Chapter 16 Nice Guys Finish Second
“ C arly just called in with some stomach bug excuse, so it’s just you and me tonight, girly.”
Swiping my towel along the inside of one of our beer mugs, I side-glanced over at Patrick. “Aren’t you glad I offered to pull a double now?”
Patrick almost smiled. “Just as long as you don’t break any more glasses tonight.”
“I haven’t broken a glass in almost a week!”
“Make that a month and I’ll be impressed.”
Rolling my eyes, I continued to clean our rack of dirty glasses with faint amusement on my lips.
This afternoon’s crowd wasn’t as big as normal for a Monday, but already, I could tell tonight was going to be busy.
It was just shy of 6 o’clock and most of the tables were taken over by groups of men and any available seats at the bar were almost gone.
The usual crowd was here tonight which meant lots and lots of big, burly, loud-mouthed men shouting obscenities at each other from across the bar and shooting me looks that made my skin crawl.
It was all part of the job, though. The men, the looks they gave me, and even the smell that took me two weeks to get used to without wanting to hurl every time I breathed it in.
This place smelled like an armpit doused with aftershave.
“Hey, can I get a bourbon on the rocks?”
“Sure. Do you want to start a tab?” I set down the glass I was cleaning, exchanging it for another.
“Sure do.”
The man handed me his card, and I set up his tab and got to making his drink.
I’d developed a rhythm working behind the bar, and truthfully, it was the only way I was any good at it.
I bounced from pouring drinks, to collecting the payment, to checking on who needed a fresh drink next like I would bounce to the beat of a pop song.
I spun from the rack of alcohol on the back wall, over to the register, over to the next customer in a seamless spin.
It was right in the middle of that perfectly executed spin, as I handed the man his bourbon drink, that my rhythm was thrown by the two men standing behind my last customer.
Thank God the shock through my body didn’t cause me to drop the glass.
Ethan’s eyes were waiting for mine to find him, and when I did, I immediately wished I hadn’t. That same unfiltered concentration that was in his stare yesterday was there now, and it had the same shameful effect on me as it did then.
I felt weak for him in my knees, my heart, and in my restraint.
Those eyes buried me beneath heaps of unending guilt for the way they made butterflies swarm through my stomach with just a glance.
He was the reason why I’d picked up this extra shift tonight, because I wasn’t ready to face him after dancing with him.
I wasn’t ready to look him in the eyes after realizing the big, fat , stupid crush that I had on him.
Unable to hold strong under Ethan’s gaze, I moved mine to his friend that I met yesterday.
“Hey! I didn’t know you guys were coming here tonight.”
“Yeah,” Peter chuckled. “Ethan insisted we come here and keep you company.”
Peter let out a sharp gust of air as Ethan jabbed his elbow into his friend’s stomach. I laughed at them both, only because they both were laughing, too. Peter turned his attention back to me.
“I don’t know if you remember me. We met yesterday. I’m Peter.”
“The accountant. I remember,” I said with a smile.
Peter seemed almost surprised that I remembered him from yesterday, his eyes widening just a touch and his lips parting just so.
Now, taking a beat to really look at Peter, I liked what I saw.
There were those kind eyes of his hiding behind glasses, and an adorable smile to match as the color pink tinted both of his cheeks and he looked down to his shoes.
Peter was sort of really adorable.
“I’m gonna, uh, head to the bathroom. Can you get me a beer?” Ethan nodded to Peter and before I could beg him not to, Peter was walking off towards the bathrooms and Ethan and I were alone.
Suddenly, the bar full of 40 people felt deserted—or too cramped. I couldn’t decide whether being alone with Ethan now made me feel smothered or totally isolated.
“Can I get you something to drink?” Good. Busy work. Just keep busy.
“Double scotch.”
“Hard day at work?”
“Not particularly.”
I nodded, rolling my lips together. “All right.”
So, I made his drink. Unfortunately for me, he’d asked for one of the simplest drinks ever, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take my sweet time making it.
And I did, all the while thinking if Ethan was watching me make his drink, what he was thinking if he was watching me, and did my butt look good in these pants?
I had to stop and scold myself for that last one.
By the time I placed Ethan’s drink in front of him, I’d flustered myself enough with my own maddening thoughts that I just wanted to throw in the towel and run away back to the employee break space.
