Page 13 of Back Home For Christmas

I hesitated. Did I want to sit at this bar and have a drink with Jay? Was there anyway out of it now?

“Do you make those Irish coffees with Baileys?” I asked.

“For you? Anything,” he said before turning to get to work. I smiled. It was cute, but when I turned to look at Jay, his scowl had deepened, which I didn’t think was possible. Maybe he was thinking about Darren and Aubrey again. I wondered for the first time if he had some girl back in New York. Although, if he had, wouldn’t she be here, or him there with her? Maybe he had a recent break-up.

“You know they make those everywhere. He isn’t actually making it special for you,” Jay said.

“Wow, bitter much?” I said.

A moment of awkward silence later, Steve was back with my drink. It was in a fancy little coffee mug with whipped cream and cinnamon on top.

“That looks amazing,” I said. “Yum.” As I licked the dollop of whipped cream off the top.

“Let me know if you guys want anything to eat. I can tell the kitchen,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No,” Jay said. Yikes, I thought as I looked at him. He was staring daggers at Steve. What the hell was his problem? Was he just a total dick to everyone? And here I thought I was special.

“So Cat, how long are you in town?” Steve asked.

“I’m not really sure. I’ll definitely be here through Christmas.”

“Cool, we should get together, catch up,” Steve said. “If you don’t have anyone else to go with, maybe we could hit up the Christmas party together.”

“That would be nice,” I said, feeling Jay’s presence at my shoulder, making me feel as if I shouldn’t even be talking to Steve.

“Cool, cool, I’ll check back over in a few in case you guys change your mind about food,” he said. When he walked away, I felt relieved, even though I had no reason to feel tense when he was standing in front of us. I couldn’t decide if Jay’s quiet anger was making me uncomfortable or if it was my own weirdness at sitting for a drink with Jay. I took a long sip of my Irish coffee and it was divine. I hadn’t had one in so long, and now I couldn’t remember why.

“This is amazing,” I groaned, as I took another gulp. Jay watched me from the side of his eyes with an amused smirk as he took a sip of his beer. “You can stop laughing at me any time, you know.”

“Who’s laughing?” He asked. I sighed.

“You are, all the time. It’s getting old.”

“I’m just a happy guy.”

“No you aren’t,” I said.

“How would you know?”

“Anyone with eyes can tell that you haven’t been happy a day in your life,” I said, my body felt all warm and fuzzy and when I looked at my drink, I had somehow finished half of it in the span of two minutes.

“Ouch,” he said.

“Oh come off,” I said. “Isn’t that your whole persona?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said.

“Your thing is being pissy, bossy, too cool guy,” I said.

“What are you Steve now? Everything is cool?”

“What is your problem with Steve, by the way?”

“I don’t have a problem with Steve.”

“Right,” I said, shaking my head. I don’t know if the coffee was already having an effect or if Jay was an incredibly difficult person to talk to, but nothing he said made a straight line.

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