plate. She tilted her head slightly, examining Tyler with a
peculiar curiosity. Tyler suddenly felt awkward, not knowing what
he had triggered when everything was smooth-sailing just moments
before.

“
I broke it…” Sophie
began. “At your concert.”

“
Aha!” Tyler exclaimed,
pointing at her. “I knew it!” He had jumped from his stool in
excitement, though he quickly regretted the action. There was no
doubt he looked ridiculous in that moment. To his relief, Sophie
laughed.

“
I didn’t realize it was
some big mystery,” Sophie smiled. She shook her head, staring at
Tyler. “I’m sorry, I’m confused – this whole time… you were just
trying to figure out if I got hurt at your concert?”

“
Why didn’t you say
something?” Tyler asked. He thought about what Mike had said – that
it would have been kind of creepy that Sophie hadn’t mentioned that
she had been at Tyler’s concert.
Was it
creepy?
He couldn’t answer the
question.

“
What was there to say?”
Sophie had started eating her apple tart again, watching Tyler pace
about the restaurant with a curious eye. “I’m not going to be like,
‘Hey Tyler, check out this dope sling, I got it as a souvenir from
your concert.’”

“
But, I mean, you didn’t
even say like… I mean…” Tyler shook his head. What he wanted to say
was that a fan, a person who would have gotten her hands on tickets
to that special event concert, was probably a
big
enough fan to acknowledge his
presence outside of the arena. But he stopped himself. Because he
wasn’t so sure he wanted to say something that made him sound so
big-headed, self-centered,
stupid
.

“
I would have asked your
name if I didn’t know it already,” Sophie smiled. “And if you’re
trying to ask me why I didn’t fuss over you last night while I was
serving you, it’s because, like I said, you guys looked like you
were having some sort of reunion and I didn’t want to interrupt
with something as unnecessary as saying, ‘oh my God, you’re Tyler
Chase!’ Because, well,
you know
you’re Tyler Chase. So why remind you?” Tyler
stared at her, leaning casually on the counter with her head
propped up on her hand. Even in her sling, she was a stark contrast
from the other fans he had just visited the day before.

“
You’re kind of weird,”
Tyler blurted out, before he could stop himself. He had done
thousands of meet-and-greets over the years and even run into fans
in restaurants who were fellow patrons or even servers. Some of
them were even celebrities, themselves. Not a single one of
them,
ever
,
reacted the way that Sophie did. Therefore, Sophie was
definitely
weird.

“
Can’t argue that,” she
shrugged, patting the stool beside her and signaling towards
Tyler’s untouched apple tart. Tyler smiled, shaking his head and
returning to his seat.

“
So,” he began, cutting
into his tart with his spoon. “Are you like a… fan… of my music?”
Tyler cringed. There was no way to ask that question without
sounding like an absolute stereotype of “being famous.”

“
I am,” Sophie nodded, a
small smile on her pink lips. She lowered her gaze, her long blonde
lashes cloaking her sparkling eyes. He had expected some sort of
ribbing, perhaps because of his own self-consciousness over the
question or just being on guard since seeing Rufus and Moss again.
Her simple answer to his question made his heart jump.

“
Okay,” he laughed,
knowing it was a strange way to reply to her professed fandom. “I’m
just gonna be honest and say I’m not used to my fans being so…
chill.” She furrowed her brows in mild confusion before laughing
with him. Sophie put her spoon down on her empty plate, putting a
hand to her stomach.

“
Oof, I’m shameless,”
Sophie said. “I finished before you even started. Why aren’t you
eating? Do you want something else, maybe?”

“
No, this is fine,” Tyler
picked up his spoon with a perfect bite of tart and ice cream
sitting on it. “I was just too busy playing unnecessary detective
to get to it.” Sophie laughed, heartily. The motion made the rays
of sunshine dance across her hair, her eyes, her shamelessly toothy
smile. Tyler put the spoon in his mouth, his eyes still on
her.

As soon as it hit his tongue, he felt the
warm, buttery pastry dough meld with the caramelized apples. Small
crystals of sugar burst over his taste buds before disappearing
into the creaminess of the vanilla ice cream. It had looked so
simple to put together, that he hadn’t expected the remarkable
sensation he was now feeling over what was essentially four or five
ingredients.

“
What do you think?”
Sophie asked, shyly. Tyler tried not to crumple in his chair,
overwhelmed by the delectable pastry that had been specially made
for him by an equally delectable girl.

“
It’s
really
good,” Tyler managed to say,
even though what he really wanted to say was that in that second,
he was happier than he had been in as long as he could
remember.

Suddenly, his phone rang,
shaking him from his moment. He sighed, trying not to sound too
disappointed as he reached for the phone.
Mike.

“
Hey man,” Tyler
answered.

“
Where are you?” Mike
sounded confused. Tyler could hear the sound of some sort of video
game in the background.

“
I, uh,” Tyler looked up
at Sophie. “I was running errands.”

“
Errands?” Mike laughed.
“What errands? When have you run your own errands ever? Seriously.
Where are you? Why would you just bounce without saying anything? I
am
trained
to
immediately assume you’ve been kidnapped or some shit if you pull
that kind of thing, you know? And you took the car! We’re supposed
to be heading to the city in an hour.”

“
I’ll be back soon,” Tyler
replied. “Or now. I’ll come back now.” He hopped off the stool,
hanging up and replacing the phone in his back pocket before
pulling out a couple tens. He folded them in half, awkwardly
slipping it under his barely touched plate. Sophie squinted at him,
stepping off the stool and standing beside him.

“
You’re
leaving?”

“
Yeah, sorry,” Tyler said.
“But thank you for the food. It was incredible. And sorry. For your
collarbone, the cancelled concert, pissing off your grandpa last
night – all that – so sorry.”

He ran out the door before she could say
anything in reply.

~

It was almost a six-hour
drive from their cabin in Vermont to Tyler’s
pied-à-terre
in Manhattan. Mike had
called up some of their old friends in the city to get an impromptu
party going and ready upon their arrival. Tyler hated the idea, but
he kept his mouth shut once again, appreciating Mike’s effort to
create a convivial environment for them wherever they
went.