"So you already ran into each other today?" Ben asked with a smile, apparently unaware of the tension between them. "Small world, right?" He gulped down some beer and pulled a face. "Yuck. It's too warm."
"Order a new one," Josh suggested. "And while you're at it, order me an apple juice."
"Fine with me. I forgot my wallet. Hannah's buying tonight."
"Am I?" Hannah raised her eyebrows. "You think I'll be more generous now that Josh is sitting with us?"
"I'm counting on it," Ben replied with a smug face. "Josh, what would you like to eat?"
"I could do with some grilled trout."
Hannah nodded. "Great, that's what we were having anyway. I'll go tell them to put some extra trout on the grill."
"I can go," Ben offered.
"Nah, I'll go. I have to go to the restroom anyway."
Plus she didn't want to be stuck on her own with Josh all of a sudden. She got up and made her way through the crowd seated at the small wooden tables on the deck. After going into the restaurant and changing their order with the first waiter she spotted, she went to the ladies' room to give herself a good talking-to in the mirror over the sinks.
"Hannah Darson," she told herself sternly, while trying to untangle her messy hair. "You're going to act normally around Josh. You've known him since he was shitting his diapers. You taught him how to color inside the lines. You helped him build sandcastles on the beach. This will end right here."
She closed her eyes, remembering how Josh had stepped onto the deck and approached their table - his swimming trunks just a little bit too low-slung on his hips, his shoulders just a little bit too broad for a seventeen-year-old, the muscles in his arms just a little bit too taut to take her eyes off them, and the look in his eyes just a bit too wise for his age.
No. This would not be so easy.
When Hannah came back, a new beer for Ben and a glass of juice for Josh had just arrived. Ben was lighting a cigarette.
"Nasty habit," Josh remarked.
"Isn't tobacco a holy plant in your culture?" Ben threw back, taking a drag.
Josh grinned. "Still." He eyed Hannah as she sat down again.
"Don't ask me to back you up," she said. "I only quit myself a few months ago."