While I always felt like I had to yield the right of way in a busy place because I was a bigger person, Eli used his broad shoulders and height to part the crowd.
He gave a nod to the man who was helping the woman beside him up from her seat. “They’re all yours,” the man said.
Eli stepped up and took a card out of his wallet for the bartender.
“I can get—”
“No protesting,” Eli said. “You don’t cry on my shoulder and then buy your own drink. It’s a universal law.”
The bartender, an older man who looked like he could play a very convincing Santa Claus at a rich-people mall, took Eli’s card. “What can I get you two?”
“I’ll have a Sazerac,” Eli told him.
“A mint julep, please,” I said.
The bartender nodded and then held up Eli’s card. “Leave it open or closed?”
“Leave it open for now.” Eli rested his elbows on the bar top, his hands clasped.
I stared at the vein traveling up his forearm for a moment too long before I realized he was talking to me.
“I’m sorry. What was that?”
“I was just saying that I can take Ruby around to all her events tomorrow. You should stay back and enjoy the hotel.”
“We’ll see. This isn’t really new territory for us.” I hadn’t even considered tomorrow. Or even the next few hours. I’d have to go back to the room eventually and see her, but that was a Future Vera problem. “This place is... great... ” I said over the swelling music.
“Except?”
“Please don’t judge me.”
“Judgment-free zone,” he said, although I could barely hear him.
“I hate live music. And I don’t get people who like it.”
He snorted. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re in the wrong city.”
“I don’t know what to tell you! If I want to hear music, I’ll go to a concert. But I don’t want to stumble upon it when I’m just trying to have a conversation with someone.”
“Sounexpectedlive music?”
“Yes. Red flag.”
“What are your other red flags?”
I leaned in closer to him as the music started up again so he could hear me. “Um... grapefruits.”
He studied me with bemused confusion.
“But justactualgrapefruits. Not grapefruit-flavored things.”
“That hardly seems fair to grapefruits.”
“Do you work for Big Grapefruit? I’m pretty sure grapefruits are doing fine without my support. And the aftertaste is... blech!” Just the thought made me gag. “What are your red flags?”
“The Rainbow Bridge.”
“The Rainbow Bridge? As in when a pet dies, they cross the Rainbow Bridge?”
