Chapter Two #2
Once our drinks arrived, Ollie captured Nina’s attention again, and I looked around at the other patrons.
Beside me sat a dark-haired man. His back was to me as he spoke to a blond woman on his other side.
The woman’s eyebrows crawled up her forehead, and I strained to hear their conversation.
Whatever he’d said, the woman wasn’t happy about it.
She stood, swiped her purse from the bar, and left.
The man turned, watching her go with a weary expression.
He caught my eye, and I couldn’t help but notice he was handsome, with honey-colored eyes and tousled brown hair that was graying at the temples.
He smiled at me, and I smiled back before turning away, ignoring how my heart fluttered like a sail in the wind.
Not that I knew anything about sails, working on a motor yacht and all.
I sipped my drink, fighting the urge to sneak another glance at the man beside me.
The margarita had me buzzy and warm. The ever-present knot in my stomach loosened, my shoulders relaxed, and I eased into the feeling.
Everything around me seemed to glow as I listened to the murmur of voices in the bar without taking in their meaning.
At a hand on my shoulder I looked up, my heart skipping a beat, but it was only Ollie. With one hand on me, and the other on Nina, he leaned drunkenly between us.
“I’m off to the jacks. Save my seat?”
Nina said no at the same time I said sure, and Ollie smirked, pushing his hair off his forehead before ambling in the direction of the bathroom.
With Ollie gone, Nina turned back to me. “You really ought to start posting on your blog again. Your readers are worried about you, if the comments section is any indication. I expect a full-blown search party by the end of the week.”
“And this coming from the woman who said blogs were so 2004?”
“I stand by that statement.” Nina’s eyes slid away from me, then flicked back, and a wicked smile came over her face. She patted my cheek. “I think I’ve got your next blog post lined up. How about you check off number five right now?”
Item number five—kiss a stranger—had been Nina’s idea, of course. She’d been bugging me to do it ever since the night I made the list. I turned on my barstool, but Nina grabbed my arm. “Don’t be obvious!” she hissed.
I followed her gaze, pulse racing when I realized she meant the dark-haired man beside me. “He’s handsome, I’ll give you that,” I whispered.
“So kiss him!”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to give him the wrong idea.”
“Oh my God, Josephine, it’s a kiss, not a proposal. And it’s on the list, so you have to do it eventually. When are you going to find a hotter guy?”
I leaned closer, keeping my voice low. “He was obviously on a bad date. The woman practically sprinted out of here! What if he’s a murderer?”
Nina gave me an exasperated look. “Who cares? You don’t have to take him home. It’s only a kiss. Maybe it will cheer him up.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Maybe it will cheer you up, then.”
“Kissing a murderer would not cheer me up.”
Nina raised an eyebrow and jabbed me in the shoulder with her index finger.
“Ouch! What the hell?”
“Do it.” She jabbed me again. “Do it or I won’t stop.”
“Nina, I don’t think—”
But then, instead of poking me, Nina lifted herself from her stool and hip-checked me, practically shoving me into the man’s lap.
Mortified, I straightened myself up as quickly as I could, my face flaming. “I’m so sorry.”
“No harm done,” he said, and when he met my gaze, my breath caught in my chest. I froze, unable to look away. A bit older than I was—he looked about thirty-five or so—he was even more handsome up close, with warm eyes and lips that gently curved into an almost smile.
“Are you okay?” he asked, amusement in his expression.
I blinked, snapping back into the moment. “I . . . lost my balance. Not that I’m drunk or anything. This is only my second drink.” I held up my half-empty glass.
The man’s smile widened, and after settling back onto my stool, I pinned my elbows to my sides and held my drink close to my chest.
He stuck out his hand. “I’m Alex,” he said.
I took a sip from my drink and snorted. I’d never had a man in a bar try to give me a handshake before. “So formal.”
“What’s that?” he said.
I nearly choked on my margarita. “I said, uh, you’re so formal.”
Alex laughed. He dropped his hand on the bar and drummed his fingers across the wood. “Well, how do you prefer to say hello?”
I stared at him, thinking of Samson and how Nina was right, time was running out, and he’d want me to have fun and finish my list—the list he’d helped me with.
“I kiss them,” I said.
“Like on the cheek?”
“No. On the mouth.”
Alex blinked. “Is that right?”
My cheeks grew hot again, but I couldn’t chicken out now, not with Nina watching. “It’s tradition. It’s how we say hello in Florida.”
He squinted at me. “Tradition, huh?”
“Yes,” I said, sure this would go down as the most embarrassing moment of my life. “A very important tradition. Ancient, I’ve been told.”
