Sleepless in San Francisco by Ryan Field Read Free Book Online Page B

and said, “I love a good tapas bar. I go to one in New York all the time with my boyfriend, Mike.” This was the first time he’d mentioned he had a boyfriend. It was
     
the first time he’d mentioned anything about his personal life.
     
Ed’s eyebrows went up and his arms went down. He shoved his hands into his
     
pockets and squared his shoulders. “I’ll just go upstairs and clean up. Noah, you feed
     
Tucker and walk him before we drop him off at the guest house.” He didn’t seem the
     
least bit curious about the fact that Jonathan had a boyfriend.
     
“Can I go like this?” Jonathan asked. “Or should I change first?”
     
Ed looked him up and down fast. “Don’t be ridiculous. You look fine. This place
     
is very casual. I’m the one covered in sawdust.” Then he left the kitchen and upstairs to
     
his bedroom.
     
Forty-five minutes later, Ed came downstairs wearing a clean white polo shirt, tan
     
slacks, and brown shoes. There was a rust suede jacket over his arm. His dark blond hair
     
was still damp and he smelled like shaving cream. This was the first time Jonathan had
     
seen him wear something other than jeans and sneakers. He wanted to tell him he looked
     
really good, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “I think I should follow you guys in my own
     
car.”
     
Noah opened the front door and said, “You’d better come with us. Parking is hard
     
there. My Dad can drop you off here later for your car.” Then he hooked the leash to
     
Tucker’s collar and skipped out the door.
     
Jonathan waited to hear what Ed had to say about this, but Ed was busy looking
     
for his car keys on a table in the hallway and he wasn’t paying attention. So he put on his
     
black leather jacket and followed Noah out to the car. Even though November was one of the best weather months of the year in San
     
Francisco, there was a chilly breeze that night. Jonathan was glad he’d worn a jacket
     
because they had to walk a few blocks to the restaurant. The restaurant was crowded and
     
small, but the food was excellent.
     
He loved Ed’s best friend, Lisa. The minute she opened her mouth to speak and
     
he heard her New York accent, a calm, familiar feeling settled over him. She was smart,
     
beautiful, and had a sense of style that made her stand out in San Francisco. In the midst
     
of so many women wearing baggy dresses down to their ankles and chunky Birkenstocks
     
on their feet, she wore a black leather miniskirt and pointy stilettos. And she didn’t seem
     
to care about fitting in with the others. Her blond hair was simple: long and straight and
     
parted dead center. And you had to look closely to even guess she was in her mid-thirties.
     
When a woman in a baggy calico dress and gray hair down to her shoulders at the
     
table next to them asked if the food was organic, Lisa rolled her eyes and gave Ed a look.
     
Then she whispered across the table, mocking the woman to Ed, “No, it’s not organic,
     
you dumb and pretentious bitch…it’s made out of plastic.” They were sitting at a table
     
for four, with Noah and Lisa on one side and Ed and Jonathan on the other. Lisa was
     
directly across from Jonathan.
     
Noah laughed and Jonathan’s eyebrows went up. Ed smiled and said, “You have
     
to forgive Lisa. She goes into shock when she’s out here. The woman sitting next to us is
     
her worst nightmare: a classic, laid-back, San Francisco left-wing liberal who was most
     
likely a hippie back in the sixties.”
     
“Don’t you like organic food?” Jonathan asked. What did he know? He’d never
     
really thought much about it. There was a nice little grocery store in his neighborhood back in New York that had recently started carrying organic chicken. He’d tried some,
     
but couldn’t tell the difference.
     
Lisa smiled and smoothed out the napkin on her lap. Then she looked at the
     
woman next to her and rolled her eyes again. “It’s not