Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Darcy grunted slightly as she swung the door open to the back entrance of Stardust Lanes. “Ta-da,” she sang out as Juliet walked past her.
Given that the bowling alley closed early tonight – in the days leading up to Christmas, Sandra opened early for several of the children’s leagues and holiday parties, then shut down by six – all of the lights were off, and the place was only illuminated by the signs that were hung on the wall at the bar, which was where the back entrance was.
Right now, the signs were a mix of not only typical alcohol logos, but also festive, gaudy holiday décor.
Juliet looked unfairly attractive bathed in the red, green, and silver neon lights around her as she took her time looking around. As if she was going to see something other than… a bowling alley.
Which amused her, even as she felt a little nervous flutter in the pit of her stomach. Juliet was here, in her world. She’d been at Blythe’s all day, sure, but… that was different. Blythe’s house wasn’t Darcy’s. In a way, having Juliet there had almost felt like armor for Darcy.
This was a lot more personal.
“So… this is the infamous bowling alley,” Juliet mused, her eyes squinting in the dark.
“This is where the magic happens,” Darcy joked, letting the heavy back door swing closed behind her, locking automatically as it went.
She, too, looked around, though. It wasn’t really a joke at all, though, at the heart of everything.
This place had been her home. She’d lived here, she’d worked here, she’d performed here for so many years without ever knowing if she’d amount to more.
Juliet meandered around to the other side of the bar, leaning against it, as she shot Darcy a look.
One of those demanding – almost regal – stares she was so good at.
And, in all fairness to her, she really didn’t look like she belonged here.
Not in the dingy bar, in the decades old bowling alley. “Can a lady get a drink?”
Darcy’s feet had already started forward to heed Juliet’s expression, even before she’d spoken.
Before Darcy’s mind had really caught up at all.
“I can tell you right now, there has never been a bottle of wine in this bar that has cost more than thirty – maybe forty – bucks. And, like, that’s the top-shelf stuff,” she warned, as she walked up behind the bar.
She hadn’t actually stood here, worked here, in… wow, nearly a year. The realization rocked through her, giving her pause as she stared down at the bar top.
“I didn’t intend for my drink request to cause so much turmoil,” Juliet said, her voice quietly teasing.
“No, that’s not…” She trailed off, blinking a few times as she looked back up at Juliet, feeling a sheepish smile tug at her lips. “I’m just thinking about how it’s been almost the entire year since I’ve worked here. And that’s…”
She simply blew out a deep exhale, holding her hands up and dropping them to her sides.
“I can’t remember the last shift we did.
I don’t even know if we officially gave our notice.
” She screwed her face up in thought, trying to call up a clear memory of talking to Sandra.
She knew she had, but nothing in specific jumped out at her.
“Maybe Blythe did. She probably did. And Emerson. I don’t – it’s all a blur to me.
I think I have, like, four or five really clear recollections from the first few months of this year.
I remember we were all working one night when our song came on the radio. ”
Darcy glanced over to the speaker in the corner, where she’d spun around and stood, mouth agape.
She’d had to wonder if she’d been losing her mind, truly.
They’d released their self-produced album the month before, it had barely received any traction in the first few weeks, and then…
and then they’d been everywhere, and it was a whirlwind.
And now, she was here.
With Juliet sitting across the bar from her, her eyebrows drawn low, looking at Darcy like she was internalizing everything she said. And, possibly, everything she wasn’t saying.
There was a depth to Juliet that was completely overlooked, she’d come to realize, from the image Juliet had spent her entire career maintaining. It was all focused on Darcy, right now.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she roughly cleared her throat.
“Anyway.” Leaning on her arm across the bar, she fixed on a smile. The kind of smile she’d have worn with any woman who looked at her like Juliet was from the other side of the bar.
Granted, there’d never been anyone that looked at her quite like this.
“What can I get for you this evening, ma’am?”
Juliet’s dark eyes stayed trained on her for another beat before she shook her head. “Nothing, actually.” She turned to pluck open her large purse that she’d kept shut all day where she’d sat it on the stool next to her.
Curious, Darcy pushed herself to her tiptoes to peer in, before Juliet emerged with a bottle of Jack Daniels with a silver bow tied artfully around it.
