I sat on my stool again and waited in anticipation as the bartender made the drink, and I tried not to stare as he delivered it. I wanted to project the image that I was calm and collected, even though I was falling apart on the inside, wondering what he would do.
My heart sank as Micah said something to the bartender, who came back to me with a small, amused smile and set the orange drink in front of me. I slid the tequila sunrise in front of Milo, who slid it down to Tori, who passed it to Brisco. He made a happy sound and started to drink it, and I laughed, even though I felt like a piece had been cut out of my chest.
“So, he’s too mad at me to take it?” I asked.
The bartender shook his head. “He said he doesn’t drink alcohol.”
My insides jolted in excitement. This wasn’t over. “Well, can you make him something nice that isn’t alcoholic?”
The bartender turned around and studied the bottles on the racks behind him, then spun toward me. “How about a sparkling rose and elderflower lemonade? No alcohol, unique, guaranteed to impress?” The man waggled his eyebrows. “It usually works.”
“Do it!” I waved a hand at him. “There’s a huge tip in your future.”
The bartender laughed, and I hummed when he was finished working, then carried a tall glass full of fizzy, lavender liquid with a few rose petals scattered on top down to Micah and put it in front of him. There was a small back and forth, probably to confirm that it wasn’t alcoholic, and my heart jerked happily when he took a sip and smiled, nodding at the bartender, who then moved on to someone else.
The attractive guy I didn’t know—or care to meet—was glaring at me now; although, he did it on the sly, flashing Micah that smirk whenever Micah glanced in my new enemy’s direction.
“Oh, okay, that was good,” Milo said as Micah shot me a long look. He was ignoring the motormouth who kept talking nonstop. Our gazes connected, and it was like I touched a live wire. All I could see was him. My entire body felt as if it was awake for the first time since he’d left me on the sidewalk in front of the police station.
I was being pulled by an invisible string as I got up and took a deep breath. “I’m going over,” I murmured to Milo.
“Okay, but don’t push it. You two had a bad fight.” He slapped my shoulder.
I grunted. Milo was probably right. Taking a deep breath, I walked over to Micah and slid in at his side.
“And that’s what I do for the school. I keep the entire network running, and who might you be? That’s a lot of jewelry, isn’t it? Why do you have the wordburntattooed on your neck?” My new nemesis blinked at me, his brown eyes bright with curiosity.
“Excuse me,” I said to him, then turned to Micah. “Would you like to spend a few minutes getting to know me? I saw you when you came in, and I couldn’t imagine spending the night talking to anyone else.” I laid on the charm thick, giving him my best smile.
Pink spread across Micah’s cheeks as the stranger looked him over, and a couple of his friends—one I recognized from the police station—leaned around to see what was going on. I half expected him to say no—I braced for it—but after another sip of his drink, he glanced at me from the corner of his eye.
“All right. You have my attention.”
A frantic sensation blasted through my chest. I glanced around the room and spotted an open table. “Would you like to go over there?” I asked, pointing.
He nodded, and I tried to remember how to breathe as we walked together, our arms brushing, then each took a seat on the opposite side of the table. He stared at me with eyes full of pain and betrayal and a thousand other things that I fucking hated, so I went to his side and sat there. He laughed and stared down into the bubbles popping in his drink as if it was a crystal ball that would tell him what to do.
I leaned in to kiss him, but he put his hand in front of his mouth. I pressed my lips to his fingertips, though, and he sagged toward me like he wished we were touching from head to toe. All I wanted was to be with him, and I had to hope he felt the same way.
He cleared his throat as I sat back. “My acceptance of flowers and one drink doesn’t equal forgiveness. What you tried to do was beyond awful.”
My stomach dropped and I nodded. “I know. I’m not proud of it.”
“Alex told me he was in the wrong.” Micah sent me a long look, but I couldn’t decide what he was thinking.
“I’m sorry that you got caught up in that, but I’mnotsorry I met you.”
A small smile tugged at his lips, and I wanted to touch him so badly that I had to curl my hand into a fist on my thigh to stop myself from doing it. “We don’t even know each other. You didn’t know I don’t drink alcohol.” He shot me a tiny, almost scared glance.
“I do now, though. And trust me, I’ll remember. I want to get to know you. We’ve been learning about each other all along. I remember a lot of things you enjoy.”
Another cute blush spread across his cheeks, and all I wanted to do was kiss him, but I didn’t want to push when he’d asked me to be patient.
“Are you okay being here with that guy?” I asked, glaring back at the bar.
“I’m not herewithhim,” he said, and the seriousness in his tone had me staring directly into his gray eyes. “I came out with friends. Flynn invited me to dinner at his house, and he got the idea into his head that maybe me meeting someone else would be nice. But I’m not interested.” His knee brushed against mine.
I nudged him back as my heart pounded triple time.
