After dark, shit started to kick off—a fight in one corner, a few disgruntled patrons in the other, and a guy at the bar who was swearing belligerently at the baseball game on the TV above him.Thankfully, Stevie, this 6’3” white guy with biceps bigger than my head, came on to work the door right about then, and he settled everyone down and kept anyone too drunk to be served from coming in.
It was smoother after that, but fucking exhausting.I took half a break to smoke one time, but otherwise I was behind the bar, sweating.Regulars didn’t come in when we were packed out like that, so the few conversations I had were pretty short and sweet.
And then my past walked in.Larson Drake, the silver fox with control issues, strolled right through the middle of the crowd and up to the bar.He elbowed himself between two people already waiting for a drink and waved to catch my eye.
I held up a finger, then kept washing glasses like my life depended on it.If I just waited a few minutes, Bryn would grab him; we had a rule about saving each other from unwanted flirtation, and that always extended to exes.Drink orders spooled out of the machine, and the bar back—a Pitt student called Alyssa with purple hair and a nose ring that immediately endeared her to me—pushed me out of the way.“I got this, D.Go!”
I started for the register, but Bryn was already on the spooling drink orders.They had not seen Drake—because of course, he liked being called by his last name.Especially if it was prefaced with “Mister.”
I steeled myself and moved to the standing section of the bar.Drake called my name, so I said as coldly as I could, “They were here first,” and took the other two orders.
His eyes bored into the back of my head as I worked on them.I almost put bitters in a cosmo, I was so distracted.Drake hadn’t shown up in forever, not since I dumped his bossy ass and told him to lose my number.Ugh, that had been even more dramatic than the dissolution of the polycule the year before.Partly because I’d actually thought Drake was interesting and I’d been pretty into some of the stuff he showed me, kink-wise.
I just didn’t want it to extend outside the bedroom.And he knew it.And tried it anyhow.
And now a perfectly good DILF was ruined forever.Gross.
I handed off the drinks and finally turned to Drake, smiling as fake as possible.“What can I get you?”
“Crazy in here tonight, huh?”he said in that low, rumbly voice.He had a barrel chest and the pipes to go with it.Met him at a party for the West End Playhouse, where he was a regular leading man.
“Yep,” I said cheerfully.
“North Shore must be a mess,” he guessed.
“Maybe.”I smiled even harder.“What can I get you, Drake?”
He shifted, not looking uncomfortable, exactly, because the smooth prick never did.But this wasn’t going how he wanted.
No, I wasn’t going to pretend we ended as friends.You pushed my firm boundaries, bitch.Fuck off.I lifted my chin and stuck out my tits.
“Come on, Diego,” he said quietly, fixing me with a dark look.“Doesn’t have to be like that.”
“We’re really busy,” I pointed out.“So if you could just tell me what you want, that’d be great.”
He frowned and said, “The usual.”
Fucking prick.If I asked him what he meant, he’d know goddamn well I was being a brat.Which he liked—especially when he got to correct it.And he was dying for me to do what he wanted, right here, in public.Again.
Okay, no.Maybe I was thinking way too much into this, because I was tired and cranky as fuck and seeing someone I genuinely disliked was setting me off.
I took a deep breath.“Coming up.”And turned to make a whiskey sour with bottom tier Four Roses, just like he always drank.My butt vibrated with a text from Stevie on the door:
Stevie
Drake’s in tonight.Wasn’t sure if I should tell him to f off.LMK if you want him out.
I gave it a little heart react, because Stevie was so fucking sweet.But no.I had this.It was 11:45.Taran would be here in 15, and then I was the fuck out of here.
I brought Drake his drink and asked, “Wanna open a tab?”
“Sure.”He reached for his wallet.“When are you off tonight?”
“I have a ride home,” I said without missing a beat.
His gaze flicked back up to meet mine.He smiled wolfishly.
Did he think I was playing his stupid fucking game?Bitch had another thing coming.
