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“’Bout nine-thirty, Harley. You good, girl?” His squinty mocha brown eyes even showed a hint of concern. For who? For me? Silly man. I’ve been sitting here in his dirty yet surprisingly cozy beach bar for hours now sipping his magical concoctions.
“Pshh.” I waved a sloppy hand at him. “I’m great! Even better than great. Fucking fantastic!”
“Hmm. Okay well, take it easy for a bit. Why don’t you order something to eat?” He turned and pushed a menu in front of me.
“Nah. No food. More drink.” I slid the menu away and slammed my palm on the bar. I liked the sound so much that I continued to slap my hand against the hard-wooden surface and chant the brilliant song that had come to mind. “No food,” tap. “More drink,” tap tap. “No food,” tap tap tap. “No...” Then I hiccupped, which sent me into a fit of giggles.
“Alright, that’s it.” Hal interrupted me and grabbed my half-empty glass of...what the hell was I drinking?
“Aw come on, Hal! Don’t,” I begged to his turned back, and helplessly watched him dump out the contents of my glass and dunk it a few times in the cleaning solution in the sink. “Hal, you’re supposed to be my best bartender friend! My BBF!” Hal snickered as he walked to the other end of the bar to help a customer.
“Hal!” I yelled after him. “I love the way your name sounds, Hal. It sounds like Haallll. Howl. Hoooowwwlll.” Then my dumb drunk ass proceeded to throw my head back and howl at the ceiling like a fucking lunatic. Yep, I was blissfully wasted. I sat there giggling to myself for a while before looking around at my surroundings. There was a jukebox in the corner that constantly played either depressing country music or those god-awful Margaritaville-ish songs.
Who the hell was choosing those?
I decided to make it my mission to put an end to the musical torture, my ears couldn’t take anymore. I stumbled over to the jukebox while fishing in my purse for quarters. After successfully locating three, I selected some of the best songs ever known to man.
Yes, everyone is going to thank me.
As soon as my first selection began to play, it took everything in me not to turn around and announce to the bar, “You’re welcome.” I found an open area that would make a perfect makeshift dance floor and I began to sing.
“Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh, oh no no.”
Yeah, I was totally giving Beyonce a run for her money right now.
While I stood there shaking my hips to the beat, I felt a hand wrap around my waist.
“Hey!” I jerked away from the stranger and tried to focus on his fuzzy face.
“Hey, yourself,” a deep voice answered back. “Let’s dance, honey.” My lips curled up at the stench of cigarettes on his breath and before I could tell him to get the hell away from me, he jerked me closer to him while grinding his front into my backside. I started slapping clumsily at his hands.
“Leave me alone, asshole!” Is what I meant to say but my drunken lips and tongue were not on the same page as my brain. The words came out pathetically jumbled, mostly slurs of sound that made no sense. I continued my struggle, but his hold only tightened on me. Suddenly Marlboro Breath was snatched away and thrown against a nearby table. I turned around to see those same bright blue eyes from yesterday.
Fox.
“Back the fuck off!” he growled at my attacker.
Chapter Six
Fox advanced forward as the other man stepped backward and stumbled over his own feet.
“Okay. Okay, chill, D— “
“Woody, I already kicked your ass once this week,” Fox interrupted Woody’s slurring. “And you’re aiming for a repeat.”
“Alright. Whatever, man.” Woody grumbled as he turned to me, “Sorry.” Then he shot back the rest of the drink in his glass and made his way to the exit.
“Are you okay, Harley?” I looked up to see Fox’s concerned face focused on me.
“Uh, um. Yeah. I’m fine,” I stuttered as my hands absently righted my clothes, still reeling from what had just taken place.
“Sorry about Woody. He sometimes gets too handsy with the female customers and ends up getting kicked out at least once a week.”
“Why the hell is he allowed to keep coming in here?”
“He’s my brother so it’s kind of hard to stay mad at him.”
&n
