Page 29 of Nothing But the Truth

“This is how you ask people for help? By accusing them of causing your problems and throwing fruit at them?”

“I—”

She realized that was a completely fair observation, and she was annoyed with him for so readily making it. She folded her arms and glared at him. “Listen, if you didn’t put anything in my drink, prove it. Make me another one. Right now.”

“It’s eleven a.m.”

“Do I look like I care what time it is?”

“Okay!” He chuckled, backing away with a smile. “Coming right up.”

She watched him work like a warden watching a prisoner. He carefully set each bottle on the bar, making a show of no funny business.

“What’s your name, Birthday Girl?”

She realized she was captive, and he could ask her anything he wanted while she waited for her drink. But the question was harmless. And in all fairness, the least she could do was tell him her name considering she’d barged in on him outside of hours and demanded he fix her a drink.

“Lucy.”

“Nice to meet you, Lucy.” He smiled and poured the purple ingredient into the shaker. Watching him mesmerized her. She tried to focus on the reason she came—to undo whatever he’d done to her—but his fluid motion and warm, gravelly voice were distracting. He reached for the vodka and formed his mouth around another question.

“Don’t abuse your power right now,” she warned him.

He squeezed a lemon wedge over the shaker. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He fastened the shaker’s lid and shook it like a maraca. She looked away from his arm pumping up and down and the veins in his hand gripping the tumbler.

“How long have you worked here?” she asked for distraction. She gazed out the glass wall at the sunny day, thinking it would be nice to head down to the beach and forget everything else.

“Since I bought it,” he said, and strained the purple liquid into a martini glass with a quiet hiss.

“You own this place?”

“Sure do. You sound surprised by that fact, Lucy.”

She liked the way he said her name.

In truth, she was surprised. She assumed he was another actor moonlighting as a bartender to make rent.

And because that was the truth, she had to say it.

“I am surprised. I assumed this was a second job while you worked on a different career.”

He reached for a fresh bottle of champagne. Lucy watched him unwind the little cage and twist the bottle back and forth until the cork burst out with a pop that made her jump.

“A career like acting?”

No sense in denying it, even if she could.

She shrugged a shoulder as he topped off her drink with a splash of bubbles. He took another lemon wedge and rubbed it around the glass’s rim, squeezing gently, before leaving it hanging from the edge. He smoothly pushed the glass toward her over the marble bar top.

“I’ll let you in on a secret, Lucy,” he said quietly. “Not all hot bartenders in L.A. are actors. Some of us are just... bartenders.”

She fought the wave of embarrassment, feeling foolish for making assumptions about him. “I noticed you left the hot part in there.”

“Aren’t you keen.” He threw her line from the night before back at her, and she couldn’t help but smile. “So, are you gonna drink that now? See if it’ll reverse whatever honesty spell you’re under?”

That was precisely what she was going to do. She didn’t really want to be chugging booze right before her meeting with Lily Chu, but she also didn’t want to spend the rest of the day navigating the treachery of total honesty.

She lifted it and tipped it toward him, the same as she’d done the first time. She scrambled for what to say—how to unwish her wish. I wish I could lie didn’t feel very honorable. She settled on I wish to reverse my wish and sipped the same cool, delicious tonic as the night before. It went down just as smoothly. As impossibly blended into one flavor even though she knew all the ingredients.

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