AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d been counting bills and inserting them into their correct slot in the cash register when someone tapped the bar top behind me. “What can I get you?” I asked, focusing on my task.
“Gin. Neat.”
“Coming right up,” I called over my shoulder, slamming the drawer closed. I reached for the bottle of Sapphire on the top shelf and poured two-fingers into a tumbler. “Here you—” The glass slipped from my hand, crashing and splintering at my feet as the rest of my words lodged themselves in my throat, refusing to budge.
A carbon copy of Franky perched on the stool in front of me, only he was over two decades younger, and his eyes were blue instead of a blazing onyx.Cole.
He peered behind him, as if my hard glare couldn’t possibly be directed at him. “Are you okay?”
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“Excuseme?” He looked out of place on this side of town, and now that my initial shock had worn off, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and how unnaturally pronounced his cheek bones were.
“Your expensive suit tells me that you could literally go anywhere in this city to grab a drink, so why are you here of all places?”
Molly, the barback, came over with a broom and dustpan, cleaning up the glass shards as the other customers waited impatiently for me to pull it together. I thanked her, then asked if she could take a few orders from my side of the bar as I dealt with Cole. I stepped aside so she could drop a bar towel onto the puddle of gin.
“Do all drink requests come with an interrogation? And is your employer aware that you profile and discriminate against paying customers?” he asked, hackles rising, ready to lay waste to me for insinuating he couldn’t be wherever the hell he wanted to. And he didn’t have to raise his voice to do it either. I’d heard him clearly over the music and buzz of conversation around us.
I searched the bar for Franky as Cole waited for my comeback. What the fuck was happening?
“Are you alone?”
“Are you high?” he countered.
“H-how did you find this place? You’re not from around here.”
“And the insults keep coming,” he said acerbically. “Will telling you get me a drink?”
“Yes,” I said, my body going cold.
“If you must know, I didn’t want to attract attention to myself tonight. I found one of your bar napkins in my father’s SUV and took it as a sign. Now can I get that drink? And make it a double.”
So Frankyhadbeen here that night. I hadn’t seen him, but I’d felt him. There was an electrical charge that zinged through whatever room he occupied. A raising of neck hairs and a quiet, but unmistakable, call of everyone’s attention that he wasn’t even aware he possessed. Or maybe he knew but saw acknowledging it as being beneath him.
I’d searched high and low for the source of it after finishing up with a quick fuck in the restroom, but I’d come up empty. Except… Except the booth in the far-right corner in the back. The only place I hadn’t looked because Johnny had cornered me.
“If you were looking for a place to go unnoticed,” I started, getting back to my current panic attack, “you should’ve left the Rolex at home.” My fear made me cruel, or maybe I had the years of not giving a fuck to thank for that.
“Thanks for the tip,” he snipped. His shoulders slumped as he massaged his forehead. Whatever zap of energy he’d gained from my inappropriateness was now gone, replaced by a sadness tangible enough to mold with my hands. “I’ll have that gin now. And keep them coming.”
If Franky had been here, did that mean… No, it couldn’t meanthat. Could it?
“This might sound strange,” I started cautiously, “but did something happen to you? Or to someone important to you?”
“Christ, does therapy come as a side, too, in this place?”
“No, it doesn’t,” I said, backing away, the raw grief in his eyes giving me my answer. “Your drink’s coming right up.” Selene’s son sat in front of me, devastated by the loss of her, and I had to bite into my cheek to make myself not care.It isn’t your problem, Leland.
I made his drink and then begged Molly to switch ends of the bar with me as an extra precaution, because I refused to fucking give a damn.
I worked the rest of the night on autopilot, doing my best not to notice him move through the stages of inebriation. It was kind of hard not to once his cheek met the bar top, though.
“Good night,” Molly said sympathetically, flipping over the open sign on her way out. It was my shit luck that I had to close up, and so I was stuck, alone in Josephine’s, with a shit-faced Cole.
I rinsed the last martini glass in the bar sink, then ambled over to where he now slouched over his empty glass.
“Do you have a driver waiting outside?”
