AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Carter tries to smile. It falls. "Thanks."
Travis is fucking strong. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally.
He's been trained to stay awake for 72 hours straight. To conduct business in flawless spycraft. To kill someone with a bare hand without spilling the drink in his other one. To lie so well he sometimes forgets the truth. To slit a throat without letting the victim make a sound. To survive anything from waterboarding to stress positions.
He lasts 2 days after finding out about Carter's new job at Flanagan’s Pub. Then he's badging out of the safehouse, taking a secure vehicle, and heading north.
When it comes to Carter Beckett, he’s clearly fucking weak.
The place is nicer than he pictured. Definitely not a dive.
A young woman in a tight black Flanagan’s shirt with rips that shows strips of her pale skin stops in front of him. Her smile is predatory. “Well, hello there. It’s seat yourself here, but I wouldn’t mind helping you find a place either.”
He chuckles kindly. “I’m waiting for someone, but thank you.”
Once she’s gone, Travis steps back and settles into the shadows. He pulls out his phone to pretend like he’s texting, but his eyes stay trained on the pub. It’s the type of place where the bartenders don’t stay behind the bar. They’re constantly running out into the main area, bringing drinks and bar food to customers.
Carter isn’t hard to find. He’s the obviously new bartender who spills a beer, stumbles into a table, and has a hard time hiding a pout when a tip is much smaller than he expected it to be.
God, Travis loves him.
Once Travis has figured out which section is Carter’s, he chooses the section furthest away from it and settles down at a table. He tugs at his ball cap to make sure it's nice and low over his face.
And then he just watches.
He watches Carter finally learn how to fill a mug of beer without making it all foam.
He watches Carter make his first trip through the bar with a tray balanced on each hand, drinks strategically placed to keep them from tipping.
He watches Carter smile and flirt with a lot of women, but cower away from any man.
He watches Carter tilt his head back and laugh with a coworker.
He watches Carter wipe down the bar top while nodding as a customer talks to him.
He watches Carter be… free.
He leaves without ever letting Carter know he was there.
And he’s back the next night.
Carter is sort of crushing this whole bartending thing. He was a shit show at first, but his new coworkers all promise it’s like that for everyone. By the end of his first week, he’s confidently pouring drinks, weaving through the crowds, and pocketing tips that he can’t wait to blow on his next shopping trip with Casey to Target.
Casey’s even doing alright, all things considered. He's come to the bar once so far to meet Carter's new friends and harass him at work, and it barely bothered him. In fact, he's only had one major panic attack since the move, when he tried going to the grocery store alone and a man had accidentally knocked into him coming around the corner. Carter had come home after his shift to find Jake on the couch watching a muted TV, Casey asleep in his lap. Carter had given Jake a thankful smile and left them alone as he slunk off to his room, then fell asleep crying as his own loneliness threatened to swallow him whole.
To celebrate his successful first week on the job, the two coworkers Carter has bonded with the most - Eric and Zoey - tell him to hangout after work for some drinks with them. And nachos. Zoey insisted on the nachos. He shoots Casey a text, inviting him along, and Casey is there just as Carter’s shift is finishing up.
“Ugh, there he is again,” Zoey whines as she settles at the table with their refills. Eric follows behind her with more nachos and the chicken wings he convinced Casey he just had to try.
“He?” Casey asks, already reaching for a chicken wing, much to Eric’s pride. “He who?”
“The hot man that’s been taunting Zoey,” Eric explains, already looking around like he’s trying to find him. He doesn’t look long. Then he sighs dreamily. “God, he’s gorgeous.”
Carter and Casey start to look around at the same time Carter asks, “Where is he? And why is he taunting Zoey?”
“Because Zoey keeps throwing herself at him and he keeps shutting her down.”
“Hard,” Zoey adds with a dramatic sigh. “He must be gay.”
