Page 115 of The Bartender Special

Jack’s eyebrow rose.

“Let me guess, not the answer that wins awards, huh?”

Benny felt the smile before it curled up the corner of his lips.

“Actually, that was incredibly sweet, Mr. Knox. I didn’t know you had that in you.”

Jack actually seemed surprised.

“You think me saying I like the sound of scraping chairs is good enough to hang a lifelong dream on?” He snorted.

Benny realized then another fatal flaw to their plan of fake dating.

He couldn’t ignore that he was actually getting to know the man cosplaying as his boyfriend.

Which meant he knew that Jack wasn’t being self-deprecating.

He was trying to hide the fact that he was genuinely asking.

Benny made sure to not to punish the effort.

He answered by pushing up onto the balls of his feet so he could reach Jack’s lips comfortably. He nuzzled his hand in between the strands of crochet to steady himself as he kissed the bartender softly.

The moment didn’t need him to linger.

Benny broke the quick kiss and went back to flat ground.

“If I can build a dream around one calendar day a year, why can’t you build a dream around the sounds of being alive?”

The sound of clapping timed perfectly from the front of the bar. It was muffled by the door, but there all the same.

Benny thumbed over his shoulder toward it.

“That’s what’s out there right now waiting for you—the reason why you’re willing to play dress up while other people drink their beer—it’s the sounds of the living.” Benny dropped his hand quick, before Jack could get a word out, and did something he probably should have only done for show. He smacked Jack’s ass with a playfulness that made its own little sound.

“Now,” Benny continued. “Go make those sounds louder. Maybe shake your ass a little while you’re at it.”

A knock rapped against the door.

Dewey called out that it was time.

Jack, for a second, didn’t move.

Then, right when Benny worried that he’d gone too far, the bartender gave him one, deep nod.

“Yes sir.”

* * *

Who knew Cassidy's regulars had such strong opinions about his nipples?

Jack hadn't thought they would.

But, boy, did they ever.

And they voiced them all during the five outfits Jack showcased down Cassidy’s makeshift runway.

“Some people like knowing they’re there, others don’t,” a man named Cotton had called out during the outfit that had sported star-shaped pasties. “You can’t be mad at that.”