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“Think they know we’re new here?” I mumble, leaning closer to her.
Despite the bouncer letting us walk straight in, I feel like I’ve stumbled into a place where I shouldn’t be. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve done something similar. After all, I followed two strangers into a whole different realm because of sheer curiosity.
If we weren’t allowed to come here, surely they wouldn’t have let us in.
“Let's get drinks,” she says, clearing her throat and tugging at the hem of her dress. However, rather than pull it down toward her knees, she hikes it up a little higher. “Hopefully they’ll be free.”
I giggle and follow her lead, wondering where she found all this confidence since the last time I saw her, but deciding not to question it. Maybe a pair of heels and a new dress brings a bit of her badass out, and I’m fully supportive.
We sidle up to the bar next to a gentleman dressed in all black and Cara bats her eyelashes at him confidently.
“Good evening,” she says, before turning her attention to the bartender. He’s a tall, broad man with a black goatee and a thick brow. The sleeves of his button-up are rolled up to his elbows, and he’s polishing a wine glass with a towel. “I’ll have a gin and coke with cherry juice if you’ve got it.”
I scrunch my nose up, but before I can judge her drink order too harshly, the bartender shifts his gaze in my direction.
“And for you?” he asks, his impossibly deep voice giving me the shivers.
“Uhh.. a Sex on the Beach.” It’s not my drink of choice, but for some reason it’s the first thing that comes to mind. I blame it on the nerves as he nods and gets to work, moving more fluidly than any human should be able to move.
I glance over in time to see Cara’s eyebrows shoot up as she watches him make our drinks in a few seconds–a record I’m sure–and I can’t help but wonder if this man is a human at all. My stomach knots into a ball, and something tells me I don’t want to find out the answer.
Movement on my right catches my attention as a man takes a seat next to me, and I offer him a timid smile before looking away again.
“Do you want to start a tab?” the bartender asks as he carefully slides our drinks toward us across the bar.
I open my mouth to say yes–after all, I have plenty of money to blow–but the man sitting to my right interjects.
“Put it on mine, Lin.”
The bartender nods and turns to his computer before I can even process what just happened, and when I look over at the man beside me, my heart skips a nervous beat. He has dark, shoulder-length hair and piercing green eyes. A five o’clock shadow traces his jawline, and an orange Saturn earring dangles from one of his ears.
He’s undeniably handsome, but the way he stares so comfortably into my eyes gives me the impression that I’ve seen him before. Where? I have no clue, especially since his features don’t strike me as familiar.
“Thank you very much,” I say, reaching for my drink and putting it to my lips. To my surprise, it’s the best Sex on the Beach I’ve ever had.
“No problem,” the gentleman says before taking a swig of his own drink. By the smell of it, it’s straight whiskey. “I haven’t seen you here before. Are you new to the area?”
He doesn’t speak very loud, and I strain to hear him over the thrum of the music playing. I’m also still trying to figure out where I could know him from. Maybe he just has one of those faces that people often think they recognize.
“Not new around here, but new to this bar,” I assure him. “It’s nice.”
“Eh, it’s alright,” he says playfully, shooting Lin the bartender a cocky look. “As long as you avoid certain fuckers in here, am I right?”
Lin’s thin lips curl into a smile and he nods. “Like this one,” he says, pointing to the man next to me. “Steer extra clear of him.”
The man to my right laughs heartily and waves a dismissive hand.
“The name’s Nate,” he says, offering me a hand to shake.
“Devyn,” I reply without taking a second to wonder if giving out my real name could cause any issues. It’s too late to worry about it now, but perhaps I’ll come up with an alias going forward just as an extra precaution.
On my left, Cara giggles and I look over to find her deep in conversation with the gentleman on her other side. To my surprise, her glass is already half empty, and I chuckle to myself.
She wasn’t kidding about finding a man tonight.
“I was serious though,” Nate says, grabbing my attention again. He sips gingerly from his glass and waits until the bartender moves to the other end of the bar to speak again. “Careful who you trust in this place.”
With that, he gets up and walks away, leaving me staring after him with several unanswered questions forming. I can’t say it’s the strangest encounter I’ve ever had, but it comes close to the top of the list. Who buys a girl a drink, warns her to be cautious, and then leaves?
