Page 14 of The Bartender Special

Benny might have looked wary at the sarcasm, but he followed Jack all the same.

The clearing had been kept up since the early nineties but had withered in a few areas since Jack’s uncle had retired. The picnic table had greened in a few spots and the lone solar lamp post had a broken bulb that neither Knox cousin had bothered replacing in the last two years. The shed, however, had held up despite their neglect.

Benny glanced toward it but followed Jack willingly to the table across from it.

“I didn't know all of this was back here,” he said.

“My uncle may own the bar, but he’s always hated sitting inside it. Says he needs the fresh air to think better when he's looking over the books, so he put all this out here.”

Benny nodded. He was careful as he took his seat but didn’t complain about it looking a little rough.

“Sometimes you just have to step away from it all,” he said instead.

When Jack settled opposite, he decided to cut the small talk and go big.

“Okay, so here are the facts. You have the hots for Marcus Robertson and don't want to admit it, but we all know that with Carol after you, keeping it a secret probably isn’t going to work long term. I am having issues with the new bar down the road stealing customers and wouldn’t mind some good publicity for Cassidy’s. Since you're the most famous thing Arbor Bay has at the moment, I think you can help that happen. So why not take out two birds with one stone? Let’s pretend we're together and be loud about it.”

Benny narrowed his eyes.

“I don't have the hots for Marcus anymore,” he said, surprisingly fierce. “It was—It was first love. That’s all. It’s over and done.”

Jack clapped.

“Even better,” he exclaimed. “That will make our arrangement even less complicated. But I'm still guessing you don't want Marcus to know that you did have the hots for him?”

Benny gave a slow nod to that.

“Then, why not let us use some good ol’ fake dating as the one stone to take out our problems?”

There was no reason, as far as Jack was concerned, to add in the part about Marcus’s new fiancée—Felicity—being his ex. That, in all of the world, she had to date and plan to marry the one person who stood for everything Jack wasn’t.

So, he didn't.

Even without that complication, Benny was in a pickle. An embarrassing, awkward pickle.

And he knew it.

“That's a really weird stone,” he said after a moment.

“Weird doesn't mean it's not effective.”

Benny’s shoulders visibly tensed.

“And you don’t mind that I’m… Well, I’m, you know…” He motioned to himself.

Jack didn’t immediately understand.

“That you’re, what? Awkward?”

Benny finally seemed to feel some confidence. He sat up straighter.

“That I’m not a woman,” he clarified.

Jack waved his hand through the air dismissively.

“If I only dated women, I wouldn’t have swooped in and made out with a man in front of the Peanut Gallery. Don’t worry. Unlike you, I’m not one who throws myself into situations I don’t benefit from.”

Benny’s eyes narrowed again. Instead of volleying a defense back, he tucked his bottom lip into his mouth.