Page 26 of Freshmeet
She took her sweet time walking around the bar, and even when she was in front of the drafts, she kept a few feet between us.
Shaking my head, I picked up a glass and held it out to her, but she kept her eyes trained on the handles. The way she ignored me was something to behold. She almost hadmebelieving I was invisible.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.
“Here,” I said, setting the glass on the bar next to her.
She jumped and let out a cute little squeak. Covering her heart with her hand, she glared at me. “Don’t sneak up on people!”
I pushed the glass closer and said, “I didn’t. You were spacing out in front of the taps, so I figured you wanted to give them a try.” She just looked at me, so I picked it up and held it out to her.
“Whatever,” she mumbled, taking the glass and turning to the taps. Pulling the handle, she filled the glass with eighty percent foam.
“Having a rough day?” I asked, gently taking the glass and pouring out her failed attempt. Placing the glass at an angle, I waited until her clear blue eyes were watching, then poured a beer with the appropriate amount of foam.
“Don’t,” she said, her gaze falling to the floor.
I set the beer down and turned to Sarah, utterly confused. “Don’t what? What am I missing?”
“You don’t have to make small talk. I’m embarrassed enough about last night.”
I frowned, wanting to ask her what she had to be embarrassed about.
Was she embarrassed of hooking up with me?
“About last night, I?—”
She held up her hand and closed her eyes. “Seriously, let’s just focus on learning how to do this whole bartender thing.” When her eyes opened, she gave me a pitiful smile. “Hopefully by then, this hangover will be gone.”
“You’re hungover?” My frown deepened, and I dragged my teeth over my upper lip.
How drunk was she when she came all over my thigh and said yes to coming home with me?
She rubbed her temples. “Oh, yeah.” Pausing, she looked me over, almost as if she were checking me out. “I made some choices last night.”
Shaking my head, I picked up the beer and took a drink. I was pretty fucking confused. Sarah clearly hated me, but still stared like she wouldn’t mind fucking me. And why did it upset me that she hated me? We were strangers, but for some reason, I cared about what she thought about me.
Meg came back and, over the next few hours, trained us. She was flirty, tactfully ignoring the awkward tension between Sarah and me. For her part, Sarah was bubbly and chatty with the customers, but absolute shit at bartending. I don’t know if it was because she was using all her cognitive ability to ignore my very existence or because she wasn’t much of a drinker, but I spent most of my night repouring beers and replacing messed-up drinks.
Occasionally, Sarah and I would reach for the same glass, our hands brushing, sending a jolt of awareness through me. I’d mumble an apology, and then she’d go back to pretending I didn’t exist, while I covertly watched her heart-shaped ass as she bent down to get garnishes out of the fridge. It was pathetic, but she didn’t notice, or maybe she didn’t care.
When my shift was finally over, I opened the door to the stairs leading to my apartment, drooling at the thought of the frozen pizza and bed waiting inside. I had one foot over the threshold when Meg yelled for me to wait.
“Hey! I just got cut.”
I let go of the door, not wanting her to misinterpret it as an invitation to come up. “Nice.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, waiting for her to say what she was after.
“So, would you walk me home? I wasn’t expecting to get off now, and Reggie isn’t off for another couple of hours. We usually walk together.”
Internally, I screamed no. I was exhausted and tired of dodging Meg’s interest. She was friendly and cute, but I wasn’t interested in starting something up with a coworker.
Unless that coworker is . . . never mind.
But then I thought about the dead body at the job site that morning and said, “Sure.”
A huge smile broke out on her face, and I politely returned it with a much smaller one.
“Where are we going?” I gestured toward campus, and she looped her arm through mine, her nails grazing my bicep, making my skin break out in goosebumps. With how ticklish I was, I fought the urge to jerk away, to put some distance between us.
