Part: Two

Saturday morning came and Jimmy was standing out in front of his hotel at dawn as promised. He smiled as Victor's familiar green SUV pulled up to the curb. The man sitting in the front passenger seat was introduced as Bob Finn, Graham's partner.

Finn was Graham's opposite in nearly every way. Clearly of Irish descent with bright blue eyes behind a bookish pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a thick shock of dark hair, he had the build of a lean welterweight at best. 

Bob extended a soft pale hand in greeting as Jim climbed into the back seat.

"Wow. Look at those muscles," Finn grinned appreciatively. "Been in construction long, Jimmy?"

"Jim just got into town recently." Graham flashed his coworker a bright white smile in the rearview mirror as they pulled into the light morning traffic.

"We brought you a latte." Bob smiled, handing a paper cup wrapped in a waffled cardboard sleeve back to Braddock. The now familiar round green and tan Starbuck's logo was stamped on both.

Jim sniffed at the little hole in the lid of the cup and the warm aroma of milky coffee and a hint of cinnamon beckoned. He took a cautious sip as the truck bumped over a pot hole then smiled and nodded his approval. "Thanks." He took another sip of the fortifying liquid then turned his own friendly smile to Finn. "How much do I owe you?"

"For what?"

"The coffee."

"Oh, please." Bob laughed and waved the question away, then his hand settled on Victor's flannel covered boulder-like shoulder. "Baby, you should have told me how adorable Jimmy is."

Braddock tried to stifle a cough as he choked on his coffee. 

"Behave yourself, Bob." Victor laughed his booming laugh and flashed his coworker a wink over a grin in the mirror. "Don't mind him, Jimmy. He's always frisky in the morning."

Jim nodded politely and tried not to stare at Finn as the man stroked the side of Victor's neck. 

The drive to the job site took nearly an hour. During that time Jim learned that Bob was a lawyer with a firm that handled Worker's Compensation claims. He and Victor had met when the foreman had brought a coworker with a claim to the firm where Finn worked.

Listening to the two men in the front seat banter back and forth, it quickly became clear to Jim that they shared a relationship very much like any marriage. Bob proudly told him that in February of the previous year, during a week when Mayor Gavin Newsom had attempted to legalize gay marriages in the city, the two had marched right down to the City Hall on St. Valentine's Day and had gotten married in the rotunda in a civil ceremony.

Despite the fact that the legalities of the union were still in question, as far as Graham and Finn were concerned, they were married. Finn laughed as he told Jim that they had been together for eight years, "and that's like twenty in the straight world!"

By the time they arrived in the Palo Alto neighborhood where the Habitat For Humanity vans were parked, Jim had gotten fairly used to the idea of the two men being a couple and was well on the way to considering them his first real friends in San Francisco. The world had changed a lot over the years and he was working like Hell to catch up. Besides, who was a man who woke up seven decades in the future to judge where another man found affection and companionship?

The organizers quickly assessed the volunteers and soon everyone had been put to work. Jim and Victor labored side by side with a small group doing the majority of the heavier work while Bob and most of the other workers saw to smaller projects alongside the family who would one day inhabit the home they were building - each according to their own ability, as Father Garcia would have said.

By quitting time, the outer shell of the house had been constructed, standing tall beside two adjacent empty lots where other houses were planned to go up over the next several months.

"Nice job, Jimmy." Bob clapped a friendly hand to the boxer's shoulder as they headed back to the van for the return trip to San Francisco. "Why don't you meet us for a beer later?"

Before Jim could reply, Victor was amending the offer. "Don't worry, Ryan. It'll be somewhere with girls." He shot his coworker a knowing wink.

"Girls who like boys," Bob promised with a chuckle.

Jim grinned and shrugged as he took in their triumphant, smiling faces. It had been a good day of hard work for a worthy cause. What harm could come of stepping out of his routine and having a cold one with his new friends? "Sure," he nodded finally. "Why not?"

Having figured out the MUNI schedule soon after arriving in town, it wasn't hard for Braddock to find O'Shea's Grog In The Fog, and he showed up at the bar down near Ghiradelli Square and the Maritime Museum shortly after 9pm, as promised.

