39. Declan
Chapter thirty-nine
Declan
" D ude, you're staring," Harrison says, elbowing me. I haven't fully forgiven him, and he knows it. It's been a full twenty-four hours without anything from Serenity. I got roaring drunk last night, tried to fist fight both Daniel and Harrison before they tucked me into bed with some Advil and water.
I spent most of the morning in bed, hungover, and self-loathing before showering, getting dressed and getting to The Envelope an hour early. Joseph didn't ask where she was, and I was grateful I didn't have to explain anything. Where would I start? I'm not even really sure what happened, only that she left me and asked me for six months.
She didn’t say anything about quitting her job here, so I'm relieved when she walks in for her shift.
And I'm staring. If I could will her to come to me with my eyes only, she'd already be here. Instead, she's serving customers. But she looks good, too. She has bags under her eyes like she didn't sleep, but her body language is more relaxed than when she first started here. She has more confidence, and it looks fucking good on her.
When she comes to deliver our whiskeys, she lays a napkin with black scribbling on it in front of me and shyly tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. I pick the napkin up quickly, disparate for any scraps of attention from her. "What's this?" I ask, but she is already retreating.
It's a phone number. I already have her phone number. I glare at the neatly written numbers as if they can help me make sense of it.
"She said she wants a redo, right? She's picking you up," Daniel says, delighted. He smiles at Serenity who is watching us from the bar and nods approvingly to her.
" She's picking me up."
"I like that girl."
He nudges me with his elbow. "So, what are you going to do?"
I waste no time. I tuck the napkin into my suit pocket and pull my phone out from my pants. My baby girl wants a do-over? Fine.
Me: Is this the number of the beautiful woman who just served me a whiskey?
Her phone must vibrate in her pocket, because she pulls it out and smiles down at the screen, before looking back up at me, but I'm already watching her. She blushes sweetly before returning to her phone, typing out a reply.
Serenity: I don't know. Is this the handsome man sitting across the room from me?
And it dawns on me all at once. She's flirting with me. We've never flirted before. This is what she meant by a do-over. She wants a normal, real relationship. She wants texts messages and flowers and dates and flirting. It calms the anxiety in me. She's not giving up on us. She's giving us another type of relationship, another experience of a "normal" relationship.
I can do this. For her.
I want to ask her out, to rush to get the dates out of the way, but that's not what she wants. So, I don't.
Me: Looks like my lucky night then.
Me: What's a girl like you doing at a place like this?
Serenity: Working. But I really shouldn't be on my phone. The owner's really strict about the rules.
Sounds like an asshole.
Serenity: He's not so bad. A little growly, though.
Flirting doesn't come naturally to me, though, so I put the phone down until I can think of something clever to say. I've never flirted before. Vikki and I were stumbling, bumbling teenagers when we got together. It was more of a "I like you, do you like me" situation. But I'll have to get better at it. For her.