Page 64 of Tangled

Tony chuckles. “What’ll it be tonight, boys?”

“The usual for me, Tony,” I answer.

“I’ll have the same, but add on two shots of whiskey,” Drew adds.

“Shots? For what?”

“We’re celebrating..”

I turn to Drew and narrow my eyes in confusion. “Celebrating what?”

“Kane’s inlooovvveee,” Drew drags out, leaning over the bar to entice Tony.

“Shut the fuck up! Really, Kane?” Tony turns to me, his eyes wide, but that knowing smile accompanies his expression.

“I didn’t saylove, Drew. I’m just… quite enamored at the moment,” I spit out, dropping my eyes to the beer Tony just placed in front of me.

Love is too strong of a word to describe what I feel for Olivia. Even I know that feeling anything like love for her this early on is impossible. I’ve only loved one woman. I can’t possibly feel that way yet. I’m definitely interested in her. I want to see her all the time. And I care about her deeply… but it’s not love yet.

Although I know that I could feel that way about her, eventually.

“Still, that is something to celebrate. Shots are on me, gentlemen,” Tony winks while pouring the amber liquid and walking away to help another customer.

“To love and you finally getting laid regularly,” Drew cheers, making me shake my head at him.

“Fuck you, man,” I say before tipping back the shot, welcoming the burn as it flows down my throat.

“So, when are you gonna see her again? I know you’re trying to take things slow and doing anything during the week is hard with our workload and stuff.”

“Well, we were supposed to go out tonight actually…”

“Hold on! You ditched her to hang out with me? Uh, that’s not how dating works, man,” Drew scolds while sipping his beer.

“No, fucker. She’s sick. She wasn’t at work yesterday, so I texted her and she told me she was home sick. So I went over last night and brought her a bunch of medicine and some food and hung out for a while.”

Drew’s grin slowly spreads across his face before he takes a drink and then deposits his glass back on the bar. “Okay, that’s nice, Kane. But uh… if that doesn’t sound like love, then I don’t know what is.”

“Shut up, man,” I laugh while pushing Drew off of his stool.

“No, seriously. Taking care of her when she’s all snot-covered and coughing up a lung… the only person I’ve ever done that for is Tammy.”

“I just had to make sure she had everything she needed.”

Drew pats my back, turning back to the bar in search of his beer. “I can’t believe I was right.”

“Right about what?” I ask, noticing Tony making his way back.

“She’s your Tammy.”

And I swallow hard. What if she is? What if Olivia is the woman I’m meant to be with?

Tony comes back over and starts drilling me about Olivia as Drew pipes in with details just to piss me off. I swear, if I knew I would get the dating inquisition tonight, I probably would have just stayed home.

After filling them both in on vague details of our time together—they don’t need to know everything—I throw out an idea that I’ve been toying around with.

“I, uh, was actually thinking about inviting her over to my place next weekend…”

Drew spits out his beer and Tony stops cold as he wipes a glass.

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