forward to get a glimpse. A man who looks strikingly like Taye Diggs, so much I half expect him to start singing about my rent, sits at the other end, chin resting in his hand. He’s watching the bartender work with lustful eyes, and I’m jealous all over again.
“Is this some sort of couples bar?”
“Usually? No.” He twists his neck around, looking at the room again. “I’m not sure what’s in the air tonight.”
“Do I detect disdain in your voice?”
He chuckles. “That obvious?”
“Yes. That and your opening comment really gave it away.”
Donny pivots our way, drinks in his hands.
“A whiskey sour for the lady, top shelf.” He slides my glass toward me, then sets the other in front of the stranger. “And neat scotch for Brooks.”
Brooks.
The name fits him and doesn’t all at the same time.
“Let me know when you’re ready for refills,” Donny says.
Brooks nods, picking his glass up and taking a sip. He doesn’t grimace, doesn’t shake his head after the burn like my ex-husband always did when he tried to drink hard liquor.
I like that he doesn’t do that.
“I’m not some guy drowning his sorrows at a bar, all down on relationships because he’s been broken up with, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
It wasn’t.
“Duly noted,” I chirp back at him.
Another grin pulls at his lips. It’s not a full smile, just a soft tug at his lips that’s more mischievous than amused. Though I don’t know him, I like it when he does it.
It’s…cute.
Which isn’t a fitting word for a guy as big as him.
“So, what has you here drowning your sorrows? Get broken up with?”
I snort. “Something like that.”
I wasn’t dumped in the traditional sense, but my landlord did basically break up with me.
It was just via an eviction notice.
“That bad, huh?”
“That bad.” I gulp down a drink of my whiskey sour, grimacing as the liquor hits the back of my throat. Donny made up for ignoring me by adding extra alcohol.
Guess I can let Donny off the hook this time.
“I got an eviction notice.”
I’m not sure why I tell him.
He’s nobody to me. Has no business being privy to this embarrassing information.
But maybe that’s why I say it.
“It’s not a surprise. I’ve known about it for weeks. Just can’t seem to get my crap together. But it hit me today that I’m going to be homeless in about three weeks if I can’t find something between now and then. Saying it was a punch to the gut would be an understatement.”
“Fuck. That is bad.” He lifts his hand, signaling at Donny for a refill. He peeks back over at me. “You need another drink.”
“Gentle reminder that my statement from before stands,” I tell him, narrowing my eyes.
Those startling blue irises of his sparkle, and it’s not only the grin lining his lips that’s mischievous.
“That so?”
“That’s so.” I push my shoulders back, though I’m not sure even I believe it.
His eyes darken with a promise, and my breath is caught in my throat as he leans into me for the second time tonight. His lips are a short distance away. I’ve never had the urge to kiss a total stranger before, but right now?
Right now, I could kiss the hell out of him.
“Trust me, I have better moves to get you to go home with me than buying you drinks.”
I had no intentions of coming out tonight to find a guy to go home with.
But the more sips of alcohol that burn my throat and the more this man stares at me like I’m the only thing he wants to see, the more my guard slips.
And the more the idea of going home with him doesn’t sound so crazy after all.
2
Nolan
A bar is the last place I wanted to be tonight.
After hanging up my helmet for the day, I wasn’t in the mood for company. Tired from getting up at the ass-crack of dawn, all I wanted was to go home. I had a six-pack of beer and leftover Chinese waiting for me in the fridge. My couch was calling my name, and a new true crime documentary awaited me.
But when your best friend calls and tells you you’re going out…well, you’re fucking going out.
Now that I’m here, I kind of wish I’d spent more time on my appearance, like running a comb through my hair instead of my fingers or shaving the stubble that’s grown in since this morning.
It has everything to do with the girl sitting next to me.