Page 45 of Second Chance Trouble

Yeah, he had kissed me. But what did that mean? It wasn’t like he was into me, right? And even if, by some miracle, he was into me, I couldn’t let my mind go there. I couldn’t handle being wrong about that too.

“It’s Florida. You’ve heard of the Florida Man, right?”

Claude swept his hand in front of him like a newspaper headline.

“You mean like, ‘Florida man robs gas station with alligator’?”

“Right.”

“Or, ‘Florida man throws alligator through Wendy’s drive-thru window’?”

“Yeah.”

“Or, ‘Florida man gets eaten alive while attempting to rob a gas station at a Wendy’s drive-thru with an alligator’?”

“You’re familiar with it,” I confirmed. “Now imagine those people wearing their shirt while they do those things, and that’s Pensacola.”

“Got it. And I assume they’re also not a fan of black people.”

“Oh, that part’s a given,” I said, attempting to be funny.

“Got it,” Claude said, not finding it as humorous as I had hoped.

“Honestly, I don’t know how they treat black people there. It’s probably as bad as anywhere else. There are good and bad people everywhere, right?”

“Yeah. That’s what I figured,” Claude said, withdrawing a little.

I looked out the plane’s window trying to recover from being an insensitive prick.

“How bad was it being black in Oregon?” I asked, turning back to him.

Claude thought about it.

“It could have been worse. It helps that we were in a university town. But I try not to look for the things I don’t want to see.”

“So, things were cool there?”

“I mean, I did get a few people asking to touch my hair.”

“Seriously?” I asked, cringing.

“There were a few.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said, apologizing for all white people everywhere.

“Listen, if that was the worst thing that happened to me while I was there, I would have been fine with it,” he said with a sarcastic smile.

“What was the worst thing?” I asked, nervously.

He just stared at me.

“Fuck!” I said, realizing that what I had said had been it. “I’m so sorry, man.”

“I get it.”

“It’s just that, in all of the time I knew you, I really wanted to touch your hair. I didn’t know how to ask…” I shrugged longingly.

Claude looked at me for a moment and then burst into laughter.