i know i got a boner

‘I used to live ‘round these parts, not too far from here.’ That’s why he was standing, staring at Tim’s building. 

‘Those travel-size board games fallen outta fashion? I’m not surprised. Playin’ Connect Four on an airplane, hit turbulence and your chips’d all disappear, end up halfway down to the cockpit.’ Another circle, next to the first. Raylan’s hat is low over his eyes, avoiding the last beams of light.

It would be a picture-postcard sunset if not for the wreckage still burning where it’s partly buried, not far off. They’re at least out of the way of the smell.

‘If this is how you wanna occupy your time, Tim, I’d come up with a game that lasts longer than a couple seconds. Dig around, find a Monopoly board.’ Sitting, he digs his thumb into the sand and leaves a circle in the corner of the grid.

It’s not the perfect time to satisfy her mild curiosity, but it’ll do. They’re the only ones in the veteran’s club in the daytime so she can speak at full volume. 

‘Do you own a gun, or do you have to hand in your rifle at the end of the day? I’m prepared to be surprised, Tim.’ She’s not surprised he’s a lawman now, even if she wouldn’t have guessed he’d be a Marshal of all things. 

Willard probably needs a sign for his cubicle saying I just work here, if only he were allowed decorations. There’s been an awful lot of people hovering over his shoulder, lately.

‘I’m no lawyer. Couldn’t tell you.’

Their wrists are out with did-they-goddamn-rehearse-this grace and speed. “Oh no Marshal, what’re you gonna do? Put me in handcuffs?”

Tim ‘Five Seven’ Gutterson isn’t rising to anything. “Wow! That’s a world of difference – I take it back. You are tall and it’s not weird at all.”

   “God, is it such a sin to like you just as you are? Which happens to be your default, 5′7 state of being?”

     He’s not gonna say anything. He won’t rise to it.

   “Yes.”

   “Disturbingly so.”

     “Hey, Ken.”

‘What’s that?’ Meaning the drink, Raylan points at it as he sits down to Tim and accidentally swipes his finger through the cream bobbing in the soda. ‘Oops.’

He’s definitely happy with his own ice cream and the situation at large, so he’s a little puzzled by Tim’s apparent general malaise.  

‘You seem awful tired.’

Raylan appreciates the existence of complex flavours, he just doesn’t want to try them right now and he doesn’t want to be pressured into adding things to his vanilla shake if he orders a vanilla shake. He doesn’t know what cocoa nibs are, but he’ll chance a shake and a slice of pie as that appears to be some kind of bonus.

The day is bright and warm. He takes his order to the seats out front and stands beside the table to take his jacket off, watching the ice cream on his pie as it melts.

     Tim heads over to Raylan’s table with a purple cow float and a chicken burger, lowering himself wearily into the seat and letting out a long sigh. There’s some grape juice on his index finger and he sticks it in his mouth to lick it off before it gets sticky.

   “My mum told me I was handsome. Those women’ll say anything.” Tentatively, shyly, his stream takes up again. “Anything to say about the cock-shaped elephant in the room?”