CHAPTER 16
Bryce
“You looklike you’re in love,” Verity said, leaning against the bar at Rapture and staring at the wall of bottles instead of Bryce. Verity was the co-owner of Rapture, alongside their best friend, Landon. Whereas Landon was stoic and practical in most things, unless his husband was around, Verity was like a walking dream. Non-binary, unintentionally androgynous, and utterly breathtaking, there wasn’t a single room Bryce found that wasn’t made better by their presence in some way.
Bryce had worked at Rapture for eight shifts over the last two weeks, and Verity had been around for most of them. They were as much a fixture as the towering stained glass panels on the outside walls, and Bryce had enjoyed watching the way people naturally gravitated toward them.
“That obvious?” he asked, which earned him a melodic laugh.
“I recognize the signs. You look just like Aaron.”
Bryce finished rinsing a pint glass, looking up at Verity from the corner of his eye. “Is your husband so hopeless for you?”
“Of course he is,” Verity teased. “He wouldn’t be my husband if he wasn’t.”
Bryce groaned, nodding his agreement. “I haven’t told him. Not Aaron, but…haven’t told him I love him.”
“What on earth are you waiting for?”
Bryce shrugged, moving on from washing to cutting limes. There was still half an hour before the club opened, and he had plenty of time to get the bar prepped.
“We haven’t been together long. Also, I’m staying with my brother right now, and I don’t think he would like it.”
“Why does your brother’s opinion matter?”
“He’s my brother,” Bryce answered. “Why wouldn’t it?”
“I think it’s one thing to take it into consideration, another thing to let it color your decision making,” Verity said gently.
“They work together.” Bryce shoved the sliced limes into the condiment tray, then refilled the cherries from the jar under the bar. After he finished, he wiped the bar top clean and shoved the towel into his back pocket.
“Do they have to stop working together if you’re in a relationship with…” Verity trailed off, swirling their hand in the air.
“Holden.”
“Do they have to stop working together if you’re in a relationship with Holden?”
“No. I just don’t want it to be weird.”
“You’re very sweet, Bryce, but you’re very young. Too young to worry so much about other people.”
“Verity!” Landon stuck his head out from the back hallway that housed his office. “Do you have a sec?”
“Always for you.” Verity looked at Bryce, cocking their head to the side and giving him a silent appraisal. “Much too young.”
Bryce made a dismissive sound in the back of this throat and said goodbye to his second boss. Well, technically his second. Maybe his third. Rapture was a lot like family, owned by two best friends and staffed by the kind of people who were in groupchats and shared alarm codes. The lead bartender, a man named Callum, was also married to a friend of Landon’s. The other senior bartender was in a relationship with Verity’s brother, and it seemed Callum’s boyfriend and Verity’s brother were the only ones not employed by the club.
It was nice, Bryce had told Merrick and Holden—separately of course—to be in a place that felt so much like home. It made the adjustment of his move a lot easier. But Holden had a big part in that too. The two of them had come so close to admitting things that probably should have had no place in a relationship as new as theirs, but there was no denying how right it all felt when Bryce thought about saying the words.
He’d wanted Holden from the moment they’d seen each other. That walk to the sandwich shop had been torture, Holden’s quiet flirting not making things any easier for him. Their first night together had been groundbreaking for him, and things hadn’t slowed down since. Maybe it was fast to get tested, to commit as quickly as they had, but there was no denying how right it felt. Bryce had been with Bella for years, and he’d never felt for her the things he felt for Holden, and definitely nowhere near the level of intensity.
The past two weeks since he started the job at Rapture had passed in a bit of a blur. He’d seen Holden as much as he could, but not getting off until three in the morning on the weekends meant their time was short. They stole some overnights during the week, but it was hard with Bryce still using Merrick’s car.
Which was precisely why a vehicle of his own was at the top of his to-do list. He’d come into work a little early to get the prep done because he was supposed to meet a guy who had a beater he was trying to sell for five grand. It was a bit more than Bryce wanted to spend, but he didn’t want to waste money on something that wasn’t reliable. Between the tips he’d madeat Rapture and the money he had saved from home, it wouldn’t make too huge of a dent in his savings.
His phone vibrated against his thigh, and he pulled it out to find a text from the car guy and a message from Holden. As much as he wanted to read it, he needed to take care of the car before Rapture opened. He ran out to the parking lot, taking the front stairs two at a time until he landed in the dirt in front of an idling early 2000s BMW 3 series. Even in the fading light of the day, he could tell there were some scratches and dings on the door panels, but that was fine with him as long as the car ran well.
Bryce gave the car a good once-over, test drove it around the block, then paid cash and took the title and the keys. It was quick and painless, and he snapped a picture of the black car beneath the parking lot lights and texted it to his brother.
