Small Town Girl

Chapter 3: Getting to Know You

Last Chapter Re-cap:

"My name is Hazel." I stated surprising myself. I was never one to be so forward. But I'd already had two glasses of wine and was now on my second Malibu and Cranberry juice. I decided I was done with being the meek Hazel that could never speak for herself. As Ashlynn reminded me earlier today, I was a woman. I'm not a girl anymore. It was time to start living my life for me and enjoying it while I was still young.

"Julian." He replied. He turned back to the bar for a brief moment. "Anna, can I get a couple vodka shots down here for my friend and I?" He turned back to me after Anna placed the shots in front of us. "I think tonight... We could both use this..." He slid two of the four shots to me.

"To new friends." He toasted raising his first shot to me, I replied raising my glass to his before throwing back the shot.

"Wow... That was strong..." I gasped in surprise at the burn before smiling at Julian and grabbing the next. He chuckled in response and grabbed his second shot as well. We threw the shots back at the same time.

*/*/*/*/*/*/

Julian and I spent the evening watching the Red Sox game, drinking, and talking about everything and nothing. There was no pressure or expectations as we got to know more about one another. We even exchanged cell phone numbers to keep in touch.

Even though the game had ended about 45 minutes ago, and the bar had cleared out the majority of its patrons. Julian and I continued to chat over beers and burgers. I could only eat about half my burger they were so large, and Julian had no problems finishing the other half when I offered it to him. Then Julian thought it'd be fun to shoot as many questions at each other as we could before the bar closed and kicked us out.

"What's your favorite color?" He asked before taking a sip of his beer.

"Aqua... What's yours?" I answered and then returned the question, while grabbing one of our shared fries and dipping it in ketchup.

"Blue... Especially United Nations Blue..." He responded.

"Ok." I chuckled in questioning tone.

"Next question... What's your favorite food?" I grabbed a couple fries together and munched them.

"Hmm... I'd have to say pizza, but not the frozen kind! Like real pizzeria pizza... And you? What's your favorite food? I'm going to guess burgers..." I lifted an eyebrow and gave him one of my big smiles.

"You'd be right then..." He laughed in response. "Although I also really like authentic Mexican food. Where'd you come from? With that accent I heard earlier I know you're not from Boston." He lifted an eyebrow in question.

"I come from a small town in Virginia... I moved here for college and now I'm here working... I moved here almost 5 years ago... Are you native to the Boston area?"

"No, I'm from California... I came out here for work... I moved here in 2009..." He answered with a shrug. "So what do you do for work?"

"I work as a Project Manager at the Children's Hospital."

"Umm... Wow... Ok that's pretty cool... So you must like kids then?" He asked surprised. I guess it wasn't the answer he was expecting.

"I do... There's something special about children and their outlook on life... Everything seems to be a miracle for them... And I just feel like as adults... We seems to lose a lot of that... I believe if every now and then we reflect on our inner child... Then we can keep a little bit of that magic and hopefulness within us..." I bit the edge of my lip and smiled. "Wow... I did not think I had enough mental clarity left tonight to be able to say that and it make sense... At least I think it made sense..." I giggled. Julian smiled at me.