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Here goes nothing.
2
Claire
I walk into Dirty Dicks and, thanks to my incessant Instagram stalking, I spot Joseph right away. He’s standing at the end of the bar, sipping on a drink with one hand tucked casually into his pocket, and sure enough, just to the left of him sit Rhett, Trevor, and Lincoln.
“Hey, Claire, what can I get ya?”
I turn my attention to the bartender, Sarah. “I’ll have a Bud Light, please.”
She reaches into the cooler, pops the top off a bottle, and hands it to me as her gaze follows mine to the opposite end of the bar. “Are we staring at Trevor and Lincoln or the sexy stranger next to them?”
“The stranger.”
“Do you know him?” she asks.
“His name is Joseph, and tonight is our first date.”
“Ahh. Mo got to you again, huh?”
“I hate her.” I look at Sarah, and we both start laughing. “Why does she do this to me?” I fake-whine.
“The real question is why do you let her to do it to you?”
I take a drink of my beer and shrug. “Because I can’t say no. Because I’m an idiot. Because I’ve got nothing better to do. Because I would love to find a good, dependable, strong man. Should I continue?”
Sarah chuckles. “No. I think I’ve got the picture. For what it’s worth, he seems nice. I waited on him when he first got here.”
“How long ago was that exactly? I mean, I’m twenty minutes early, but my best friend owns the place. What’s his excuse?”
Lifting an eyebrow, Sarah examines me. “You’re already looking for something wrong with him, aren’t you?”
“I am not.”
“Are too.”
“Don’t you have someone to wait on, customers who could use a refill or something?”
I’m totally joking and she knows it, which is why she puts her elbows on the bar and leans toward me. “I’ll tell you what, when things go south with Joseph at the end of the bar, find me, and I’ll set you up with a real man.”
Well, that’s an interesting offer, and I’m intrigued as to who she would consider a real man.
“I just might take you up on that. But first…” I tilt my bottle toward the end of the bar and stand. “Do me a favor, would ya? Keep the three stooges focused on anything but me and my date.”
“I’ll do my best, but you know as well as I do that as soon as they spot you, they’ll be watching like a set of horny ladies in the front row of a Magic Mike show.”
The vision makes me laugh. I tip my beer at Sarah and walk away.
I’m halfway across the room when Joseph looks up and spots me. I have no clue if he knew what I looked like, but he pushes away from the bar and strides toward me.
“You must be Claire.” His smile is warm and friendly when he reaches for my hand. I slip my fingers around his for a quick shake.
“And you must be Joseph. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
He points to the beer in my hand. “Have you been here long?”
“Just a couple of minutes.”
