“You okay?” the guy with the phone light asks when I don’t move. “I promise I’m not making a pass at you. You’re too old for me.”
I shoot him a look, forgetting about Jay and the girl for a moment. Too old for him? What? I take in his more than six feet of height, the outline of muscles visible through his T-shirt, and his corded right forearm with a full sleeve of tattoos disappearing up his shirt. I’ve seen plenty of guys in the bar, and he doesn’t look like any nineteen year old I’ve ever seen. He’s got to be at least what? Thirty?
He snorts. “I’m kidding,” he says, his mouth spreading in a wide smile that makes my face fall a little. “If you don’t want to watch the movie alone, you’re welcome to sit. That’s all I meant.”
I dart my gaze to Jay and whomever he’s with, but then a group of guys suddenly push through the double doors, making a lot of noise as they enter the theater. I see Jay look away from the girl and toward the commotion, and I drop down in the seat next to the guy on instinct, not wanting Jay to see me.
“Thanks,” I tell the guy next to me.
I feel my ex’s presence in the theater, and the old memories surface, reminding me of how helpless I let him make me feel at one time. I just want one night where I’m not thinking about everything.
I sit back and try to relax, but then I peer out of the corner of my eye, the close proximity of a guy I don’t know sitting next to me suddenly like a blazing bonfire and impossible to ignore.
I turn my head, eyeing him with apprehension. “You’re not a serial killer, are you?”
He pinches his eyebrows and looks at me. “Are you?”
“They’re usually anti-social, Caucasian men.”
Good-looking male here all alone? Hmmm…
He arches a sharp brow. “And they look just like everyone else,” he adds, suspicion in his voice as he looks me up and down.
The light from the ads on the screen play in his eyes, neither of us flinch, but I can’t take it anymore. I break into a quiet chuckle.
I finally hold out my hand to him. “I’m Jordan. Sorry about the wine.”
“Jordan?” he repeats, taking my hand and shaking it. “Unusual name for a girl.”
“No, not really.” I relax into the seat and fold my arms over my chest, lifting my knees and planting my shoes into the crevice between the two empty seats ahead of me. “It was the name of Tom Cruise’s love interest in Cocktail, remember?”
His eyebrows raise in question.
“Cocktail?” I repeat. “1988 movie about flair bartending?”
“Oh, right.” But he has this unsure look in his eyes, and I’m not sure he knows what the hell I’m talking about.
“Do you like 80’s movies?” I ask, gesturing to the film that we’re about to watch on the screen.
“I like scary movies,” he clarifies and holds the popcorn over to me. “This one’s a classic. You?”
“I love the 80s.” I take a small handful and put a piece in my mouth. “My boyfriend hates my taste in movies and music, but I can’t resist. I’m here whenever they show something from the decade.”
I feel awkward slipping in a random mention of a boyfriend, but I don’t want to give the wrong impression here. I quickly glance down at his left hand, thankfully not seeing a wedding ring. It would be wrong to sit here with a married guy.
But he just looks at me knowingly. “Breakfast Club is your favorite, right?” he says. “And every other John Hughes creation?”
“You have something against The Breakfast Club?”
“Not the first ten times I saw it, no.”
A smile pulls at my lips. It is on TV a lot, I guess.
He leans in. “The 80s was the age of the action hero,” he points out, his deep voice close and hushed. “People forget that. Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, The Terminator, Rambo…”
“Jean-Claude Van Damme,” I add.
“Exactly.”
I bite the corner of my mouth, so I don’t laugh, but my stomach shakes anyway, and I let out a snort.
He frowns. “What are you laughing at?”
“Nothing,” I reply quickly, nodding. “Van Damme. Great actor. Very relevant films.”
I can’t keep the laughter off my face, though, and he furrows his brow knowing I’m full of shit.
Just then I hear a giggle somewhere behind me, and I turn my head over my shoulder, seeing Jay turned away from the screen and leaning into the girl, both of them full-on making out now.