her.
“Yeah,” she said as Carter appeared to take Pearl’s order, which was, as always, a White Russian.
“Can we get another round, too?” Maya asked as she got out her phone, opened Tinder, and slid it toward Pearl. And heck, she was going to tell Pearl the secret Wi-Fi password.
She leaned over to whisper in her ear, but suddenly Benjamin was there, pushing Carter out of the way. “I have this.” He refilled Maya’s wineglass. He looked at Pearl. “White Russian?” And Holden. “And another White Claw?”
She wanted so badly to ask him who the mystery woman was, but she reminded herself that she didn’t care and picked up Pearl’s phone.
“You want to order a pizza?” Holden asked when Benjamin was back with the drinks.
“No,” Maya said, answering Holden but making eye contact with Benjamin. “I don’t eat the pizza here.”
Chapter Thirteen
The next Friday, Rohan appeared at the bar just after Jake and Sawyer arrived for their Friday-night hangout. Everyone greeted each other, and when Law asked, “What can I get you?” Rohan sighed and said, “I don’t know, something wet and alcoholic.”
“Tough day?” Sawyer asked.
“I’ve been helping my dad at the store, and I meant to order a hundred gardenias to arrive today. Turns out I ordered a thousand.”
Nora and Eve arrived at the bar. “Hey,” Eve said, “we’re not crashing bromance night. We’ve got a table. We’re just grabbing drinks.”
Law was about to take their order when he was distracted by a Spice Girl asking him what he really wanted. He whipped his head up. The familiar opening strains of that stupid song blasting from the jukebox had a Pavlovian effect on him.
It was Maya.
With Holden.
Law had a band playing tonight but they were on a break, and Maya and Holden were bent over the jukebox, perusing the offerings.
Which was fine.
That’s what it was there for.
All of a sudden, she looked up and right at him, almost like she’d felt his attention.
And then came the glare.
Okay, they were back to the glaring. Which was…strangely disappointing.
“Wow,” Rohan said, “you guys still hate each other, eh? You seemed cool on the boat the other day.”
It felt wrong to agree: Yes, I hate your sister. But it also felt too exposing to tell the truth: It’s more like a complex mixture of attraction and annoyance.
“Yeah, I still don’t get that.” Nora turned to Law. “I know you say there’s no particular origin for the feud, but it’s hard to believe there isn’t something.”
Law shrugged. “We just get on each other’s nerves. There’s no real cause.”
“Oh, no, there is,” Rohan said.
“There is?” Law exclaimed, and he was not a person who exclaimed.
All faces swung toward Rohan, who said, “Yeah, you ruined her first play.”
“Excuse me?”
“You didn’t know that?” Eve said, a quizzical look on her face.
“No?” He looked at Sawyer for backup.
Sawyer just shrugged. “I thought everyone knew that.”
“I didn’t, if it’s any consolation,” Nora said.
“Excuse me?” Law said again, because it was all he could think to say.
“I just thought it was well established and you didn’t want to talk about it because it was kind of a dick move,” Sawyer said.
“Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?”
“She was fifteen,” Rohan said, taking pity on him. “She was directing Romeo and Juliet out on the town green. Sadie Saunders was playing Juliet. Or she was supposed to be playing Juliet, but you guys skipped town.”
Oh.
Oh my God.
Law remembered that weekend well. He had randomly won tickets to a concert in Toronto. It had been one of those radio station promos where they put you up in a hotel. He hadn’t taken over the bar yet, so he’d had more time for fun back then, and he and Sadie had been in the flush of…what? New infatuation? Nah, more like new lust. Sadie was fun, but he’d never been bowled over by love or anything, and he was pretty sure the same had been true for her. But she’d been a year older than he was, and a lot cooler. So their little fling that summer had been a blast. But if he really scraped back into the recesses of his brain, he did sort of remember arguing with her about a play she’d agreed to be in on a lark. Having to work pretty hard to convince her to come to Toronto. The details were vague but coming back to him. Oh, wait, Sadie had been flattered, he remembered because the director—that would be Maya—had told her she