Page 14 of Shortcake
I recognized it in her because I used to be that girl, myself. I was the master of looking older than my real age. I had multiple fake IDs that even though I couldn’t use them here in Maple Grove, my friends and I would drive a few towns over and drink ourselves into a stupor.
I gave her a warm smile as she approached the bar and slid into the empty seat that Dirty Martini Big Tipper had occupied a moment earlier.
“Hey there,” I said to her, with a quick glance at my watch. It was nearing ten. Not super late by most Friday night standards.
I looked around the bar, trying to find any friends she might have come in with. Surprisingly, she looked like she was alone.
Odd. Usually, teenagers came in either with their families… or with a group of friends.
“Hey,” she said, tucking a platinum blond strand behind her ear. Somber kohl-lined eyes glanced quickly up at me before darting back down to her phone. She looked so damn sad that a piece of me wanted to hug her. To tell her things would be okay. Wasn’t that in a bartender’s job description?
The girl cleared her throat, then asked, “Can I get a jack and coke, please?”
Well, damn.
Inwardly, I groaned.
On one hand, I didn’t want to have to kick someone out on my first night… or worse, have to call the cops on a sad, young girl. But on the other hand, it was my first night open. I had to do things by the books. Especially since my future sister-in-law was the town manager. Everything had to be on the up and up. Not only for my sake, but for hers, too.
“Sure,” I said, keeping my voice casual. “Can I see an ID?”
She grunted a response and started digging around in her purse.
Okay, so maybe shewasactually twenty-one and just looked young for her age. Hell, I had to admit that Enzo still looked like she could be eighteen, even though she was well into her twenties.
“Here,” she said, handing me a card from her wallet.
It was a New York driver’s license.Stephanie Harris.
I slid it beneath the ID scanner I had purchased and the light blinked green with a softbeep.
It was a real ID. And it wasn’t expired.
Huh. According to this, she was twenty-two years old. Still, something seemed off. I studied the photo closely. She looked similar to the girl in the photo.Reallysimilar. But the girl in the photo wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, so it was hard to tell. And she had darker hair in the license photo vs the dyed blonde hair she was sporting now. Granted, hair color changed. As did makeup preferences.
“Old photo, I know,” the girl sighed. “I’ve got four more years until I can take a new one.”
She was right. The expiration wasn’t for four more years. Which meant that if she got this photo taken at age sixteen, then of course, she’d look different now. I noted the birthdate at the bottom, June 19th, as I handed the card back to her.
“Libra, huh?” I asked, knowing full-well that a June birthday was actually a Gemini.
Stephanie’s smile twitched as she slid her card back into her wallet. “Gemini, actually,” she said. “But something tells me you knew that.”
I gave her a little shrug back as I poured her jack and coke. “Guilty. Just have to check you’re not using an older sister’s ID or something”
The ice clinked against the edge of the glass as I placed a little square napkin down first, then set the lowball on top of it. “Want to start a tab?”
She pulled out a twenty and handed it to me. “Nah. I’ll just pay as I go.”
I took the twenty, punching some buttons into my iPad register. “Are you in town on vacation or something like that?”
The register opened and I pulled out the change, sliding it back to her.
She grabbed the cash and dropped two dollars on the counter, before standing with her jack and coke in hand. “Something like that.”
That was all I got before she turned around and crossed over to the bachelor party. I watched for a long moment as the young-looking mysterious girl flirted with the group of rowdy guys. I wasn’t sure why I was so concerned about her. But the whole thing left me a little on edge for reasons I couldn’t explain.
“Everything okay?” Enzo asked.