The pub - known simply as O'Shea's to the regulars - was typically packed on a Saturday night. If you could have added a thick cloud of cigarette smoke, it would have been like any of the many Irish-American bars Jim had grown up in and around. Having spent a decent amount of time pouring drinks in gin joints when he couldn't get fights or find work on the docks, places like this were as familiar to him as the back of his hand.

O'Shea's played host to the usual assortment of hard working men and a fair number of women grabbing a cold pint after a week's work. It was the social hub of the neighborhood - a place to meet and greet your friends and feel like family.

Of course, the lack of smoke wasn't the only thing that had changed. There were more women in the bar than back in his day. Nice women, good girls. The kind that made you sit up and take notice as loneliness sank from a bitter taste in the back of your mouth to become a pang in the loins.

Victor's booming laugh was like a beacon in the crowd and it only took him a moment to find his  friends near the pool table and dart boards in the back of the room.

"Jimmy!" Bob waved him to a seat at the small round table that wobbled slightly under his slim form as he leaned over to greet the newcomer. "You found us."

"Rachel, we need another beer over here." Victor called to the waitress moving expertly through the maze of close tables as Jim settled into his seat.

"Allright, allright, keep your pants on, Vic," the woman chided him as she quickly wiped down a table that had just emptied and was already in demand.

Jim couldn't help smiling - the woman's patient Mother Hen smile and the Irish lilt in her voice brought back warm memories of his own mother, Elizabeth.

Two beers later and - despite his size - Jimmy was slightly looped. He was half listening as Graham explained "... because I'm black Irish!" then laughed heartily at his own joke.

Bob laughed too, but a shake of the head and slight roll of his eyes made it clear that this was one he'd heard before. Jim chuckled politely, but his current state of distraction was clear to the lawyer who followed his new friend's gaze to a woman at the bar.

"Cute," he nodded his approval as Jim sighed and reached for his beer. "She looks friendly enough, Jimmy. Why don't you go say Hello?"

"Oh, ah..." Jim's big hands picked absently at the coaster beneath his pint glass. "I couldn't, y'know, I'm ma-" He stopped himself mid-word with a frown.

Bob's brow creased over his cheerfully shining eyes. The music and conversations around them had drowned out a part of Jim's reply. "You're what?"

Braddock forced a tight smile as his memories of Mae battled with the sight of the girl at the bar. "I'm kinda a widower, Bob." He shrugged lamely - this was the best explanation he had to give at the moment.

"Ah. Gotcha." Finn nodded sympathetically. "How long?"

"What's this?" Victor caught the serious vibe and leaned forward to hear better.

"Jimmy's wife passed away," his mate explained. 

"Oh, man. Sorry. I didn't know." Concern for his new friend filled his big face. "Was it recent?"

"June."

"I understand." Bob smiled and patted Jim's arm. "I lost a partner about ten years ago." His expression and tone held the awareness of someone who had been there. "Take your time. You'll know when you're ready."

"Yeah. Okay." At that moment, Jim wanted to be anywhere but there. Anywhere at all except stranded in that moment in time, surrounded by sympathetic smiles and sick with the loss of Mae but with the need for companionship gnawing at his loneliness like a raw hunger.

"I should go." He pushed to his feet, stubbornly fending off their protests long enough to say goodnight and to also thank the men for their kindness all in one breath.

He made it back to the hotel and fell into bed, exhausted and lonely. 

When he dreamed that night, it wasn't Mae's face he saw. It was the girl from the bar, and Sunday morning he awoke with a need that made him feel guilty to even consider giving in to.

He washed quickly at the tiny sink in his room - the cold water battled back his desire for the moment - then pulled on shorts and a sweatshirt and lit out into the dawn.

Jim ran hard, fueling himself with the hope that taking on a few miles of demanding street work would allow him to outrun his need if not his confusion.

By Monday, Jim was back to his usual quiet self, but Victor had no intention of letting his new friend slide away - especially not when his need for companionship was so clear. Although Braddock slipped away to a nearby lunch counter during the midday break, the foreman managed to corner him later in the day and extend an invitation to come for dinner on weekend.