“Merry Christmas,” Juliet announced with a flourish.
“You shouldn’t have…?” She couldn’t help but chuckle, shooting her a questioning stare. She gestured behind her at the shelves. “You know, we do carry that here.”
Juliet pouted back at her, so absurdly cute, exasperation coloring her tone, “When we did ‘Porchlight’ you said you’re a whiskey person. I said I’d get you some inexpensive whiskey. Thus…”
Darcy had said that. But she’d assumed when Juliet had teased her back then that she’d get her a bottle, she’d been facetious.
Juliet remembered it, though. Their conversation from even before Darcy had come out to her, before they were sleeping together. And that… well, that made her feel entirely too warm and melty inside.
Being given a bottle of twenty-dollar whiskey wasn’t typically romantic, but this was. To Darcy, right now, it was.
“You don’t have to take it,” Juliet said after a few seconds. She reached for the bottle. “It’s fine–”
Darcy shot her hand out, gripping the whiskey and holding it firmly against the bar. “No, I want it. It’s mine.”
Juliet breathed out a laugh, combing a hand through her hair. “Okay, great. I don’t know what I would have done with it, anyway.”
“You could have had some?” She suggested, mostly as a joke.
In the last couple of months, she’d never seen Juliet crack anything open that wasn’t some sort of luxury brand. Even her water and tea had logos Darcy couldn’t even find in the Pineford grocery store.
“All right. Let’s do it.”
Darcy obliged, even though she had to point out, “I can make a lot more impressive drinks than this. Try me.”
Juliet’s lips were curved into a small grin as she watched her use tongs to put some ice in the tumblers. “I’m fine with this. For now.”
She slid Juliet her glass, tapping her fingers against her own. Debating if she should tell this to Juliet or just give it to her or what.
Juliet narrowed her eyes as she took a sip, before she lowered her tumbler to ask, “What is with your face?”
“My face is fine, thanks.” She shrugged, looking down into her own whiskey as she swirled the glass. “I… got you a little gift, too. It’s upstairs.”
Juliet sat up a little straighter. “Oh? What is it?”
“A notebook. Since you love mine so much,” she cracked, feeling a little sheepish.
Then again, it wasn’t like Juliet had gotten her some huge, expensive gift, either. Just something small. Something that told Darcy that Juliet had thought about her. And Darcy’s was the same.
She hadn’t been sure she’d even give it to her. But since Juliet made the first gesture…
“So I can handwrite all of my thoughts out and spin pens and pencils through my fingers the way you do,” Juliet mused, rolling her lips. “I cannot wait.”
Even though her voice was dry, Darcy could see how she was holding back a smile.
Juliet pushed herself up, clearly standing on the bars at the bottom of the stool as she leaned over the bar toward Darcy. She propped herself on her elbows, inches away.
As if magnetized, Darcy leaned in, her breath catching in her throat, her hand curling into a tight fist against the bar.
Just before their lips touched, Juliet breathed out, “Now, show me where the magic really happened.”
Oxygen fled her lungs, and she felt a little lightheaded as Juliet shot her a knowing, glinting stare as she slid off her stool.
“Gladly,” Darcy breathed back, more than ready –
Only to realize as she moved out from behind the bar that Juliet hadn’t walked toward the door next to the back entrance, where the stairs were that led up to her apartment.
She was sauntering across the room toward the small dais with the microphone, piano, and amps.
“That kind of magic,” Darcy clarified, her hands on her hips as she walked closer.
Juliet fluttered her eyelashes at her while she sat on one side of the bench. “Of course, Darcy. What else could you possibly think?” With that, Juliet patted the bench next to her. “If you dare.”
“I think you know I wouldn’t back down from a dare, especially from you,” she returned, moving to sit next to Juliet.
They were pressed tightly together on the small bench, hip to thigh, Juliet’s body heat pulsing through Darcy, able to feel her right down to her core.
Maybe they weren’t going upstairs yet, but this… felt almost as electric to her, as she watched Juliet flex her hands in preparation. Watched the tendons in them stretch, the way she then curled each finger in quick succession, rolling her wrists.
Maybe more electric, really.