“Ohhh. Riiiiiight,” he drawled. “I guess Pour Willy’s would be slumming for an Eddings.”
“Are you gonna keep up with that snobby rich girl stuff?” Parrish asked. “’Cuz if you are, you can just catch a ride home with Sarebear or one of your other homeboys who work here.”
Garrett held up both hands in a sign of surrender. “Damn. Sorry if I offended.”
He took a long slug of beer, and she stirred her drink with the straw.
“Garrett!” a sunburnt blonde called from a few barstools away. “Where you been all week? We missed you Tuesday night.”
“Sorry, had to work,” he yelled back.
“Call me, m’kay?”
“I will. Totally,” he said, turning back to Parrish.
She raised an eyebrow. “Who’s that girl, and what happens Tuesday nights?”
“That’s just Courtney. Tuesday night is darts league. But I don’t play every week. Now, what were you about to say?”
Parrish pulled her long hair behind one ear. “It’s really tiresome, having people make assumptions about me all the time. I raised my share of hell, but I didn’t try to sneak in here underage because I was afraid of what would happen if I got caught.”
“What? You’d get shunned?”
“More like screamed at for embarrassing the family.” She looked around the room. “How do you know all these people?”
“Lived here all my life, went to school with some of ’em, worked with a couple of the guys and drank with most of ’em…”
“And slept with half the ladies?”
He grinned sheepishly. “Not quite half.”
The bartender held up a bottle of Gran Patrón Platinum. “You ready?”
“Hit me,” Garrett said, holding out the shot glass. He knocked it back and blinked. “Burns so good.”
“How about the lady?” the bartender asked, holding up the bottle of Tanqueray.
Parrish covered her glass with her hand. “No thanks. Still working on this one.”
Garrett had been scanning the room, but now he tapped her forearm. “Hey, there’s an open high-top over there. I’ll settle up here and you can go claim it.” He pushed a ten-dollar bill across the bar. “Jamie, my man, that’s for you. Now, why don’t you go ahead and fix a freshie for the lady, and then gimme a double, rocks this time.”
“Drink up,” Garrett urged, pushing the new drink across the high-top to Parrish.
“Don’t rush me,” she said. “Still don’t see your friends from the Verandah?”
“Screw ’em. I’m having fun with you.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, why not? Tell me something about the mysterious Parrish Eddings.”
She thought about it. “Well… I’m tone-deaf. Totally. Which is why I don’t do karaoke.”
“No karaoke,” he said solemnly. “I’ll make a note. What else?”
“I don’t like seafood. I can’t stand guys who smoke. I speak fluent Spanish, I like to drive fast, and I have every episode ofFriendsdownloaded onto my iPad. I watch them late at night, when I need cheering up.”
“Who’s your favorite guy onFriends?”