Throughout the rest of the week Victor fended off Jimmy's protests and excuses until he finally wore him down and got a confirmation for Friday evening.

With the work week over and no other plans in place to offer respite from the long stretch of weekend, Jim found himself actually welcoming the opportunity to get out for a while and was quietly pleased when his new friends fussed happily over the bottle wine he brought.

The night was clear and warm and the wine had him a bit fuzzy, so Jim decided to walk a few blocks before catching the series of buses that would take him back to the hotel.

He smelled the ocean before he saw it, and still he tried to tell himself that he was surprised when he looked up and found himself by the ferry terminal. Just about a half mile down the wharf and he'd be in the Cannery at O'Shea's.

"She won't be there," he silently told himself over and over as his feet turned him in the direction of the pub. "She won't be there and it'll be a sign and you can have a beer, go home, fall down and forget her."

Five minutes later, Jim was standing just inside the doorway to O'Shea's feeling the pounding of his heart as it hit his stomach on the heels of the realization that she was there! And if her not having been there was supposed to have been a sign, then wasn't it also maybe a sign that she was?

He nearly turned to leave as this fresh logic fought to take hold, but Rachel caught sight of him and waved him inside with a smile before he could make good on his escape.

The waitress pointed him to an empty table near the bar and came to greet him with a look that made it clear she remembered him from the week before. "Hullo again, handsome!" she leaned close enough for him to hear her over the jukebox and the crowd. "Vic and Bob's friend, right? Jackie, was it?"

"Jimmy," he corrected her with an easy smile.

"Right. Good to see you back, Jimmy." Rachel nodded a grin back and laid down a coaster before him. "Beer?"

"Yes, please." He thought for a moment, then ordered a pint of the local pale ale he'd enjoyed the week before.

As luck would have it, his table was in clear sight of the girl at the bar and as he sipped his pint, he was able to watch her without being too obvious about it.

From the easy way that she interacted with the people around her, Jim figured she was something of a regular at the pub. She was sitting with another woman and the two were animated and laughing as they drank. Her friend was the smaller of the two and blond where the girl he was interested in was curvy with auburn hair.

Both girls had eyes that were quick to light up with their laughter, curious enough to be keeping track of the men around them and keen with the sparks of intelligence. And while her fair-haired friend seemed to garner the lion's share of the attention of the men, to Jim there was no contest as to which was the more beautiful of the two.

Having wrestled with shyness his whole life, Jim found that even a second beer couldn't give him the courage it would have taken to approach her, and he left that night without even finding out her name.

When Bob and Victor invited him out for a beer the following weekend, Jim told himself that he was just going along to be polite. But the sound of his pulse pounding in his ears as they walked into O'Shea's, said otherwise.

He tried not to look at the bar as they entered, pretending to concentrate on negotiating the crowd as the trio searched for an empty table. Rachel spotted them and pointed to a table where a small group was in the process of leaving and the men headed in that direction.

As they took their seats a bar-back came over and quickly cleared the table. "Busy tonight," Bob commented with an easy smile.

"Yeah," Jim agreed with a nod and scanned the room, quickly looking away as he spied the girl at the bar.

"Hey, Ryan, your girlfriend's here," Victor noted with a wiggle of his brows.

"Don't tease him!" Finn swatted his partner's arm with an admonishing shake of the head, but a smile wanted to curl the edges of his lips as they pressed flat in a show of disapproval.

"It's okay," Braddock shrugged, trying not to blush.

"He means well," the lawyer smiled tolerantly as his partner winked and blew him an air kiss by way of a reply.

"Rachel looks slammed," Graham noted a moment later. "I'm goin' to the bar." He took their orders as he pushed to his feet then threaded the crowd with a grace that would have surprised many people given his size.

Whether it was by fate or by design Jim would never know, but he had to look away as Victor took a place at the bar right next to the auburn-haired girl.

"Hi," Vic nodded with a friendly smile as the girl noticed him at her elbow.

"Hey," the girl smiled back. She seemed about to say more, but waited patiently as the bartender took the man's order. "Can I ask you something?" she requested when his attention was free again.

"Sure." Victor nodded, turning to her as he waited for his order. 

"Your friend...?" She indicated his table with a subtle tilt of the head. "The guy with the black hair?"