“How have I spent my entire life as a Floridian and not known this?”
“You’re sure you’re not a tourist?”
He tugged at his nondescript black T-shirt. “Thanks?”
“It’s a compliment!”
“No one has ever called someone a tourist as a compliment.”
“Until now.”
Alex’s eyes roamed my face. Any second now he’d push away his beer and run away from me.
But then he smiled. “Okay, sure.”
“Sure . . . what?” I said, momentarily distracted when his eyes met mine again.
“You can kiss me,” he said.
“I can?”
Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure I could live with the weight of ruining an obscure Floridian custom I’ve never heard of on my shoulders. So I’d better play it safe and let you kiss me, right?”
I glanced at his shoulders, which were quite nice, really. “Right.”
Alex nudged his stool closer to mine and turned to face me. He set his hands in his lap and closed his eyes. “Okay, I’m ready.”
If I hadn’t been so nervous, I would’ve laughed. He looked like a man trying to meditate in the middle of all this noise. The upward curve of his mouth and the way he leaned slightly toward me were the only signs his mind was on sillier things.
“Well?” he said, eyes still closed. “Are you still there, Florida Girl? I’m going to be really disappointed if I open my eyes and discover you were a figment of my imagination.”
Now or never, I thought. I closed my eyes and leaned in swiftly, kissing Alex before I could change my mind.
His mouth softened, and he leaned in to deepen the kiss.
He tasted like the bitter piney flavor of his beer, but the kiss itself was lingering and sweet.
For a moment, the noise of the bar, my list, the aching sadness I couldn’t seem to shake, it all faded as I got lost in the smell of him.
Light and warm, it reminded me of days in the sun and hours on the water.
When we finally broke apart, my mind was spinning. Nina clapped, but I ignored her. Alex and I looked at each other, and I nearly kissed him again.
“Wow,” he finally said. “I agree. This ancient and venerable tradition must be preserved. Do I get to know your name now, Florida Girl?”
“Jo,” I said, stretching out my hand.
He smirked and took my hand in his. “So formal.”
“Very funny,” I said.
When he let go of my hand, I glanced at Nina, but she was absorbed in conversation with Ollie.
Alex watched me with a curious expression, his hands wrapped around his beer. He seemed friendly, but there was something sad about him too. Amid the happy throng of the bar, he felt like a kindred spirit.
“Rough night?” I asked, then shook my head. “Sorry, that was too personal. You don’t have to answer that.”
He raised his eyebrows. “More personal than a kiss?”
Point taken. “Okay, I’ll give you that.”
He took a sip of his beer, nodding as he lowered it back onto the bar. “But yeah, it hasn’t exactly been my day. Until a minute ago anyway.” He smiled, and that annoying fluttering returned to my chest. “Not a date,” he added. “In case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t,” I lied, though my blush probably gave me away. Not that I was interested in him. I was just curious.
“Are you sure? Because I seem to remember you kissing me.”
“You looked like you needed a pick-me-up. And like I said, it’s tradition.”
“Right. Consider me picked up, then.” He nodded to my empty glass. “Can I buy you another? It’s the least I can do considering you surely had to lower your standards to kiss me.”
“Eh, it wasn’t so bad.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to imply I’m a bad kisser. Only that you are clearly out of my league.”
“At least we’re on the same page, then.”
“About me not being a bad kisser, you mean.”
I shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat.”
Alex shook his head, that almost smile, which I guessed was his default expression, on his lips. “I’ve got to tell you, Florida Girl, you are—” But a swell of movement beside me cut him off. I turned just in time to catch Nina storming off toward the bathroom in a flurry of tears.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Ollie said before running after her.
“Looks like someone’s having a rougher night than I am,” Alex said.
“My friends . . .” I was breathless, partly from talking to Alex and partly from worry. “I’m sorry. I better go check on them. It was nice to meet you. Thanks for the . . . uh . . .”
“Kiss?” he said.
“Yeah, that.”
“Anytime, Florida Girl.”
I stood, grabbing my and Nina’s purses before pushing my way through the crowd to the women’s restroom.
“Occupied!” Ollie called when I knocked.
“It’s Jo!”
A moment later, the lock clicked, and the door eased open.
Ollie stepped aside to let me past him, and I took in the scene of the bathroom slash storage closet.
Nina perched on a cardboard box among the mop and broom and cleaning supplies, head in her hands.
Ollie was at her side as soon as the door shut, his arm hooked around her shoulders.
Nina glanced up at me with tear-filled eyes and smudged mascara.