She opens her mouth to say something else but is stopped when her boyfriend yells from his car. “Get in the damn car, Leah. Let’s go.”
Her face pales, and I hate it. He has always given me a bad vibe, so I have no shame in the way I glare at him.
“I should go,” Leah says, sounding dejected.
“Bye,” I tell her.
I want to say so many other things, but it’s not my place. We’ve been neighbors for a few years, but she keeps to herself for the most part.
My eyes stay locked on the car as she climbs in, and he drives away. There’s a sinking feeling in my gut, but there isn’t really anything I can do about it.
With a sigh, I turn and walk toward the bar.
Cole is already sitting on a stool on the far side of the bar when I walk in. “Hey, Abs,” he says, pulling me in for a hug. “You look nice.”
“Thanks,” I say, taking the seat beside him. I usually end up wearing scrubs or my mom uniform, which primarily consists of leggings and sweatshirts, but I do like to dress a little fancier sometimes.
There’s already a rum and Diet Coke waiting for me, so I take a hearty sip. “Thank you,” I tell him with an ice cube in my mouth.
He rolls his eyes, laughing. “You’re such a weirdo.”
“But you love me.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“How’s Mav doing today?” I ask.
“Good. He was attempting to teach Riley how to write her first line of code when I left.”
I snort out a laugh. “I’m surprised you made it here. That sounds highly entertaining.”
He takes a drink from his glass of whiskey. “Theo looked like it was the best day of his life.”
“And you say I’m weird.”
A tattooed arm reaches across the bar top, tapping a finger next to Cole’s glass. “Do you need another one, man?”
My gaze follows the inked arm up to a pair of dark brown eyes flecked with gold. His dark brown hair is trimmed short on the sides with longer waves on the top that look intentionally messy.
I have no idea who this man is, but holy hell. He looks like a model you would see posed on a motorcycle or something.
He gives me a wink, and I think it melts my brain. I blink a few times, trying to restore proper mental function. I probably look the opposite of sexy right now, but I can’t seem to manage anything else with the state of mush happening inside my skull.
“And who’s this gorgeous creature?” the man asks. His eyes turn to look at Cole. “Is this your woman?”
I know Cole well enough to understand his beat of silence isn’t because he wants me to be his woman—it’s because he doesn’t know if he wants this man to know that I’m single. He can be rather protective.
My brain finally snaps back to life. “He’s definitely taken, just not by me.”
He rests his forearms against the counter, smirking at me. “Good to know. So why are you at a bar with a taken man, beautiful?”
Cole lets out a low grumble that I’m sure is laced with disapproval, but I ignore his grumpy ass.
“Because somehow he became my best friend, and now I can’t get rid of him.” I hike my thumb in Cole’s direction.
“You don’t want to get rid of me,” Cole mumbles.
“Eh,” I say, taking a sip of my drink. The sexy bartender is still staring at me with a smirk I want to kiss off his face.
