Her Hunk of Monk

“So who is this guy? Mara asked.

“Callum Byrne. Look him up on social media.” Darlene advised

Mara opened up Facebook on her phone and entered the name, Callum Byrne. Mara wasn't surprised; the name was reasonably common, and it brought up quite a lot of hits. She scrolled through the profiles until she found one for a local guy. She opened his profile and saw he was a cute white guy with copper-coloured hair, looking to be in his late twenties or early thirties. Then one of the pictures caught her eye more than the other he was wearing a cassock.

“Darlene. I can't help but notice he's wearing a cassock.” Mara pointed out.

“Yeah, he's my hunk of monk.” Darlene replied as if it was a perfectly normal statement.

“You're sleeping with a guy who is going to the priesthood?” Mara asked.

“We met when I was doing some volunteer work. He was thinking about going into seminary. He's cute, fun and does a lot of work for good causes.” Darlene explained.

“I really hope the good cause isn't going down on you.” Mara snarked.

Darlene laughed at the response. “He volunteers at soup kitchens around the city. He does stuff with animal rescues as well. He's not devoted himself to the big man just yet.”

“I'm kind of relieved you haven't entirely corrupted a man of the cloth. He looks cute though.” Mara commented.

“He's like the polar opposite of my brother. He's actually nice to people. You should call him,” Darlene insisted.

Mara sighed, knowing she was about to cave and get his number from Darlene.

“Give me his number”, she said, sounding exasperated.

Darlene grabbed Mara's phone and entered Callum's number as a contact. Before Mara could stop her, she started calling him. It took a moment before Callum answered, which was either due to the call from an unknown number or because he was busy with something.

“Hello, who is this?” A male voice asked with a hint of Irish brogue to it.

“Hi, this is Callum. This is Darlene. I hope you're good.” Darlene replied.

“Hey Darlene. I didn't realise you were back in town. Did you get a new number?” Callum asked.

“I'm not calling off my phone. I'm kind of calling for a favour.” Darlene told him.

“Darlene, you know I'll always do anything for you,” Callum replied.

“So I've got this female friend who needs some cheering up, and something to take her mind off her problems. I'm going to pass her phone back to her.” Darlene explained.

She handed Mara her phone back, and she realised she was now being expected to talk to Callum and kind of found herself slightly embarrassed. She took a moment to find her voice.

“Hi, is this Callum?. It's nice to meet you,” Mara asked.

“It's good to get to know a friend of Darlene's as well. I find myself at a disadvantage, though.” Callum answered.

“Sorry, I should introduce myself as well. I'm Mara. So Darlene says you do a lot of volunteer work?”

“I'm actually doing so right now. I'm helping out at the soup kitchen in Calhoun. I was in the middle of things. I can give you a call back later when I'm less busy.” Callum advised.

Mara felt a little disappointed at Callum ending the call so quickly but also respected the reasons he was doing so.

“Yeah, I'd like that. Honestly, I've just been stuffing my face with ice cream and drowning my sorrows in Merlot, so that would be nice.” Mara replied.

“I'll call you later then,” Callum said to her before ending the call.

Mara put her phone down, aware that Darlene was looking at her expectantly.

“So?” Darlene probed.

“He's in the middle of volunteering at a soup kitchen. He's going to call me back in a few hours.” Mara advised.

Mara saw that there was a devilish look on Darlene's face. She knew where this was going and what was about to be suggested.

“Or.”

“I should just get up and get changed now and head down there, as otherwise you'll just nag me all night until I do so.”

Darlene laughed. “Technically, I never actually suggested it you made that decision on your own.”

“But you were going to.”

Mara got up and went into her bedroom. She changed into a pair of jeans, a clean T-shirt, and a cardigan to wear over the top of it. She found some trainers to go with it. She was heading down to a soup kitchen. While she was attempting to make an impression on Callum, she was also not going to be overdressed. She stepped back out into the living room.

“You look good. A good pick for volunteering, at least.” Darlene complimented her.

“Well, it's not a date. So I'm not going to put on a little black dress. Are you okay here by yourself?”

“Girl. I have six months of Netflix to binge I'll be fine.”

Mara headed downstairs to the parking lot. She vaguely knew where the soup kitchen was that Callum had mentioned. She started driving and, while doing so did consider what she was doing was a little ridiculous that she was driving to a soup kitchen to meet a would be monk that Darlene was trying to hook her up with. The drive over was fairly quick, and Mara found a parking space fairly easily. The soup kitchen was in the middle of the street and looked fairly busy.

She stepped inside and was amused that this was the sort of place Hugh would avoid and refuse to step inside. There were two lines of benches with numerous people sat down eating soup with some bread. She noticed it wasn't entirely homeless people inside many looked like they were people who had stepped in after a night out. She saw the line of people queuing, and at the serving counter were three people an older Asian lady, a black man who looked like he was maybe in his fifties and a young Irish American man with coppery hair.

Mara wandered over to the counter and asked hopefully.

“Callum?”