“You okay?” I pulled my eyes up to Ethan and said… nothing. I just stared and tasted the sour smell of the bar on my tongue as I left my mouth agape.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry. Just a little scattered-brained from pulling a double today.” Frantically, I searched across the bar for anyone in need of another drink. Somehow, out of sheer, poor luck, there was no one.
“Did you eat dinner?”
I opened my mouth to respond yes, when my brain stopped me.
“No. I didn’t actually.”
Ethan awarded me a disapproving look. “If you had come home tonight instead of agreeing to be here, you’d be eating a delicious pasta right now with homemade garlic bread.”
“Okay, that’s just mean. Now I’m starving .”
Ethan only shrugged, lifting his drink to his parting lips. “Should have come home.”
“I’m helping out!” I defended myself. “Plus, I need the money.”
“You live rent free. You should have enough saved up to not have to work yourself dry.”
“I’ve lived here for like, a month. I also only started getting good tips recently.”
“Since my excellent bartending lessons? Which , by the way, were also free of charge.”
I gave him my best innocent smile. “I guess I got the Friends and Family discount.”
His expression wobbled, his eyes crinkling at the sides.
I watched him apparently fumble—something out of character for him—growing curiouser and curiouser for what he was going to say as he opened his mouth and then dropped his hand across it.
He slid his hand beneath his chin, propping his head up on it with quizzical eyes aimed right at me.
“Here’s a question for you.”
“Hit me.” Nice. Breezy. Casual. Well done, me.
“If we’d met under different circumstances—” He stopped speaking as my eyebrows smashed together.
Oh no . Some of the butterflies that had died down from before picked up speed once again in my gut as he continued.
“I mean, if we didn’t meet through Monica—” Oh my God .
“And we were just two strangers who met on the street,” Yes?
“Do you think we’d be friends?”
Friends. I quickly hid my inappropriate disappointment behind a thick wall of teasing humor.
“Does this mean we’re friends now?”
The blue in Ethan’s eyes seemed to brighten as he thought over his answer.
“I’d like to think so.”
Did I really think Ethan and I would be friends if he and I were just two strangers who met on the street, no strings attached and no obstacles to keep us apart?
No. I didn’t, and that’s why I was in the mess I was in now.
“Maybe if you didn’t annoy me that much.” He lowered his chin, giving me one of his seriously serious looks that made me want to squirm and bolt.
“That’s a cop out answer.”
Glancing behind him, the sight of Peter’s curly brunette head of hair emerging from the bathroom and coming our way gave a sweep of relief through my stomach. Moving my eyes back to Ethan’s for only a second, I cocked my head to the side and replied, “That’s the only answer you’re going to get.”
Before Ethan could respond, Peter had arrived and put a roadblock in our conversation. After a bit of small talk between us, a couple patrons requested my attention, and I’d honestly never been so glad to be forced back to work.
Ethan and Peter sat at the end of the bar, chatting for the next hour or so. On more than one occasion I caught one or both of them stealing glances at me while I was trying to steal glances at them. After a while, it was Peter who I found standing in front of me.
“Another beer?”
“If you don’t mind.” The way he drummed his fingers against the bar made my heart smile.
“Not at all.”
Popping the top of his beer off, I sat it in front of him and sighed, leaning my elbows forward on the bar with him.
“Long day?”
“I can’t wait to go home and crawl in bed. My feet are so sore,” I said with a laugh.
“Oh, I know that feeling. Except it’s usually the complete opposite for me since I’m sitting all day long at a desk and when I get home, I want to do anything but sit.”
“Man, I’d love to just sit for one whole day. Never get up. Just get a rolly chair and have someone roll me from place to place so I didn’t have to stand up even once during the day.”
Peter chuckled, and even if it was just a pity chuckle, I was glad he did.
“Well, if you ever need someone to take you up on that offer, I’d gladly push you around for an entire day.”
“That’s sweet, but I couldn’t do that to you. I try not to kill people I get along with and being with me for an entire day? You’d surely die of boredom.”
“I don’t know about that.” Peter hadn’t stopped smiling since we’d started talking, and I was beginning to really like the sight of it. “You seem pretty interesting to me.”
“Only if interesting is another word for average.”
Then, for the first time in our short, pleasant conversation, his smile dropped. In place of it, an expression all too considerate for me to handle on such short notice.
“You don’t seem very average to me.”
“Oh…” My face broke out in heat and the air around me was suddenly lacking. “Thank you.”