Page 18 of Mine to Keep

I held up my drink. “Having a beverage and waiting on the manager.”

“Manager? Really, why?”

“Work.”

His cheeks were pink and his eyes only a tiny bit glassy, not drunk.

“Don’t you all do a family thing on Fridays?”

The corner of my mouth curled up. “You know my schedule—how stalkerish of you.”

He rolled his eyes. “No,ass, JJ tells me. And I did live with all of you for months—it wasn’t hard to miss.”

“Yes, we do, but I had work. It’s the only excuse for any of us skipping out on Friday nights.”

“Uh-huh…so it was business the last time I saw you here?”

Funny enough, it was. “Yup.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but as if my fairy godmother herself had sprinkled luck dust over me, a man in a nice suit approached.

“Good evening, I’m the manager of The Alibi.” He held out his hand and I shook it, glancing at Matt smugly.

“Mattie, if you’ll excuse me…I have work.”

His forehead scrunched, and his mouth was in a thin line.Adorable. He turned and rushed back to his table.

“Hi, I’m Nick Saint.” I spent the next half hour talking to Frank, the manager, about security. All the while, I kept an eye on Matt.

Frank agreed to sit down with me after I was able to give him a more solid estimate. That settled, I ordered one more drink—this time a ginger ale.

Every few minutes or so, Matt would look my way and when I noticed, he’d quickly avert his eyes. Four was right. He did like me, and for some reason, it bothered him. I thought Matt wassweet. Clearly I had boundary issues since I had, in fact, followed him here and couldn’t stop watching him.

It was coming on midnight when Matt stood and started hugging his friends.Oh, thank fuck he’s leaving.

Not wanting him to see me, I slipped off the stool and headed through the exit to my car. I’d parked a few spaces away from his once I’d arrived, but he wouldn’t be able to see me and he had no idea what car I was driving.

I was about to get into my car, but I noticed a note on Matt’s windshield. I wasn’t going to have time to get there, read it, and to my car before he saw me. What should I do? Should I play it cool? Watch him from my vehicle?

He already thought I was an asshole, right?

I walked over to his car and leaned against his door, arms folded.

“Oh shit,” he mumbled as he came closer. “Get off my door.”

“Please tell me you weren’t planning on driving?” He appeared clearheaded, but he’d been there awhile.

“I am. I only had a few drinks early in the night and water for the last couple of hours.”

I tilted my head. “Not sure that’s safe.”

He sighed and then noticed the note. “What’s that?”

I looked to where he motioned. “No idea, it was there when I got here.”

Matt furrowed his brow and snatched up the note. I watched his reaction as he read it: a flicker of concern. He crumbled it up and shoved it into his pocket. “Please, get off my car.”

“What did the note say?”

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