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My upstairs neighbours Antonio and Josh were babysitting Pepp. Not so surprisingly, their five-year-old dog Daisy loved Pepp and my timid Pepp loved Daisy too, so I didn’t want to cut short their playtime by showing up early.
Valerie: How is the date? Do I need to save you by starting a fire in your house? Or something more clever?
Charlie: No need. He stood me up.
Valerie: Well… screw him. Onwards and upwards.
My elbow was resting on the bar top, my fingers playing with the stem of my margarita glass. Just for a quick second I closed my eyes and hummed to the mellow song playing in the restaurant. I didn’t know who it was by, but it was a piano solo and it was lovely.
I heard a stool being pulled and the sound it made against the floor somewhere far away made me wince slightly, but it didn’t ruin the moment for me, so I kept my eyes closed.
‘Are you sleeping?’ someone asked right next to me, and I jumped up from my stool, splashing some of my drink all over my hand as if they had just shouted in my ear.
‘Shit,’ I mumbled, wiping my hand with the napkin as I straightened a little and glanced to my left, only to come face to face with William as he took the seat right next to mine.
He gave me a quick look, eyes roaming my body from head to toe, making me squirm in my seat, then faced the bar as if he hadn’t just shocked the hell out of me by showing up out of nowhere.
‘I can hardly sleep in a bar,’ I answered, trying my best to look unruffled. ‘Who would fall asleep at a bar?’ Still a little disoriented, I frowned at him as I furtively pulled down the hem of my dress and looked around the restaurant. Everyone seemed to be where I’d left them.
‘I assumed you were. I apologize. Your eyes have been closed for quite some time so I reached the wrong conclusion.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked, only to hear how scratchy my voice sounded. I cleared my throat, casually glanced towards the mirror behind the rows of alcohol bottles to check if my hair looked okay. Had I seriously fallen asleep? It’d be a new low for sure.
‘An old friend of mine was in New York for a day. We had dinner.’
He lifted his hand and my eyes caught on the movement as he somehow in a sexy way gestured to the bartender to get his attention. I frowned at myself and looked away from his attractive hand. Who even found a hand attractive?
‘Here? You had dinner with him here?’ If he had, he must’ve seen me sit at the same spot for an hour. I groaned inwardly.
My question earned me another look from him, but I managed to hold his stare.
‘Yeah, here. Why?’
‘No reason. Perfect. Out of all the places in New York, of course you’d have dinner here,’ I mumbled to myself, slightly turning my head away and taking a sip of my sloshed margarita.
‘Excuse me?’ he asked, and I could clearly hear the amusement in his voice.
I gave him a forced smile. ‘Nothing.’
The bartender came over with a smile and took his drink order: scotch on the rocks.
‘Another one for you?’ he asked me. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t imagining how his smile got just a tiny little bit warmer when he was talking to me.
I looked down at my drink, then looked at William and found him looking back at me, waiting for my response.
This wasn’t a great idea. I had no issues, or not that many issues, working with him, but spending extra time with him could become dangerous if you considered the past. Not to mention the fact that I had been stood up and he’d had a front row seat to it didn’t really help. I was shaking my head as I started to slide off of my seat so I could leave, but William put his hand on my arm, causing me to pause my movement. He leaned towards me and my heart had a little trouble deciding how to react to his sudden closeness.
‘Keep me company a little?’ he asked quietly as he caught my startled gaze.
I swallowed the lump in my throat as his touch burned through my skin, sending tingles all over my arm.
‘Sure,’ I answered, finally managing to look away from his warm brown eyes. I was being ridiculous. Clearly it was the alcohol’s fault. I cleared my throat. He let go of my arm after gently squeezing it. I had to flex my hand to shake off the electricity running through it. I focused on the bartender and smiled back at him. Safer sight. ‘Sure, I’ll take another one.’ Then I kept my eyes on the bottles lining up the mirrored shelves.
