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“Pull up a stool,” I told her as Diane, one of the waitresses, paused by the bar and said she needed two drafts.
I nodded, and she moved to the kitchen to drop off her order as I reached for a glass. “Can I get you a drink?”
“Can I have a Coke?”
“Yes, you may.” I filled a glass with Coke and pushed it over the bar toward her. Her focus was on her tablet and typing fast, using both hands on the glass. Damn, I’d never be able to do more than hunt and peck on a keyboard.
I filled Diane’s order and then chatted with her for a few moments when she came to collect them. When I turned away from her, I noticed that Candy was watching us.
“You need something?” I asked as Diane disappeared into the other room.
“You dating her?” Candy asked.
“Diane?” I laughed. “Oh, no. She’s married with two kids.”
“Ah.” She turned her attention to her tablet. “You ever been married?”
“No, you?”
“Nope.” She paused. “Kids?”
“No. You?”
“No.”
She didn’t ask me anything else, and the phone rang. It held my attention for a few moments, and after I hung up, I went to get something under the bar.
“Girlfriend?”
Why was she asking me these questions? I lifted the box from under the cabinet and dropped it onto the small work area. “I don’t do girlfriends.” She nodded, not even looking my way. “What about you? You got a boyfriend? I haven’t seen you in here with anyone.”
“Not recently. The dating pool for eligible men seems to have dried up around this area.”
I thought about that. She was right. I couldn’t think of the last time I’d run across someone who lived here who could hold my attention for more than a minute—except Candy. “That is true.”
She looked at me. “Which sucks because I am finally in a good place to get involved with someone. I’m ready to find a man to settle down with and have kids, and now no one interests me.”
I scoffed. “I’m sure there are a lot of men who would love to go out with you.”
She rolled her eyes. “Hardly. Those that do ask for a date are boring as hell. The last guy I went out with could only talk about video games. What happened to a man interested in something more than games, fishing, or sports in general? Aren’t there any men out there wanting to talk about what is happening in the world? Or take an interest in something other than themselves?”
I wasn’t sure how to answer that, so I dug inside the box and pulled out a package of napkins for the bar. “I’m sure there is someone out there you haven’t met yet.”
“Maybe, and another thing that pisses me off. You would think that with what is available on the internet, these men might want to get better at sex. My last three partners couldn’t even give me an orgasm, and it’s not that damn hard.”
I lifted my head slowly. Had she just said that?
“I’m sorry. I should not have said that. Sometimes I forget to put the filter on my words.” She put her hand over the bar toward me. “Please forget I said that.”
“Sugar, I’m pretty sure I will never be able to forget you said that.”
She sighed and pulled her hand back, but Howard walked in before I could say anything else, and the two of them moved to a table. I listened as she went through the inspection, explained the minor issues, then detailed the major ones.
“What does that mean?” Howard asked when she finished.
“Howard, your buyer probably won’t want to purchase this place. Not with the structural issues. The building has shifted, but the foundation is collapsing along one wall. You will either have to lower your price significantly or keep it until after the repairs can be done, then try to sell it.”
“What?” He ran a hand over his bald dome. “How much work are you talking?”
