Page 55 of Rewind It Back

There’s a heavy pause as the awkwardness settles in. I sure as fuck don’t want Hallie waiting on me and I don’t think my friends do either.

“I’ll take a vodka cran,” Kylie says at my side, her entire body turned in my direction. But I’m not looking at her. I’m staring straight ahead at the girl next door and trying to figure out what the hell she’s doing here.

Hallie’s eyes bounce between me and the stranger I’m sitting next to, and because I can read her like a fucking book, I know she thinks we’re here together.

“You got it.” Hallie turns to Zanders and Stevie. “And for you two?”

“Um...” Zee hesitates, nodding in the direction of another bartender working behind the bar. “We’ll go up and grab a round ourselves. It’s busy. You’re busy, so don’t worry about it.”

“No need.” Hallie’s smile is forced now. “There’s an open tab for your party already. It’ll make it easier if you order through me.”

There’s a long pause because no one wants her waiting on us. She should be hanging outwithus.

“I’ll take...” Stevie begins. “Something on draft. An IPA if you have one.”

“Same,” Zanders adds.

Kylie scoots in closer. “What are you going to get?”

Hallie finally looks in my direction and I watch her jaw tense as she waits for my order.

I shake my head. “Nothing for me, Hal.”

Hallie immediately turns back to the bar, quickly weaving through bodies and I lose her in the crowd before I can even register what just happened.

“You two seem to have some history,” Kylie observes.

“You could say that. Look, Kylie, you seem like a nice girl, but I’m not in the position to meet anyone right now. My head is somewhere else at the moment.”

Withsomeone else at the moment.

A smile tilts on her lips. “Don’t worry about it, but you should probably go tell her we aren’t here together.”

“Did you know she worked here?” Zee asks.

“Not a fucking clue.”

I’m immediately out of my seat to follow Hallie, and at the same time, our rookie stands from his seat too.

For a moment, I want to ask him what the hell he’s thinking, trying to ask her out. Doesn’t he remember she was waiting outside our practice forme? But then I recall that he was sick that day and has no idea that his favorite bartender and I have history.

“I’m going to do it!” His tipsy grin is way too big. “I’m going to go ask for her number.”

“Hey, Rook?”

He looks my way, so stupidly excited. “Yeah?”

“Sit the fuck down.”

“Yep.”

He does just that, and as I leave the table to go find Hallie, I hear Kylie turn and introduce herself to him.

There are so many people packed up against the bar, trying to order. There’s another woman working the well, and a guy taking orders from waiting patrons, while Hallie is busy getting our table’s drinks made.

I push my way past waiting customers to get as close to her as I can.

“Hey, watch it!” someone yells with a shove to my chest that does absolutely nothing to move me.

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