"Yeah?"

"Is that Russell Crowe?"

The big man's laughter boomed out before he managed to stifle it. "No," he chuckled, shaking his head. "That's my friend Jim Ryan. We work construction together."

"Ah," the girl nodded with a smile. 

"Not bad to look at, though, is he?" Victor pushed the conversation a step further.

She took a half turn on her stool and her smile blossomed again as she looked at Jim. "He's pretty cute," she agreed.

The big man smiled and nodded to himself as he collected his change and laid out a tip. 

"He thinks you're cute, too, but you can't tell him I told you."

"Really?" the girl laughed, obviously pleased at this. She took a sip of her drink and seemed to think things over a moment before angling on her stool and offering a handshake. "I'm Sarah."

"Hi, Sarah. I'm Victor." His large hand engulfed hers.

"Victor, would you like a hand carrying those beers?" 

A grin passed between the two and the seeds of friendship were firmly planted in that moment.

"Sarah, I thought you'd never ask." He picked up the two pints and nodded to the fresh Corona bottle left on the bar beside her glass. "Don't forget your beer."

She chuckled and grabbed both, following Victor back to the men's table.

"Hey, guys, this is Sarah." 

Jimmy looked up and his heart skipped a beat as he found himself meeting eyes with the girl over her friendly smile. "She helped me carry the beer," Vic explained.

Jim jumped up to find her a chair as Victor made the introductions, hoping that being in motion would help to combat his bashful nerves and prevent them from turning into mortification at what his friend had engineered.

"...and that's our friend Jimmy Ryan," Graham concluded.

"Nice to meet you, Jimmy." Sarah smiled as she took the chair he offered and slid it into place between his and Bob's seats. She eyed him curiously as she sat down, looking away again a moment before she would have seemed to be staring at him. "Victor says you two work together."

"Yeah. Construction." He nodded, grateful that the pint of ale gave him something to do with his big hands. He took a sip, then managed to ask, "How about you?"

"How about me, what?" Her smile was open, friendly and still curious. There was nothing mocking in her question.

"What's your line?"

"Oh, I'm a nurse in the ER at UCSF."

"Oh."

"Betcha we have some clients in common then," Bob cut in, trying to let Jim off the hook some. "I'm a lawyer. Worker's Comp."

The two chatted about injuries for a moment and Jim had the chance to steal his first real good look at Sarah. 

Up close she was even cuter than he'd thought before. She was both feminine and strong with soft curves that he found entirely appealing and made him want to put his arms around her. Auburn hair cascaded in soft waves around her face and shoulders, offsetting large bright brown eyes that shone with both intelligence and good humor. Clearly this was a woman who had seen a lot in her twenty-something years, but a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and cheeks made her appear girlish. Her full lips seemed eager to curl into a smile, which they did as she turned back to him.

"So, Jim, what kind of accent is that I'm hearing?" She asked. "New York?"

"You found me out," he chuckled. "By way of New Jersey. Is it that noticeable?"

"It suits you," she shrugged. "I have a really good ear for accents."

"Were you born here?" he asked in return. There was something about this girl that made him want to keep talking to her, and he was working to keep the conversation flowing as best he could.

"I was actually born in Oregon, but grew up mostly in San Diego."

"So you're a West Coast girl?"

"Sort of," Sarah agreed easily. "Although I spent some time living on the East Coast, too."

Victor leaned close to Bob, speaking low into his partner's ear as the couple continued to get acquainted. "See? What were you so worried about?"

"You did great, babe." Finn gave his mate a quick peck on the ear. "I love the way you work so hard to make other people happy."

"Good people deserve happiness," Graham shrugged off the compliment, but there was a hint of pride in his smile as he sat back and picked up his drink.

By the time they left the bar shortly before last call, the four had begun to cement a fast friendship, though to be honest, Jim found the flames of desire licking at him hoping for more.

While Bob and Victor caught a cab, Jim walked Sarah to the MUNI stop. 

It was a clear autumn night, pleasant enough despite the breeze blowing up off the water. So far the fog was still wading offshore or clinging to the foothills across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin.

