His accusation irritated me; I didn’t like being called a liar but I remained amicable nonetheless. I got up from my seat and walked over to where he stood by the pool table. I stopped two feet in front of him and looked him directly in the eyes, making sure to hold his gaze before I spoke.

“I honestly have not seen your movie nor have I read the books. You can see in my eyes that I’m not lying. I don’t know what else to say to make you believe me.”

Ryan stood perfectly still, looking dumbfounded. After a few seconds I broke our eye contact and walked over to the table where I had set the pitcher of beer. I filled my glass and looked to see where his glass was. Might as well give him a refill, too. I stepped towards him to top off his drink.

“What?” I asked carefully. He looked like he was in a trance. “Did I… say something wrong? I’m, I’m sorry I haven’t seen your movie. I hope that didn’t offend you.”

“No! That’s…perfectly okay,” he said, a hint of a smile touched his face. I watched as he just about swallowed his entire glass of beer.

“So besides kicking butt on the pool table, what else do you like to do?” he asked after I officially won our second game.

“Lots of things,” I quickly replied. I didn’t know what to tell him. I was too busy wondering why he was still here hanging out with me. Surely he had more important things to do.

“Like?” he prodded.

“Well, I like anything that involves water…swimming, boating, things like that. During the summer, some of the local businesses here in Seaport have a softball league. Sometimes we play volleyball down at the beach. But, unfortunately since I took over running the pub, I don’t have as much free time as I used to.” I shrugged. “I work a lot.”

While I was busy talking, Ryan set up the table for game number three. I noticed that his demeanor changed slightly. He was more at ease...

relaxed… calm. It was like a blanket of tension was removed from his shoulders.

I was getting set to break at the table when he interrupted me.

“Quick, without thinking, what’s your favorite movie of all time?”

I stood up a little too fast. The motion along with several glasses of beer and shots of whiskey affected my equilibrium.

“Um, um,” I stammered while trying to figure out what my favorite movie of all time was. “I don’t know if I have one particular favorite. I have a few but it’s hard to pick.”

“Okay, well… what made the list?”

I sucked in a sharp breath between my teeth. “Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Galaxy Quest, anything from Pixar…” I rambled.

“I see. You like outlandish humor.” He chuckled. He rattled off a bunch of funny lines from the Monty Python movie. It was obvious that he had seen the movie as many times as I did.

“Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!” we said in unison, both of us adding the French inflection to the movie line. It made me laugh out loud.

It was my turn to shoot again, and just as I was ready to make my shot, Ryan yelled another funny line from the movie. I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Stop it!” I pleaded, wiping my eyes.

I tried to make my shot again when Ryan came up right next to me and said a line from a funny scene in Galaxy Quest.

“Is there air? You don’t know.” He sniffed the air. “Seems okay.”

I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. “Stop!” I gasped.

I reached to give him a teasing nudge with my fingers. Ryan caught me by the wrist and gently pulled me in, folding my arm with his, until my hand was pressed against his shoulder.

“Okay, ok, ok,” he said, cracking up laughing again.

I could feel the warmth of his chest on my fingertips. Even though we were bent into each other, laughing hysterically, my mind started reeling just from this innocent touch. I could not allow myself to have those thoughts about him so I quickly pulled my hand away.

He continued making funny voices and quoting my favorite movies. I was laughing so hard that I lost the third game. I couldn’t focus with the tears of laughter in my eyes.

“You cheat!” I scolded him.

“Who, me?”

“Yeah you, Mr. Innocent!”

I was getting ready to take my next shot when he stood behind me. I looked over my shoulder; he made me nervous standing back there.

“What?” he asked with a grin, like he wasn’t up to no-good.

I looked back at the table and tried to hit the ball when he grabbed the end of my pool stick.

“You suck!” I teased him after barely hitting the cue ball.

“No, you suck. You missed the shot,” he fired back at me.

I tried to crack him with the end of my pool stick but he quickly sprinted away, laughing.

Ryan leaned down to take his shot; he was just about to hit the cue ball when I faked a loud cough.

“Huh, um, you suck.”

He miss-cued and didn’t even hit another ball. The cue ball slowly rolled into the cushion. That’s when he chased me around the table.

“That’s it – you asked for it! Hey, where are you going? Like you could get away from me!”

I made two laps around the table, laughing and smiling all the way.

Eight games of pool and a pitcher of beer later, we were tied – four games a piece. We were having a really, really good time. The whole time we played, his charm never faltered. Even though we teased each other, he still complimented me when I made good shots, he encouraged me with kind words when I had a difficult shot to make, and he smiled at me incessantly.

We carried on just like two long-time friends. He made me laugh a lot. Being around him was surprisingly easy. That whole celebrity person a slipped away and he was just - Ryan - a genuinely nice guy.

“All right, this one’s the tie-breaker. Winner gets all the bragging rights,” he said, playfully tapping me on my rear with the end of his pool stick.

His face took a serious expression as he lined up for his next shot.

“Can I ask you a question, Taryn?”

“Yeah sure, what?” I was curious about what he wanted to know.

“Well I was sort of wondering if you’re married or seeing someone. I don’t know if I could handle having a jealous guy attack me today, too,” he admitted.

“Um, no. I’ve never been married. And, you don’t have to worry - there’s no jealous boyfriend either,” I answered quickly, trying to be lighthearted and reassuring about it.