Page 11 of Sweet Bred

“Okay,” I say. “Yep. We can do that.”

“Thanks for understanding. You’re the best.”

After Eric and I hang up, I look over at the reflection in my apartment building’s front door. All dressed up with nowhere to go.

Although maybe that doesn’t have to be true.

“Table for one?”

I’m standing just inside the entrance of a quaint little Italian restaurant, with a hostess waiting for me to answer. I can see the whole dining room from here, and it’s full of couples. It’s a really lovely atmosphere. Maybe too lovely.

“I think I’m going to go somewhere else, actually,” I say, smiling apologetically at the hostess. “Thank you, though.”

I squeeze past yet another couple waiting behind me and step back out onto the sidewalk. The straps of my heels dig into my feet as I walk up the block, looking for another option for the solo date I’ve decided to take myself on.

Tonight might not be turning out how I thought it would, but I refuse to let it all go to waste.

A few blocks further, my eyes land on a bar’s chalkboard sidewalk sign that reads, Soup of the Day: Whiskey. I laugh and keep walking. But then, deciding that maybe a drink would do me good, I do a one-eighty and go back to the bar.

When I walk in, a bartender looks up and gives me a friendly nod hello. “Welcome in.”

“Thanks.” I smile back and look around the inside of the bar, considering where I should sit. My eyes skim past the occupied bar stools, then over to the booths…

…and that’s when I see Shaw.

He’s sitting in a booth across from an empty seat, a beer in front of him and his attention focused on the television mounted above the bar. There’s nothing overtly sexy about him, and yet the sight of him makes every inch of my body turn warm.

As if he senses me watching him, his eyes pull away from the television and trail over to me. My heart stutters as our eyes meet. I can’t help the smile that lifts the corners of my mouth. Like a moth to a flame, I’m drawn to him, unable to stop myself from walking up to him.

As I approach, Shaw’s eyes fall to my dress, but then quickly snap back up to my gaze.

“Juliet.” He clears his throat. “Hi.”

“Hi, Shaw. How are you?”

“I’m fine. It’s nice to see you. Are you meeting someone here?”

I shake my head. “I was supposed to go out with my fiancé tonight. But he ended up having to work. I was going to eat dinner on my own, but I saw the chalkboard sign and came in here instead.”

“Yeah, they always have a good sign out front.” He glances over his shoulder at the crowded bar, then nods his chin toward the empty side of his booth. “You’re welcome to join me.”

I hesitate—not because I don’t want to, but because I want to a little too much. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Not at all.”

I give into the temptation and slide into the seat across from him. A server immediately comes over to take my order. I order a gin and tonic, which seems to amuse Shaw.

“What?” I ask, smiling at him.

Shaw shakes his head. “I guess I didn’t take you for a gin and tonic girl.”

“What did you expect me to order? Something pink and frothy?”

“Hey, don’t knock pink and frothy drinks. They can be damn tasty.”

I give his beer a meaningful glance. “Why aren’t you drinking one, then?”

“Eh. It’s more of a beer night,” he says with a nonchalant shrug. “Tomorrow, though, I’ll be drinking nothing but pink froth.”

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