The same customer from the other end of the bar was starting to get impatient, so when she lifted her head, I kissed her on the temple. “I have to go help another customer. I’ll be back.”
Three
Madeline
Griffin went to help another patron, and I took my phone out of my purse. I opened my calendar and began deleting all the things I had planned with Harris. After about the tenth event, I realized how many things I did for him. Only one thing on the calendar had been my request. My birthday dinner.
With every hit of the Delete button on my app, I felt like I could breathe a little bit more. I had no idea what I was going to do with all my free time, but I sure as hell knew I was going to do something that I wanted to do.
The door opened behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see a hot guy walk in.
Ooh. Maybe I’d get laid in my free time.
I closed my eyes, remembering the last time I’d had really good sex. It had been too long.
Maybe the hot guy would be interested. Sure, it was the middle of the week, but maybe he wouldn’t be against a quick one-night stand.
Unfortunately, I lifted my lids just in time to see him walk up to a woman at a table. I crossed my fingers, hoping she was his sister. He leaned down and kissed her.
Nope. She was definitely not related to him.
I clicked my tongue in disappointment and turned back around, only to come face-to-face with Griffin.
“Ah.” I slapped my hand against his hard chest. “You scared me.”
He didn’t budge.
“If you keep staring at my customers like that, you’re going to scare them. Away.”
I shrugged. “I can’t help it if I saw a good-looking man. I haven’t been single for over a year.” I stuck out my lower lip. “I miss good sex, Griff.”
He knew all about my bedroom troubles with Harris.
“Sorry, babe. Maybe I can help you get some on your birthday. But if we do, it’s going to be somewhere that isn’t my bar.” His blue eyes bore into mine to get his point across.
I knew he didn’t like his friends hooking up with customers, and I understood. If something went bad, it could reflect poorly on the bar. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t ruining my buzz.
“You’re no fun.”
He looked over at Albert, who was talking to another customer, and then back to me. “Well, Albert just told me he’s looking for a woman, if you’re interested.”
“Ha-ha, you’re so funny. You know my age limit is seventy-five.”
He shuddered. “And now, I’m picturing you having sex with Albert. Gross.”
“You brought it up.”
“As a joke.”
I took a sip of my beer and tilted my head. “Is it gross because of Albert or because of me?”
He cupped my neck and ran his thumb along my jaw. “Babe, you know it’s not because of you. You’re gorgeous. You know it wasn’t you who I said gross about.”
I grinned. “Just making sure.”
He shook his head. “Minx.”
I laughed. “I just had to check if I still had it.”
He looked me up and down in a way that made me understand how he got women to fall at his feet. “Always.”
It also didn’t hurt that my best friend was over six feet tall, handsome, and muscular. He had brown hair and had recently begun sporting a beard, which women seemed to love; the contrast of his dark hair made his blue eyes stand out. I’d also seen him in his underwear. He had a big dick. His suggestive looks were just icing on a very sexy beefcake.
“Damn, Griff.” I jokingly fanned my face. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
He chuckled. “The only difference is, I know I still have it.”
I playfully pushed his chest again because I was beginning to feel hot, and this time, he stood and backed away.
“It’s a good thing I know you don’t actually have a giant ego.”
He shrugged. “You know I hate that self-centered shit.”
“Yeah, I do.”
Griff’s older cousin had gone to our high school and was a narcissistic asshole. He was popular while being a bully to those weaker than him. Griffin hadn’t been one of his victims, but the two of them didn’t get along. Griffin had been popular, too, and played on the varsity hockey team, yet he’d never picked on anyone, and he didn’t approve of anyone who did.
He eyed my almost-empty bottle. “You want another?”
“Why not?” My plans had been canceled the second I broke up with Harris. I might as well hang out with Griffin for a bit.
Unfortunately for me, the beer was going down too easy, and I realized that I needed to eat something, or I was going to feel horrible at work the next day. I worked in human resources. It would be highly frowned upon of me to show up hungover at work.
I spotted the evening bartender, Mitch, coming in from the back, and I was about to ask Griffin if he wanted to grab something to eat while I waited for my buzz to wear off when our friend Troy showed up.
“Hey, Madeline. What are you doing here?” he said. “If I had known, I would have brought Christina with me.”
“Isn’t she doing some wedding planning stuff tonight with her sister?” I asked.
“Yeah, but they could have done that another night.”
“It’s okay. Coming here was a last-minute thing.”
I saw Griffin reach for his coat, and I knew he wasn’t going upstairs to his apartment over the bar since he didn’t need to go outside to get there.
“I didn’t realize you had plans,” I said.
Griffin shrugged his arms into his jacket. “Nothing fancy. We’re going to grab some food and go shopping for a computer. I promised him I’d help him look.”
“I get it, and I don’t expect you to cancel your plans because of me. But I don’t think I can drive home yet. Do you mind if I head up to your place and order takeout?”
He smiled at me like my question was ridiculous.
“Thanks, Griff.” I looked over his shoulder at the chalkboard on the wall as I slipped off my stool. “Oh, and my favorite color is teal.”
When Griffin had begun making plans to open his bar, I’d jokingly told him to call it My Favorite Place. We lived in a suburb of Minneapolis, where it was close enough to go downtown to do things but far enough away that it had a small-town feel. I thought it would be funny for people to tell their friends they were going to their favorite place to drink when it was really the name of the bar.
He’d liked it so much that he actually named it that. And so, now, every day, he wrote a question on the wall, asking someone what their favorite fill-in-the-blank was. Sometimes, it was a more in-depth one, like: What is your favorite quote? Today, it was an easy one: What is your favorite color?
“I already knew that,” he told me. “And you’re welcome to my place anytime, babe. But you already know that too.” He looked over at Mitch, who was walking from the back of the building. “Everyone’s being taken care of right now. But keep an eye on Albert.”
Albert looked over at Griffin upon hearing his name.
“He likes loose women,” my best friend added loudly.