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Summer, grinning like an idiot, finished sliding away—after not so subtly taking a picture of Daniel. “Just in case I need to be able to give the police a lead,” she said as she sauntered off.
Daniel’s smile widened into a grin. “Friend?”
“Best friend. She came to wait with me.”
“Oh? And who were you waiting for?” He held out a hand. “I’m Daniel, by the way.”
Ahh, okay. This was how they were doing it. She shook his hand, “Autumn.”
“Can I buy you a drink?”
“I have one.” She lifted her nearly full glass. “Can I buy you one?”
He didn’t balk or look offended or pull any other stupid toxic masculine bullshit. “Yes, thank you.”
“What would you like?” Autumn managed to catch the eye of one of the servers.
He ordered a whiskey sour from the server, who headed for the bar, leaving them alone together.
“You know,” Daniel said after a moment. “This is the third bar I’ve been to tonight.”
Autumn let out a soft laugh, shaking her head. “That’s funny. I was having trouble deciding which bar I should go to. There were three possibilities.”
“Did you go to all of them?”
“No, I thought maybe I should just stay here and wait.”
“Shall I do a clichéd pickup line about how you must have been waiting for me?” His words said one thing, but his expression…it was tentative. He wanted to make sure she was here waiting for him.
“No clichés. I think you’re…we’re better than that.”
“You’re right. We are.”
The server delivered his drink, and Daniel raised it. “A toast.”
“What are we toasting to?” She picked up her own glass.
“To…meeting in bars.”
They each took a sip, setting their glasses down almost in sync. Daniel scooted over, so he was sitting in the corner of the padded bench area. He stretched his arms out along the top of the bench seating. She thought she felt his fingers brush against her hair, a touch so feather light she couldn’t be sure it was real.
No more pretending.
Autumn slid over, cuddling against Daniel’s side. His arm dropped down to encircle her. Holding her close.
“Hi,” she whispered.
“Hi,” he replied, just as quietly.
“I thought it was crazy of me to do this. To come here in case you came looking for me.”
“I was going crazy worrying that we’d miss each other by hopping from place to place. It would be like a scene from a movie, I’d walk in minutes after you left.”
“We really should have exchanged numbers.”
“Maybe, but maybe you weren’t ready for that yesterday.” He shifted, easing her away enough so that he could look down at her. “Maybe you weren’t ready, because you’d opened yourself up. You told me your secret, and about your past.” He took a deep breath. “I didn’t reciprocate.”
She’d expected him to. Had sat quietly on his lap for half an hour, assuming he was going to start talking. The fact that he hadn’t shared anything personal with her, after she’d shared so much with him, had hurt, but by that point she’d been emotionally wrung out enough that she hadn’t had the energy to get really upset.
