Page 25 of Mimosa

He didn’t run back, but he walked quickly, giggling and ready to scream with joy. Abs saw him first thing, then the others crowded around him as he returned to the bar. “What? Why are you blushing? Did you guys sneak upstairs or something?” Abs asked.

“No! Of course not! He’s just…”

Goldie chuckled. “He’s sprung.”

“God, Goldie, that is so…nineties!”

“How would you know?”

“I watch movies from that bygone era,” Abs said as if that should explain it all.

Cosmo was the voice of reason. “Mims, he’s super hot. I’m happy for you.”

“Happy? We just…talked a couple of minutes.”

Cosmo nodded to the right of them and they all turned to see Sonny, smiling just as widely as Mims was. Cosmo went to him to take his order, and Mims giggled before he got back to work. “I swear, he’s just…I can’t even explain it!”

“Good for you,” Hippy said, and kissed the top of his head. “Happy for you.”

Mims thought of the conversation he’d had with Abs and his smile faded. “You’ll get someone too, just as sexy!”

As he watched Hippy’s eyes cut to Cosmo, then away, he grunted, “Yeah. Sure.”

Before he could shed the tears for Hippy that were threatening to fill his eyes, Cosmo was back. “He has to run, but he’s coming back. He wants you to call him.”

“He has to go?”

“Yeah.”

Mims rushed over to Sonny and handed him his phone. “Here.”

As Sonny added his number to Mims’s phone, he said, “Remember when you text me, to be careful of what you say. Nothing about…well, you know.”

“I’m a hacker. I know how much information cops can get. Are you okay? Why are you leaving?”

“Oh, nothing about all this. I have to run to help my mother for a few. She’s got this new table, and it needs to be put together. She always asks me to do this stuff, even though I know she can do it herself. It’s her way of getting me there to give me the third degree.”

Mims smiled, feeling both warm that he’d drop everything for his mom and jealous that his own never called him for help. “Okay, if you can’t get back, call me tomorrow and we’ll…set up a, you know…”

“Date. I’ll be back. Believe me. Be ready for me.”

Mims watched him pushing through the crowd and his heart nearly stopped. Abs grabbed his hand, pulling him back behind the bar. “Come on, Mims, you’re drooling!”

“Can’t help it. I just…can’t help it.”

They did three less than synced routines on the bar while Hippy and Mims kept making drinks. Mims did a few passes around the pub, as did Cosmo and Haze, picking up the bottles and glasses that Murphy hadn’t gotten to. Some nights, people stopped him to talk for an hour, and he never dissuaded them. It was important to him to keep his patrons happy.

So when they started getting low on glasses, they knew Murphy was stuck jabbering with someone. After gathering two other trays full of them, he came back a third time with a full tray of empties, and Abs whispered into his ear, “Right on time for last call.”

Abs jerked his chin to the other side of the bar and there was Sonny, leaning back on the bricks, staring. “Damn…”

“Yeah, damn,” Abs said with a giggle. “Hey guys, Mims took more passes than all of us, so let him head out early,” Abs said to the others.

Haze was the only one that didn’t look thrilled. Mims went to him, stood on his tiptoes and hugged him around the neck. “I’m gonna be okay. Stop worrying.”

“If he so much as looks at you the wrong way, Mims…”

“I know, and I love you for it.”

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