It felt nice to be out walking with a pretty girl by his side, and Jim had to work hard to not reach for her hand.

"I've really enjoyed getting to know you, Jimmy." Sarah leaned a little closer as they waited together inside the bus stop's plexiglass shelter.

"I've enjoyed meeting you, too," he nodded, then pulled his gaze away from his own big, blunt boots on the pavement below. "I could see you home, if you want."

"That's sweet of you." She smiled at that. "But I'll be fine. I'm not that buzzed and besides, I live pretty close by." She looked at him for a long moment, letting her brown eyes rest on his blue-green ones.

"Where do you stay, Jimmy?" she finally asked gently. There was something in her eyes - or was it just a trick of the moonlight? - that made him feel for a moment like she knew his secret. Like she knew it and was sympathetic to how out of place he still felt sometimes in this strange new world.

"Oh, I'm... y'know, over at this residential hotel on Bryant. Nothing fancy, but -" He shrugged as if to say it didn't matter much to him. "It's just me, so I don't need much."

There wasn't much of a chance for further explanations nor the possibility of invitations as a bus pulled up and the door opened with a pneumatic hiss. "Well," Sarah shrugged. "See you around?"

"Hope so." Braddock smiled, wishing that they'd been granted just a few minutes more. But where Fate had been patient and kind all evening, God's generosity seemed to have run out.

"G'night, Jimmy." Sarah climbed up into the bus, dropped in exact change and turned to wave as the doors closed and it pulled away from the curb with a lurch.

Then she was gone and he was alone at the bus stop, somehow feeling lonelier than he had before meeting her.

Thursday October 9

Jimmy had made plans to join Victor and Bob for another volunteer day building houses in Palo Alto, but that wasn't until next Saturday. In the meantime, the prospect of yet another weekend loomed before him and his meeting with Sarah the weekend before had left him feeling both lonely and tempted.

He had no address for her, nor a telephone number, but he did know where she worked, so after waiting his turn for a quick shower back at the hotel, he put on clean clothes and grabbed his transit handbook and mapped out a route to UCSF.

Passing the edges of the park and the landmark McDonald's at the foot of Haight Street, the signs posted by the road let him know that they were nearing the teaching hospital. Once he got off on Parnassus, it only took him a moment to identify the tall, wide main hospital building and from there it was easy to find the emergency room.

"Hey, Sarah?" Annie came into the nurse's station pressing at a grin.

"What's up, Annie?" Sarah looked up from the chart she'd been working on.

"There's a guy here to see you." The smile she'd been working to suppress began to break across the blonde's pixie face as her tone dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "And he's cute!"

 "What's broken?" Sarah stuck her pen into the shirt pocket of her scrubs as she pushed to her feet.

"No, no," her friend explained. "I think he's that guy who was checking you out in O'Shea's a couple of weeks ago."

"Jimmy?" The dark haired girl struggled to tamp down an excited tingle as she followed Annie down the hall to the waiting room.

"Oh my God, Sarah." Annie was all but giggling now. The two had been close friends for years, and thus it was her right to do some teasing when the opportunity presented itself. "Is that stalker your boyfriend?"

"Oh, fuck off." Sarah feigned annoyance but grinned, struggling to maintain some sort of composure as they hit the button for the door to open.

Sure enough, when the door opened there was Jimmy, in his best jeans and a wool peacoat over a white Tshirt. He was hunkering down to talk to a little Korean girl with a bloody towel wrapped around her knee and tears drying on her tiny apple cheeks as the big man spoke gently to her, trying to make her smile.

"Oh my God," Annie repeated, eyes on the man. "He likes kids. Marry him!"

"Would you like to leave now? Because I really think you should leave now," the taller girl hissed, shooing her friend behind her with one hand as the butterflies in her stomach took flight and their wings began tickling her heart, making it likewise flutter.

"Going!" Annie retreated back to her office behind the admissions intake desk, but left her door open a crack so that she could monitor the scene between her best friend and the handsome stranger.

Jimmy caught Sarah's approach out of the corner of his eye but finished his conversation with the little girl before straightening to his full height. "You take care now, honey. Don't be scared. The nice people here will help your knee feel all better." He smoothed her silky hair and nodded a smile to the child's grateful mother.

