“Hey, who are you guys staying with? I pretty much know everyone in the building,” he says and I feel relieved.
“Oh we’re staying with his cousin, I don’t know his name. He has him saved as asshole number two in his phone.” I tell him disdainfully. The bartender laughs.
“Can you get him some water please?” I ask him and he smiles before returning with a glass.
“Blue, I really need you to drink this so we both don’t kill ourselves falling down the stairs,” I tell him adamantly. He nods and takes a sip.
“I close the place if you want to stay until he gets back.”
“Oh my God that would be so great,” I tell him gratefully. Blue’s phone rings again and unfortunately it’s Katie and not the cousin who is supposed to be letting us stay in his apartment. I pull up his call log and see that she’s called over twenty times. A part of me feels sorry for her. Then I look up and see a slumped over Blue and hit ignore again.
“I think I’m going to puke,” he gags before stumbling off the barstool and running only like a drunk person can to the bathroom. The phone rings yet again and I expect to see Katie’s number but my heart stops when I see that it’s Kam’s. She must have told him I was with him.
For the first time tonight I’m almost tempted to have a drink. My hands are trembling. I put the phone down and watch his name pop up again. I hit ignore on the call and open the text screen. I try to think of what Blue would say, but before I can I see a text come through.
What the hell were you doing with Megan?
Shit.
I didn’t even think that Katie would tell Kam she saw me with him, but she was super pissed when she left. I thought I knew Katie pretty well; her and Kam are so close I can’t believe she’s done something like this. I start to text Kam back but decide to let Blue make up his mind on what to tell him when he gets sober. I walk to the bathroom and stand outside it waiting for Blue to make his exit. I crack it open and hear vomiting. I take a seat on the stool closer to the men’s room. The blonde bartender from earlier stops in front of me, but instead of wearing a friendly smile like she was earlier she looks at me like I have a booger on my face.
“So you’re staying with Cage?” she asks, the irritation apparent in her voice. I glance over at the White Sox bartender from earlier who looks at me guiltily.
“Maybe? He’s my friend’s cousin,” I tell her quickly to let her know I am no rival for her to give the stink eye too. Her eyes glide over me quickly.
“How long are you staying?” she asks, folding her arms across her chest.
“I don’t know. Not long.” I grab my phone and see two new texts, one from Gabriella and the other from Kam.
Why are you and Blue together.
CALL ME!
“We’re dating,” she says coldly.
“That’s nice. But I don’t know him, so…” I explain. I quickly glance up at her and see that she has no intention of moving from in front of me and since the bar is practically empty she has no reason to.
“Well fuck is a better word for it. That’s all he does with girls is fuck them, I mean,” she continues and I look up at her, confused as to why she’s telling me this.
“That’s good to know, but I have never even met the guy and I have no intention of fucking him,” I tell her sarcastically.
“You’d think if you fucked him enough that he’d get it and maybe take you on a date or something but nope, that’s too complicated obviously, right?” She chuckles and I believe this is the most awkward moment I’ve ever had, and I realize the cute bartender, who I thought was just a jealous girl who screwed my friend’s douchebag cousin, may be a little psychotic.
“Hey, some guys are assholes,” I sympathize with her, getting up from the barstool and excusing myself. I walk back to the men’s room and shove open the door.
“Blue get out here now!” I whisper tightly. A few moments later Blue comes out looking like a complete mess.
“I’ve got to sit down. I don’t think I can make it back upstairs,” he says in a single drawn out sentence.
“Oh you better, because the bartender is giving me the evil eye over a guy I’ve never even met!” I tell him. He puts his arm over my shoulder but we don’t make it very far. I never thought someone as tall and lean as Blue could be so heavy. We finally stop and I maneuver him to sit on the sofa far away from the bar as well as the dagger-eyed girl. Blue’s phone rings again and I pull it out of my pocket expecting it to be Katie or Kam, and thank God when I see Asshole Number 2’s name appear on the phone.
“Here Blue, it’s your cousin,” I usher him the phone after picking it up.
“Couuusin. What’s uuuuppp?” he sings into the phone. Oh my God. He laughs again and looks at me confused.
“Where are we?”
“The Green Room,” I tell him impatiently.
“The Greeen Room,” he slurs into the phone.
“There are sooo many stairrrs,” he whines and a few seconds later he hangs up the phone.
“I think he’s coming,” he says before sinking down into the big chair he’s sitting in.
“Hopefully?” I grumble. I let out a sigh before sitting on the arm of the chair next to him.
“I want to call Katie,” he says through a whine.
“I don’t think now is the right time Blue,” I tell him, taking his phone away from him.
“She’s such a fucking whore,” he moans, looking as if he’s going to cry. I pat his shoulder again. “I’m going to get your water, okay?” I say before walking over to the bar. White Sox guy has disappeared leaving the crazy girl from earlier on the far side of the bar. I let out a sigh.
“Hey, can I please get a glass of water for my friend?” I ask as nicely as I can. She frowns at me for a second before turning around and filling up a glass with water.
“Thanks,” I tell her after she slides it over to me.
“No problem,” she mumbles but I notice her attention isn’t on me anymore but towards the door. I watch her hard glaze melt and look behind me. When I do my heart slows down, my fingertips begin to tingle, and my limbs feel stuck in place as my eyes land on him. He’s broad, tall, masculinity seeping through his pores. Thick beautiful dirty-blond hair that’s long enough to touch his shoulders. He’s like a real life Viking, eyes so blue they’re surreal and when they lock on mine I drop the glass out of my hand, trying to shake the distinct feeling that I know him.
Chapter 10
Present day
Ian
It can’t be her. Not fucking possible. Not the woman I’ve looked for a year straight…in different towns and cities, scanning Facebook pages of everyone I could think of who may know her. Not in the bar underneath my new apartment. I tell myself it’s not her but the way she’s looking at me like she’s seen a ghost says otherwise. I try to get it together. I smoked a whole lot of fucking weed tonight and did a laced cookie at Devin’s.
“What the fuck,” says Theresa, the bartender, who I fucked around with until she got all crazy on me. She breaks me out of my trance.