CHAPTER THIRTEEN #3
I’m at Brews on Monday evening, the day Griffin is due back.
We’ve been texting nonstop during his endorsement weekend, and I even got a sneak peek of him inside the ice bath, looking exactly like you’d expect from someone submerged in twenty-five degree water.
I’m barely fifteen minutes into my shift when I can feel my phone vibrate with an incoming email.
I don’t typically check my phone during work, but we’re still slow and something tells me to look.
SUBJECT: We want to talk next steps
I hurry to open the email and I have to re-read it a few times before I trust what I’m looking at. One of the Chicago companies I applied to wrote back, and they want to set up an interview with me.
This is what I’ve been hoping for since I sputtered into Bayshore in May. So why does my stomach slam to the ground?
“Hey, Casey, that group of girls down there is requesting you.” Jenna, one of my favorite evening bartenders to work with, nudges me before she tips her head toward the far end of the bar. “They said something about the book rec bartender.”
Her words don’t quite make sense to me, especially after being yanked out of the headspace that email put me in. Her words are buzzy and foreign, like something I heard once in a fever dream.
“They asked for the book rec bartender?”
“Yeah.”
“For me?” My voice is almost a shriek now.
“Yes.” Jenna laughs as she shoves me in their direction. “Go do your magic book thing, girlie.”
I close out the email. The corporate opportunity in Chicago can wait. I’ll deal with that later. For now, I stumble over to the girls, and as soon as they see me their eyes light up.
“Are you the bartender who does the book and beer pairing?” They sound as excited as I am shocked.
“That’s me.” I grin and flip my bar towel over my shoulder.
“The Book Rec Bartender.” On the inside, I’m basically screaming.
Is this real? Are they really here to hear me do something that I would do any day of the week, for anyone who asked?
And then another thought hits me like a lightning bolt.
This is what my TikTok account needs to be called.
I’m suddenly brimming with so much excitement, so many ideas, that I can barely contain it all.
As we start chatting, I find out that they saw an online review of Brews that mentioned “the book rec bartender.” I can barely process this delightful turn of events, but they want a book and beer pairing, so that’s what they shall get.
As I begin quizzing them about their trope and voice preferences, I can feel the suggestions rumbling to life within me.
God, I love doing this. Soon, I’m serving up dark, heady IPAs and suspenseful thrillers, followed by a delicate rosé and a light and funny rom-com.
The girls are giggling and thrilled with their pairings, and I’m ringing in their orders when Jenna sidles up to me again.
“You’ll be happy to know your number one customer is back.”
I don’t look away from the screen as I ask, “Oh yeah? Who’s that?”
“The man who looks at you with puppy dog eyes anytime he’s here.”
At the same time, I begin to hear the hoots and cheers of “Keegannnn.” My neck practically snaps as I twist toward the front door.
And then I see him. The most handsome, perfect, gorgeous, broad, delicious, freshly ice-bathed man to ever grace planet Earth.
I inhale sharply. If I were an anime character, I’d have huge throbbing red hearts for eyeballs right about now.
“Oh my god.” I’m fumbling to finish putting in the drinks, hardly able to concentrate now. To Jenna, I say, “You said he looks at me with puppy dog eyes?”
She snorts. “You’ve never noticed? Since the day you started working here, girlfriend.” She flips the bottom of my ponytail and drifts toward a returning set of customers.
I’m blinking rapidly as I close out the screen.
Is she for real? How had I missed that? I can’t think about it for too much longer though, because Griffin’s gaze lands on me and it’s full tractor beam mode.
I float away from the register and toward him, pulled by forces that must be of extraterrestrial origin.
This feels very Nightbeast inspired, and in the back of my mind, I laugh, but I can only grin like a fool.
“Hi, roomie.” I grip the edge of the countertop, willing my hands to stay on this side of the bar. Even though every inch of me is dying to hop into his arms, pop his backwards ballcap off, run my fingers through his hair, and kiss him until I run out of breath. “Welcome back.”
The grin on his face is ear to ear. The air is swollen, charged with restraint and unspoken sentiments.
“I wish you weren’t behind that bar right now.” His voice is gritty and deep. My thighs clench, and my knuckles are turning white from how hard I’m clinging to the edge of the bar.
“Guess you’ll just have to wait until I get home,” I say, rolling my lips in.
The look he gives me in return is sexy enough to unravel me right here in this packed bar.
The people, the clamor of conversation, the live acoustic guitar that’s strumming on the other side of the room—it all disappears and my focus shrinks to only him.
Griffin Keegan is looking at me like he’s ready to eat me alive.
Like there’s nobody else in the entire world.
Like Spacey Casey is exactly who he’s been waiting for.