Page 51 of Ella Gets the D
Nate grabs a straw and napkin to hand off his tastemaker masterpiece to the auburn beauty. His chest puffs as her first pull touches her lips. Then he’s off to tend to a beer refill.
Swigs is a place of pride with seasonal drinks, timeless classics, and craft beer selections from local breweries. The food menu is a love letter to the Filipino dishes that flavored his childhood.Lechon manok,palabok, andokoyare customer favorites, with recommended drink pairings to match.
Every item is an experience Nate designed to unite his passion for mixology and taste of home. He pours in his attention to detail, layers it with his mother’s recipes, and serves it all up with his sociology degree for an upscale experience in a place that feels like a second home. The way he reads people’s needs before they voice them is why he receives such high praise for his menu and customer service. The problem with his uncanny ability to mind-read is that he won’t stay out of your business, especially when “bullshit” blinks in neon letters on your forehead.
“Where were we? Oh, yes. You were about to lie to me again about a woman you have feelings for and can’t stop thinking about.” Nate pops the top off a beer bottle and sends it down the counter with a push, straight into the hands of the intended recipient. “Is that why you’re running back to London with your tail between your legs?”
That’s part of it.
“No.”
His gaze turns from mischievous to serious. “Did what she said piss you off that much?”
“Yes and no.”
Ella never intended to hit me between the eyes with a reputation society expects me to uphold, but she did it with skilled precision.
I like to fuck. Plain and simple. But, contrary to public opinion, I’m not out here cruising through DC for a warm body and a fat ass. Not every woman I speak to ends up in my bed, and every woman I’ve had sex with understood what it was. They’re acquaintances. Sometimes we pull pleasure from our bodies when the mood strikes.
Nothing more, nothing less.
That was before I tumbled into bed and found a woman I’d hang the stars for at the chance to stand in her light.
My reaction to her is frightening, but there’s no denying the instinct to make her part of my life. It grows with every detail I unlock about her.
A relationship was the farthest thing from my mind until her. Ella is not a woman you taste for a night. She deserves a lifetime with someone dedicated to providing whatever brings her joy.
You want to attach yourself to her? To be a second dad?
The knee-jerk reaction to resurrect the barriers Ella shattered in a single week laces up my running shoes. My eyes shift from Nate to the floor at the thought of a promise I can’t make.
It’s clear Ella hasn’t had a stable partner. From what I hear, her ex is an MIA dad and a fuckboy of a husband, which explains a lot. She’s in a clusterfuck of a transition right now, and I’m not confident I’ll navigate that field of landmines without blowing up in the process.
I don’t do complicated. She doesn’t trust me not to hurt her, and I won’t put myself on trial to defend myself against crimes I never committed.
“Can I ask you a question?” Don’t make me regret this.
“Shoot.”
“When did you know Sadie was it?”
Nate stares at the counter, lost in a memory he blinks away with a smile. “The moment I saw her, I knew my life would never be the same.”
They met during a statistics class their freshman year of college. Conversations before class turned into study sessions at the library. Sadie found out she was pregnant halfway through the semester, and it was a challenge to juggle a full course load and an unexpected membership into motherhood. Her high school sweetheart knocked her up a month before school started and then headed out west to play college ball. The promise of stardom and a roster of hookups left Sadie on read and him living his best life. He didn’t come from a family with money, but they tapped into their savings with the quickness in order to “make the problem go away.”
Sadie gave birth to her daughter, Jasmine, a week after spring semester ended. Nate was with her through it all, their friendship building into an unbreakable bond that would stand the test of time. They became roommates after Jasmine’s arrival and staggered their school schedules to care for an infant.
Nate picked up shifts as a bartender at night and kept a sociology textbook next to an encyclopedia of drinks. His mother moved to the area during their junior year to watch Jasmine while he and Sadie focused on their programs. They graduated a year later, with sociology and anthropology degrees between them.
Nate’s gaze drops to an area behind the bar, the one that steals his attention every night he’s behind it. It’s become a mini exhibition of Jasmine’s drawings over the years. They don’t share DNA, but she’s been his from the moment he held her. Sadie and Nate married right after college. Her wedding giftwas adoption papers for the man who would love her and their daughter unconditionally until his last breath.
“You still with me, Rufio?” I dodge towel to the face he throws at his high school nickname.
Straight brows. Almond eyes. Thick nose. If you swapped out his beanie and cardigan for a mohawk and a sword, you’d think he was the stand-in leader of the Lost Boys inHook.
“Fuck off,” he says with a laugh. “To answer your question, Sadie and I didn’t meet under ideal circumstances. But that didn’t stop me from loving her any less. She’s the love of my life and my best friend. The draw to her was my soul finding its other half.”
Damn. “That’s deep.”
