when the noise disappears.
The music fades.
The people blur.
Time warps.
All of it collapses the second I look up.
And seeAndrew.
Behind the bar.
And I stop moving.
Five feet away,
and it might as well be a hundred.
He’s wiping down a glass,
unaware he just shattered the night.
Sleeves pushed up, black dress shirt, black tie.
Everything I’ve been trying to stop thinking about—all there.
My stare sinks into him.
He feels it.
And lifts his eyes.
Gaze rising slow.
Until our eyes crash.
And he freezes.
The shock hits.
His face goes blank.
Forgetting where he is.
We’ve done this before?—
me on this side, him behind the bar.
But this time I didn’t see it coming.
He wasn’t ready to see me, either.
The impact’s written all over his face.
Neither of us moves.
We just stare.
