She arrived at Baker’s and entered to a dim interior. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust, and she scanned left and right, expecting to see Brandt sitting at the bar, only a few paces inside the door, waiting for her.
He wasn’t, so Elaine took those steps and sat down on the end barstool.
The bartender came closer, and she said, “I’m waiting for someone. Has anyone else come in?”
“No, ma’am,” he said. “I know better than to ask if you want anything to drink. Club soda, sparkling water, Diet Coke?”
Elaine smiled at Lynn Turner and drummed her fingernails on the countertop. “Sparkling water, please, with lemon and lime, if you have them.”
“I do, ma’am.” He turned his back on her to get the drink, and Elaine pulled out her phone to check the time. She’d left her house at the very last minute, so she wasn’t surprised to find that it’d hit seven o’clock already.
Brandt was late.
Elaine knew there were good reasons for being late, and that everybody got caught up from time to time, but Brandt had a habit of it with seemingly few good reasons. Her irritation with him and her determination to break up with him solidified.
Lynn put the drink in front of her, and she smiled at him. “Thank you.”
She sipped it, wondering if she had to go to dinner with Brandt to end the relationship. Perhaps simply meeting him face-to-face, sitting with him at the bar for twenty minutes, and then patting his hand and saying, “I don’t think it’s going to work,” would be enough.
Other parties and couples continued to enter the brewery, because they served the best bacon cheeseburgers in town. ButElaine didn’t see Brandt. The din increased with conversation and laughter, and Elaine felt small and removed from it as she watched everyone else having a good time. She sat alone and forgotten, stewing over her next move and what her life would be like tomorrow when she woke up boyfriend-less once again.
Disappointment cut through her, but Elaine knew Brandt wasn’t the man for her. Her eyes moved to a corner booth when it erupted with laughter, and her ears somehow picked out a tone that had a ring of familiarity to it. Sure enough, as she watched, Brandt himself rose from the end of the bench in the horseshoe-shaped booth, pulled his wallet out, and threw some money on the table. Then he turned toward her and took a couple of steps in her direction before the smile dropped from his face.
She stared, because he’d been here this whole time and had made her wait for the past twenty minutes alone on the barstool. She automatically searched the booth he’d come from and found it full of men. Still, her whole plan for the evening changed as she watched Brandt teeter on his feet and have to reach out and grab the back of a chair to steady himself.
Her heart pounded through her chest, because she didn’t drink, and she didn’t want to be with a man who did. Brandt had only had a very light amount of alcohol on their previous dates, but as he slid onto the barstool next to her, he smelled like he’d drunk the entire brewery before gracing her with his presence.
“Howdy, sweetheart,” he drawled, and he leaned over to give her a kiss.
Elaine turned her head, disgust rearing through her. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Oh, just a little bit, sweetheart,” he said. “I knew you wouldn’t want me to during dinner.”
“So you came early and made me wait?” She pinned him with what she hoped was a dark, intense look.
Brandt didn’t seem to feel it at all, and he merely smiled at her.
“It seems like you’re already out with your friends,” she said. “And you don’t need me here tonight.”
“That’s not true, Laney.” He took her hand in his, but Elaine swiftly pulled away.
“Listen, Brandt, I don’t think this is going to work.”
Where he’d been all smiles and softness andsweetheartsbefore, he turned rock-hard with those words. “You don’t thinkwhatis going to work?”
“Us,” she said simply.
“Because I had a few drinks with my friends before our date?”
“No,” Elaine said. “I asked you to meet me here, so I could break-up with you. I’ve been planning to do it for a few days now. This is just a cherry on top of my right decision.”
The dark eyes she’d once found so handsome now blazed with alcohol and anger. “Well, that doesn’t work for me,” he said. “Because you and me, Elaine, are written in the stars, and I hadmuchdifferent plans for us tonight than a break-up.”
“Good thing you’re so flexible.” Elaine reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty. She left it on the counter and set her now-empty sparkling water glass on top of it. “I’ll see you around,” she said, hoping her message got through clear enough and that he’d remember they’d broken up when he woke up in the morning, hung over.
She slid her phone into her bag and tipped to her left off the barstool, so she wouldn’t have to go toward him. She’d only taken two steps when he latched onto her arm, his hot breath washing over her earlobe as he growled, “You’re not just walking out of here.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” Elaine said. “Let go of me.”
