I turned to her. “Well, I hope when I find the right guy, it won’t feel like settling.”

Not that I had much hope for that, nor was I actively looking for anything.

The woman on her other side, Niddhi, guffawed. “Good luck with that. It’s all rainbows and moonbeams in the beginning—and then you realize those rainbows were an illusion and the moonbeams were actually the phone he was using while you were sleeping to sext girls on Only Fans…”

Amelia patted her knee and steered the conversation in another direction. I turned to Charlie, a little slack-jawed.

“What was that?” I whispered.

“She’s going through a bad breakup.”

I nodded. “Uh, yeah. I gathered that. Wowza, poor thing.”

“Her ex spent twenty grand on cam girls before she caught him.”

I slapped my forehead. “What an idiot. Why do men throw away real relationships for a minute or two of gratification? I’ll never understand it.”

“Not every guy is deceitful.” The eye contact he kept with me was steeped in meaning, and I got the drift. Charliewasn’t like other men. But in my experience, if a man had to say that, he probably wasjustlike other men.

I placed my empty glass on the tiny table and hopped up. “I’m going to the restroom. Be back.”

“I’ll save your seat,” Charlie called to my retreating back.

There were perks to being tall, one being catching bartenders’ attention easily. I waved my hand at the pretty woman behind the bar. She started toward me, her steps stuttering as a long arm reached out in front of me to flag her down. When she regained her composure, she walked right past me to wait on the person who’d squeezed in behind me.

She propped her elbows on the bar and leaned forward, putting her tits on display. “Hello, handsome.”

“Good evening,bella. It seems our waiter has gone missing. Is that something you can rectify?”

I recognized that smooth, silky timbre. The slight edge of impatience had been absent last weekend, but there was no mistaking who’d stolen my bartender.

She ran her finger along the line of her cleavage. “I think I can take care of you, handsome. Give it to me.”

“I’d be more than happy to give it to you.”

Oh, wow. This guy was a smooth-as-shit flirt, wasn’t he? No wonder he’d gotten me into bed with barely any effort.

Luke recited his order, and the bartender jumped into action. I swiveled around to express my displeasure.

“I know we discussed your rudeness when you wouldn’t share your pizza, but I thought we’d conquered that bad habit.”

A flash of recognition lightened Luke’s dark eyes. Momentary disbelief gave way to a sexy smirk. “Are you still talking about that?”

“I would have let it go if you hadn’t cut in front of me. That bartender was mine.”

He cocked his head. “If she was yours, why did she serve me first?”

I gestured to his face then the rest of him. “You’re hot.”

“And?”

“Hotness tends to strike some people stupid.”

“Not you though?”

I tucked my hair behind my ear, playing coy, but, man, I actually felt somewhat bashful in front of him. He was more attractive than I even remembered, which seemed impossible since I remembered him being devastating to look at.

“I’m not so shallow.” I tugged on his tie, which was snug at the collar, despite being in a bar during after-work hours. “You look serious.”