Page 16 of The Bartender Special

“Then,” Jack said, feeling the first twinge of excitement in a long while. “It looks like we have a deal.”

FOUR

It was all moving too fast.

Too dang fast.

Just like hitting Public in the settings and then having the key to changing your entire life dangled in front of you days later, going back home to hide from it all only to declare a fake relationship with one of only two bartenders in all of Arbor Bay…

It was all moving at a speed that made Benny feel almost ridiculous.

Things like this just didn’t happen.

Not outside of movies.

Not to him.

Not because of him.

And this time, Benny didn't even have the luxury of blaming his bad decisions on drinking too much.

No. This time he'd made the bad decision with a mostly clear head and a slightly intrigued libido.

But pretending to date Jack Knox in exchange for giving his bar some of his limelight?

It had seemed like a straightforward, simple idea at the time.

Post about the bar and they will come meets help me keep my secret and they will never know.

It was a theoretically sound idea. In fact, it continued to be as he’d groaned himself to bed the night before.

Yet when daylight had crept in and gently reminded him that time had continued in chronological order while he’d slept?

Then their plan’s plot holes became craters.

First of all, Benny didn't know Jack. Not in any way that counted. He'd gone through the man’s social media the night before—all while ignoring the overwhelmingly long list of notifications on his own—and found that Jack was one of those people who probably wished he could roll back smart phones to analog. Among the few public posts Jack had on the internet, most were old pictures of him at Cassidy’s Place, usually next to Dixon or the drink of the week.

His profile pictures were the only points of interest across the few sites he could be found on.

Though, Benny might have been biased about what interesting meant.

It was the same profile picture repeated across multiple accounts, but it certainly left an impression.

Jack in a white button-up shirt, dark blue blazer left open over it, and a tie that had been loosened at his neck was a sight.

Benny also appreciated that the picture seemed to be a candid one. A frozen moment in time where he was talking to Dixon behind the bar.

Benny, as someone who appreciated shiny and good-looking things, saved the picture to his desktop.

It made sense to have his fake beau's picture saved somewhere, right?

The second, but equally as big, crater in their plan was the fact that Jack didn't know Benny. He could admit he wasn’t some multi-faceted being who needed intense observation and study to understand, but there were some awkward nuances that Benny believed should at least be signed off on before anyone committed to him, fake relationship or not.

Could they really fake a compatible partnership? Could they mimic a believable rhythm?

The third gaping hole of an issue, and not even the last of its kind, was the one that had Benny's stomach knotted up the most.

Their lie that Jack was Guy wouldn't just affect Benny’s life while he was in Arbor Bay. It would also give him a real chance at having literary agent Rizzie Caplan officially represent him and The One Who Said Nothing.