Chapter Two
It was only a date.
Not even that. A meet-up for a drink from one of those apps he used to laugh about people using. Now here he was, smelling like the cologne he hadn’t used in years, while prickles of uncertainty crawled through him. Starting over again sucked, and Win would rather be anywhere else than in a bar in Williamsburg, waiting for…he checked his phone…Curtis. That was his name. Curtis Bradford.
Win sat at a small table, drinking his Stella. He leaned against the wall, which gave him a good view of the crowd: young, slightly drunk, even though it was a weeknight and they had jobs to get to in the morning, and the average age was at least ten years younger than him.
God, he didn’t want to be here.
He shouldn’t be.
“Sorry, my Uber got held up. You’re Win, right? I’m Curt.”
The smiling face gazing at him matched the picture from his phone screen. Curt looked a little younger than the thirty-two years he claimed in his profile, but Win had always gone for the sweet-faced, somewhat vulnerable type.
“Yeah, don’t worry. I just got here a little while ago.”
They shook hands, and Curt slid into the seat across from him. Their knees bumped, and Curt kept his pressed to Win and gave him a smile, which Win hesitantly returned.
Not so bad. He could do this.
Curt said, “So, you’re a detective, huh? That sounds cool.” The waitress came by, and Curt ordered a white wine. “Do you still have handcuffs and a gun?”
“Yes, of course. We make arrests, same as any police officer.”
“Bet they come in handy for other things too.” He winked, and Win’s stomach cramped.
God help him.
“Tell me about you.”
“Eh, I’m boring. I work in my father’s office, selling insurance. I’m thinking about going to law school at night. Isn’t that what most people do when they don’t know what to do with their life?” He laughed to himself and drained his whole glass of wine at once. Catching the waitress’s eye, he held up his glass, and she came over and refilled it.
Instinctively, Win knew this was going nowhere. He might’ve been out of the dating game for years, but how were they supposed to get to know each other if one of them was drunk?
“Pretty expensive way to spend your time.” If he finished his beer in the next ten minutes, he could be home in less than an hour, traffic permitting.
Curt sipped more wine. “My father doesn’t mind. He’s willing to pay for it and says it can help his business.”
“Nice of him.”
“He’ll find some way to get a deduction out of it, I’m sure. When he’s not working, he spends half his time figuring out how not to pay taxes.” Curt finished his second glass while Win still nursed his first beer. “Want to take a walk, go somewhere quieter? I didn’t think it would be so noisy here during the week.”
Win shrugged. “Sure.” He didn’t feel any spark, but maybe he needed to give it more time. At least that was what he told himself. His tentative forays into the dating world this past year had proved one thing: he was over his head and out of practice. Now there was a whole new world of apps, of dating more online than face-to-face.
They paid the waitress and walked out. Curt bumped his shoulder and took his hand. “Makes me feel safer walking the street, knowing I have a cop with me.”
Win chuckled. “Detective. Big difference.”
They turned the corner off busy North 5th to a quieter side street, and when Curt pushed him up against a brick wall, his boldness took Win by surprise. He grunted at the brick digging into his shoulders.
“Oh, yeah? What’re you gonna do, arrest me? Go ahead, Detective. Put the cuffs on me.”
Win opened his mouth to protest, but Curt covered it with his own and pushed his tongue inside. Win’s stomach turned, and he pushed Curt away.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I live a few blocks from here. Let’s go to my place.” Curt reached for him, but Win sidestepped and wiped his mouth.
