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“The dish bitch is here!” Chuck, one of the bartenders, shouted when I walked inside.
Brax was wiping down the beer taps and not making eye contact with me. This wouldn’t do at all.
I walked over and let myself behind the counter. Shenanigans wasn’t too busy yet, and I’d come a whole ten minutes early and everything. “Did you miss me?” I crossed my arms.
“Yeah.” He shrugged, and I froze, not expecting that answer. “It was tearing me up inside. I just…don’t know how I’ll ever be happy if you’re not with me every minute of every day. It’s like a piece of my heart—no, all my heart and my lungs and—”
“Shut up.” That hadn’t been nice. For a moment I’d thought he was being almost sweet. I was definitely an idiot.
Brax laughed, rich and deep, and fuck, it was a really hot laugh.
“But, Ty…I feel so empty without you. Like I’ll never be complete again. Every time you walk out of the room, it’s like you take all the air with you.”
“I feel like you’ve legit written love poetry about me. You’re too good at it.”
“I’m just speaking the words that are in my heart. You’re my sun…my moon…my very reason for getting out of bed every morning.”
Gwen and Chuck snickered. I was pretty sure a customer joined in too.
Brax tossed a towel over his shoulder, letting it rest there, his hip against the counter where he leaned beside me. He twisted one of the rings on his finger.
“I like you better when you’re brooding.”
“I’ll always brood for you…” Then he bent over and fake-vomited.
I couldn’t help but join in with the group and laugh. “Ha-ha. We get it. Braxton made a joke. Everyone can stop pretending he’s funny now.”
Though there did seem to be some lightness to him this afternoon that I didn’t often see from Brax. I’d wondered how it would be between us. If our admissions and him taking me home to study would make him close down. It was always a toss-up with Brax. I had to admit, I was pleasantly surprised.
“You gonna stand around and watch me all night?” Brax asked, standing up straight again.
“No, because I don’t like you again.”
“When did you ever like me?”
That was a trick question. The first response that came to mind was, When you were on your knees with my dick stuffed in your mouth, but I didn’t figure he would appreciate me putting our hookup on blast. Or our study session. “What do you mean? You’re my best friend. My ride or die. The Bert to my Ernie. I’m gonna tell everyone.”
“Why you gotta ruin my rep like that?”
“Aw, come on, Sunshine. You know you secretly love it.” A group came in, so I backed away from him with a playful wink. “I’m gonna clock in and grab my stuff from the back. See you soon, bestie.”
The stare he gave me was basically fuck my life in visual form. Strangely, it was one of my favorite looks from him.
I headed to the back. SpongeBob wasn’t working today, and someone else was manning the food. I used my app to clock in, then put on an apron. There were dishes stacked up, so I put those in the dishwasher before grabbing my cart and heading to the main part of the bar. There hadn’t been any tables to clean up when I first got there, but there were already a couple now.
I tugged the rubber gloves I’d purchased out of my pocket and got to work. They had some here, but I didn’t like the quality. It was still gross, and I couldn’t pretend I liked messing with people’s dirty utensils.
I scraped old food into the trash, stacked dishes into the bin, and wiped the tables down. Was it ridiculous that I knew my father would be horrified if he saw me? Sometimes I couldn’t believe I’d spent most of my life idolizing him the way I had. I looked at Brax and couldn’t imagine a situation where a person would look down on him for how hard he fought, but my dad would. He sure as shit would freak the fuck out if he knew we were screwing around. Well, that we had screwed around. It didn’t look like that was happening again.
As the evening went on, things got busier. More and more people came in, some that I knew from school. It was crazy to me how often people chilled at a bar. There were even people doing homework with earbuds in, which blew my mind. I mean, I wasn’t gonna lie. I spent a lot of time at Shenanigans, but not as often as some.
“Are you really wearing rubber gloves?” Brax asked as I made my way past the counter toward the back.
“No.” He eyed me, and I added, “I can’t help it! This stuff is gross.”
