Page 10 of Love in Focus

“Sorry. I should have let you know.” I turn to the bartender, a blue-haired twenty-something with piercings, and add, “Sosorry you had to deal with this.”

I fish a couple of bills from my wallet and place them on the bar. The bartender gratefully slips the money into their pocket.

Ian is practically a stranger, but I still don’t want to leave him alone at the bar like this. Not when he’s drunk out of his mind. Maybe I can call him a car.

“Come on,” I say to Ian. “Let’s get you out of here.”

I meant those last words figuratively, since there’s no way I can actually physically take him out of the bar, andam wholly unprepared when Ian slumps forward, slipping down from his seat like he expects someone like me to support a giant like him.

“Oh, nononono!”

Panic flashes in my head, but I’m not fast enough to avoid the crushing weight of a two-hundred-something-pound man bearing down on me. It’s like I’m fighting a grizzly. And failing miserably.

The people around us jump out of the way. A few younger ones start recording on their phones. This is what I get for trying to be nice. Which is laughable now, because clearly, no one wants to helpme.

I’m about to drop him on the floor when the pressure lightens significantly.

“Whoa there, buddy.”

I turn my head to see Celeste holding the man up. Her slender arms strain against his weight, but they miraculously push a now asleep Ian back onto the bar stool. The jackass actually dozed off at some point.

Still, Celeste manhandled him expertly… all while wearingheels. It’s, unfortunately, one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

My face heats up when our eyes met again.Shit.

“I never understood why short women always go for the really tall guys,” Celeste says in a familiar, dry tone. “Save some for us tall girls, won’t you, Gemma?”

I’m out of breath, and my heart is still racing with the adrenaline of having almost been crushed alive. But I manage to get out, “You don’t even like men.”

Celeste flashes me a wry smile. “That’s incorrect. I like my jiujitsu instructorandmy personal trainer, and without bothmen, we would have been crushed alive. Not all of them are bad, shockingly. My best friend is also a guy.”

Shoving away all inappropriate thoughts of Celeste working out and wrestling with people on the floor, I clear my throat. “But you’d never date them.”

She cocks her head to the side in acknowledgment.

“Where’s Gretchen?” I ask, belatedly realizing that the other woman is nowhere to be found.

“Safely on her way home. I got her a car.”

Celeste’s words echo in my head.I don’t do relationships.

“So,” I start to ask. “What happened—”

“Are you two together?” Celeste cuts in before I can finish my question. It takes me a moment to realize she’s talking about Ian.

“No, I just met the guy. This is kind of our first date.”

I glance down at the now unconscious man. From this angle, he looks unexpectedly cute, almost like a big, sleeping baby and not the massive giant he really is.

“Wow, some first date,” Celeste replies.

Now that Ian’s out of the way, I can’t ignore how close she and I are to each other. It’s still hard to believe she’s standingright herein this random bar in San Francisco. I could lean over and kiss her if I wanted to.

Before I can stop myself, my eyes linger on her scarlet-red-painted lips.

“How about you?” I ask. “Why are you here? I thought you moved back to Seoul.”

Celeste leans back against the bar. “I did. But I came back to LA a year later to finish my degree. Now, I travel back and forth between there and SF for my photography work. I got in yesterday for another project here.”

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