Baby Doll Ch. 09

"I ended up shoving Rebecca. Can you believe that? I shoved my little Baby Doll right into a corner, and then I yelled at her." He folded up the squeezed rinds into his napkin and set it aside. His fingers smelled like a cleaning solution when he was done. Eric wiped his fingers clean, but he still smelled strongly of that sharp juice.

"I think I might have bruised her, Poor Baby." He was stirring his tea around with his straw.

Cliff decided that the absolutely best thing to do was to pretend that he believed every word Eric told him. "Shit Man, I thought you beat the hell out of her." He nodded and smiled. "Well, I'm glad you didn't."

Eric slid his glass of tea aside and put his fingers on the edge of the table. He seemed excited. "She must have shown you some of her favorite hobbies. Have you played any video games with her yet?"

Cliff shook his head. "No, but she's talked about that kind of stuff. I found out that horror games are a thing."

"Tell me she showed you Sailor Moon." His eyes were too damn sparkly and happy.

Looking away, gently tapping at his glass with a fingernail, Cliff admitted, "She showed me about ten minutes of it and then she laughed. Then we watched Attack on Titan."

"I won't say anything about that one," Eric said. He tapped the table with his hand. "I might spoil it for you. I will say that Rebecca was uncomfortable with the series at first. The concept of a giant monster terrifies her. She loves tall people, though, especially men." Eric winked at him.

Oh, that's right. Cliff and Eric were the around the same height.

Cliff smelled that musky aroma again. He hoped it wouldn't ruin the meal.

When their food arrived it was as well prepared as it should have been. Cliff didn't have any complaints about that. The steak even distracted his nose for a few minutes.

"Does your steak taste nice?" That was Eric's chipper voice.

"Yep."

"Did you just say yep? That's adorable."

"Well, uh, whatever, Man." Cliff concentrated on sawing off part of his steak. Even Michael was admitting that it smelled and tasted good.

"What do you do in your spare time, Mr. Miller?"

Cliff took a bite of his steak and used it as an excuse to be quiet for a moment. He took a sip of his cold tea as he swallowed. "I like walking and jogging."

"You seem to visit a gym a lot."

"There aren't any fancy gyms around here. My grandparents just keep a workout room in their house for anyone in the family to use." Cliff didn't want to talk about his family too much, but he didn't want to give any information to the man that seemed inconsistent. "Do you like movies?"

"Depends on the movie," Eric replied after taking a swig of his beverage. "Do you have any other interests?"

"I like reality shows about animals, especially the ones about vet clinics. I'm thinking of getting a new pet soon. Do you like animals?"

"Not generally, but I have a soft spot for anything cute and small."

Cliff was really getting tired of this stupid conversation. He'd rather have a stupid conversation with Rebecca. At least she was funny. "I once dated a little person." He couldn't think of anything else to say.

Eric's infamous creepy grin returned. "Was she nice?"

"I thought so, but she cheated on me with some illegal guy. She couldn't even pick a citizen!"

"You're not the type to share, are you?"

Cliff put out a troubled laugh and wiped his face with his palm. "I don't know, Man, but she was accusing me of cheating the whole time. When I found out about Nacho Libre," and here Eric snorted at Cliff's ridiculous insult, "I kicked her out of my house. I hope her boyfriend got deported. I ain't got a problem with Mexicans, but I had a problem with that guy. I found out he was using someone else's security number. And my girl was seeing that guy?" Cliff shook his head. "Oh no. The least she could do is pick someone who's worth it."

The rest of the meal was like that, full of nonsense chatting, and after Eric paid for the food, Cliff gave him a thank you that he hoped sounded sincere.

Abruptly, Eric said to him, "I hope you'd be kind enough to meet me at that little ice cream shop near the baseball field. What's it called?"

"Andy's," Cliff said, nodding.

"Yes, Andy's. Tomorrow at five-thirty. Would that be fine?"

Cliff offered him a goofy smile and put his hands back into his pockets. "Sure."

***