AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He doesn’t answer.
“So you’re staying?” He drums his fingers on the bartop.
“Of course, I’m staying. We just got here,” I shrill.
He is hiding something from me.
I bet he has a secret girlfriend and I’ve just caught him in the act.
He fills his cheeks with air then exhales slowly.
“Fuck it. What are you drinking?” It’s the most serious I have ever seen him.
I was not expecting to see him here tonight, and he seems nervous. I give him my order.
Light-footed, he moves around behind the bar, quickly making our drinks.
He places them all carefully on the tray and robotically takes my money.
He’s acting weird.
He bites his lip. “Where are you sitting?”
I point over to the girls in our seating booth barely a few yards away, and both Hannah and Ruby are staring with their mouths hanging open at my interaction with Lincoln. They don’t know who he is, but they know handsome when they see it.
My heart sinks a little. He’s different tonight and I don’t like it. He grabs my hand when I lift the tray of drinks off the white and gold marbled bar, making my drinks slosh about. “Please promise me you won’t judge me or like me any less after tonight.”
Huh?
“Well, having spent almost twenty-four hours with you in my bed, I feel like I don’t know you at all. You’re acting like an asshole, like you don't even know me tonight. You just asked me to leave.”
“That’s not why I asked you to leave, Violet.” He shakes his head. He looks upset, his eyes full of sadness.
A loud gong almost makes me drop my drinks, and a hive of activity behind the bar breaks out. Whoops, whistles, and claps echo across the cavernous club.
Lincoln begins clearing the top of the bar. His eyes never leave mine as he goes into autopilot.
“Just please promise me you won’t judge, okay?” he begs.
The crowd begins counting down from twenty. The projection clock behind the bar keeps everyone in time.
“You should go back to your table.” He shouts over the jeering and shakes his head again. Two guys, all similarly dressed to him, slap him on the back, telling him it’s showtime.
I don’t reply as I overly exaggerate my hips, wiggling my ass back to the table where Ruby and Hannah fire dozens of who is the mystery man questions at me.
In a daze, I take a quick sip of my cosmopolitan.
Am I being punked?
I can’t work out if I’m mad or sad.
“God, you are so secretive, Violet,” Ruby huffs.
“Nothing to tell.”
“Nothing to tell us about the freaking Hollywood-looking movie star behind the bar, no? Not a thing. Nothing to tell even though you just had a full conversation with him. Did you at least get his number?”
I don’t have time to answer because the club plummets into darkness and the crowd goes wild.