"Hi." Sarah's brows lifted over a surprised smile that did nothing to hide her pleasure at seeing him again. "Well, you're about the last person I was expecting to see tonight."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your work." he looked around then shot her a sheepish shrug, "But, I was sorta hoping I might talk to you for a minute when you get your break."

"Do you really want to wait out here for two hours?" she countered, finding it hard not to tease him. He really was very cute, and the fact that he'd come clear across town wasn't lost on her.

"Sure, if that's -"

"I was kidding, Jimmy." She touched his arm lightly. "Give me a minute, then we can talk."

Moving over to the main desk, Sarah explained that she was stepping outside for a moment but would come in immediately should the need arise. With that, she led her visitor out into the night air, curious to see what would come next.

"So."

"You're not gonna get in trouble here, are you?" Her welfare was his first concern. After all, if he got her reprimanded - or even worse, fired - she wasn't very likely to take him up on his request for a date.

"No, it's fine." She smiled patiently. "I can grab a few minutes, we're actually not too busy tonight."

"Well, y'know, I really enjoyed meeting you the other night..." Now that she was actually standing here in front of him, his well rehearsed words were tripping each other as they stumbled to get past his tongue in anything resembling a graceful or articulate fashion.

Sarah noticed his distress and tried to help him out a little. "I really enjoyed getting to know you too, Jimmy."

He smiled at that, nodding as one of his big, knotty hands reaching down to twist a button on his coat. "So, I came by to see if maybe you might like to..." he paused, pulled a breath, tried on a hopeful smile, "... have dinner or something sometime?"

His bashfulness was nearly palpable, and Sarah took pity on his struggles and didn't leave him hanging a moment longer than necessary. "Sure. I'd love to."

"Yeah?" He looked up at her and his entire face brightened with an amazed smile. 

"Yeah." She nodded. "When would you like to go out?"

"I have the whole weekend free." He kept pressing at his boyish grin, but it kept getting away from him and escaping across his face. "How about you?"

The young woman thought for a moment, one eye squinting as she mentally reviewed her schedule. "How does Saturday sound?"

"I love Saturdays," he agreed then tried not to cringe when realized how stupid that must sound as she chuckled. "Um, what time?"

"Is seven okay?" Sarah was already reaching into the back pocket of her scrub pants for the book of post-it notes she kept there. "I'll write down my address and phone number for you."

Jim watched as she balanced a small pink notepad on her palm, uncapped a pen with her teeth and proceeded to carefully spell out her address adding her number below. "Here you go." She peeled off the top page and, bypassing his hand, stuck it to the front of his coat with a grin.

"Seven sounds perfect," he agreed, claiming the note and folding it carefully before slipping it into the pocket of his jeans. "I'll see you then."

Looking a little dazzled at the ease with which he'd accomplished his quest, he took a step back, not wanting to ruin the moment by keeping her away from her work too long. "Wait. Do you have a favorite place to eat?"

"Umm..." She thought a moment, biting lightly at her lower lip while she considered the options. He took the opportunity to admire how beautiful she was in the moonlight. "Do you like seafood?" she asked finally.

"Sure," he nodded eagerly. "Actually, I just like food. Any kind." he chuckled.

"Cool. Okay. Well, if you want, there's a place on the Row down at the Wharf I like," she shrugged. "Great food and an awesome view."

"That sounds perfect," Jimmy agreed, but then, as long as she said yes, at that point he wouldn't have argued the details.

"Okay, well..." Sarah nodded to an approaching ambulance. "It looks like we're about to get busy."

"Right, I'll let you go then." He took another step back and smiled as she waved to him before heading back inside.

"We've got an ugly one coming in." Annie met her just inside the door. "But it's too bad your friend couldn't stay."

"We're having dinner on Saturday," Sarah informed her hastily. 

"Cool." Annie hustled towards the admissions desk as another nurse came out and the energy in the hallway picked up and came alive. "Did you tell him that he looks like Russell Crowe?"

"Annie," her friend's smile lingered, remembering her talk outside with Jimmy just a moment longer before she turned her mind to the work about to walk in the door, "I don't think he even knows who Russell Crowe is."