AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nyx was someone who paid careful attention to her appearance. When you worked in a service job and you wanted to make good money, that was just… part of it. But from what I could tell, it was just how Nyx liked to present herself to the world. She enjoyed getting dolled up and looked at. It was why you never caught her bare-faced and wearing sweats. Not even when she was running errands around town.
That just wasn’t who she was.
So the lack of attention to detail was odd.
But, fuck, who knows. Chicks were weird. Maybe she had a headache. Or her period and felt like shit.
I could look past it if it was just that.
But it wasn’t.
Her shoulders were slumped. She wasn’t smiling or flirting for bigger tips. If anything, it almost seemed like she wanted to blend in, not stand out.
Again, weird.
But you could say I was just reading too much into it.
Then there was the third thing.
She was usually capable.
I’d been to a fuckton of bars in my life. In every small and major city. I’d seen a lot of capable bartenders. Nyx was at the top when it came to skills. She never got flustered or fell behind. I’d never seen her miss a glass, over or under pour, or drop anything.
She’d broken three glasses since I’d come in.
Three.
And lastly, the Nyx we all knew was fearless.
This was a woman I’d once seen fly over a bar—in a fucking mini skirt—grab a guy who’d just shoved a female customer by the back of his shirt, and threatened to gouge his eye out with the corkscrew for the wine.
She’d have done it, too.
You could tell by her stance, by the look in her eye, by the fierceness in her voice.
But the Nyx at The Bog that night? She was jumping at shadows. She was watching the door. She was constantly looking over her shoulder.
Something was up.
Something, it seemed, had spooked her.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who noticed, either.
The other bartender, Chet, kept looking over at her with drawn-together brows.
I knew Chet.
Because he’d been one of the applicants she’d been in a rush to interview the morning after we’d hooked up in Vegas.
He’d started training the next day.
He was probably five or so years younger than Nyx, tall, fit, with dark brown hair, and that generic sort of attractive that meant he got a lot of numbers passed to him during his shifts.
He used to only work the nights when Dell wasn’t working. But since Dell hooked up with Judge, she didn’t tend bar that much anymore, so he worked side-by-side with Nyx most shifts.
So if he was picking up on her too, then I knew it wasn’t just me.
I watched as Nyx grabbed an empty plastic container out from under the bar, holding it up to Chet, who nodded, then walking behind the bar. Likely to go get some more lemons or some shit like that.
