Page 5 of The Broker

When the girl at the table next to us launched to her feet and fled the restaurant, Preston rose out of his chair too.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He looked at me like he’d never seen me before. Like he hadn’t realized I’d been sitting across from him this whole time, and it came from him in a rush. “I need a minute.”

And then he was gone, chasing after her.

My mouth hung open as I watched him go, and I blinked away my disbelief. Whatever was going on, I hoped he’d get it figured out quickly. But as the seconds ticked by, my heart rate began to climb with unease.

What if he wasn’t coming back?

The longer I waited, the hotter my cheeks burned with both irritation and embarrassment. The girl’s mom at the table next to me looked as confused and irritated as I was, but she recovered much faster. She went back to picking at her meal,her expression resigned like this had been an outcome she’d anticipated.

My phone had been resting face down on the table, so I turned it over, unlocked the screen, and began scrolling. I read down through the comments on Blooming Sage’s post and then considered whether I’d need to make my own statement. Ultimately, I decided it would be better if I didn’t.

No reason to call attention to my involvement.

I put my phone back down, and my gaze went to the entrance at the front of the restaurant. How much longer was Preston going to be?

My phone buzzed on the tabletop.

Preston:Sorry, something came up and I need to bail.

I stared at the screen, waiting for more details, but no blinking gray dots appeared. He wasn’t typing anything else. There’d be no further explanation, no real apology for the way he’d just straight up abandoned me.

“Seriously?” I groaned under my breath. “Asshole.”

The woman at the next table looked momentarily offended at my language, but also... like she sort of understood?

It was at this moment the server arrived with my lavender martini and set it in front of me. I hadn’t realized that when Preston had walked out, the server had put in my drink order anyway.

Maybe he knew you’d need it.

I stared at the pretty purple drink and the yellow flower floating in it, then lifted my gaze to the server. “Hey, do you mind if I take this to the bar? My date just left me.” Oh, shit. That sounded terrible. I pretended this wasn’t a big deal and I wasn’t wounded, and my voice came out probably too bright. “Something came up.”

The server nodded. “Of course. I’ll have the bartender open a tab for you.”

I didn’t tell him there was no need, that I’d only stay for one drink. Instead, I picked up my martini and weaved through the busy restaurant, finding an open seat at the U-shaped bar in the center of the space.

I’d come here for an ego boost, and instead I’d gotten the opposite. God, could my luck get any worse?

“Hey there, sweetheart.”

I turned toward the man sitting next to me and sized him up in a microsecond. He was older than I was, but not by much. He had an attractive enough face, but eyes that looked like they were permanently bloodshot. And they rolled around wildly, as if he couldn’t focus on any one thing for too long.

Was this guy wasted... or was he on something?

He’d called mesweetheart, which annoyed me. I pulled my lips back into something that could barely be considered a smile and turned away from him.

My gaze went through the bar and to the high-top table across the way. There were two men and a woman sitting there, with a round of drinks in front of them. The man who happened to be facing me appeared to be listening thoughtfully to whatever the woman was saying.

I swallowed thickly.

Holy shit, that guy was hot. And not the kind of hot that only appealed to a certain kind of girl. He was, like,objectivelyhot.

My best guess was he was in his mid-thirties, so at least ten years older than I was. He had dark brown hair that was parted on the side and a short, neatly trimmed beard. I couldn’t tell if he was tall or not, since he was seated, but he was in great shape. He filled out his gray t-shirt like he was modeling it, and its sleeves just barely fit around his toned biceps.

I studied the other people at the table, trying to figure out their relationship with one another. It was hard to see them because the bar was busy and the bartenders kept blocking my view, but eventually the woman raised a hand to run through her long red hair, and a wedding ring glinted on her finger.

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