“Well,” Lexi said, gulping. “He definitely noticed us.”
“Crap.”
“Do you want to leave?”
Yes, I desperately wanted to leave. I had no desire to stay here and bemocked, for thesecondtime today, by an egotistical jackass. But I was sure that was exactly what he was expecting me to do – run home, too embarrassed by his comments to stay at Styx.
Well, I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of being right, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to let him chase me away. Plus, if I left, Lexi’s night would be ruined too.I just wouldn’t make eye contact with him again, I resolved. It would be fine.
“No. Screw him, we’re staying. Maybe just not, um, so close to the stage,” I responded, bracing my shoulders and quickly downing the remainder of my drink. “And I’m definitely going to need another round.”
“That can be arranged,” Lexi smirked, grabbing my hand and tugging me in the direction of the bar.
We maneuvered our way out of the crowd,which was now writhing along in harmony with Finn’s voice. To my surprise, he actually sounded great covering one of my favorite Dave Matthews songs, his raspy voice complementing the lyrics perfectly.
“Tyler looks so cute back there behind his drums. And there’snothingbad about a man who knows how to use his hands like that,” Lexi sighed in adoration as we reached the bar, angling her body to look back at the stage. “Such dexterity.”
“This morning you were desperately in love withFinn,” I reminded her, ordering us another round.
“Ugh, lead singers aresoegotistical. They just want to talk about themselves all the time. Who does that?” she wondered.
“Oh, I can think of a few people,” I laughed, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Shut up! I donottalk about myself all the time. And that’s beside the point! This morning he was beyond rude to me. He actually snatched my phone right out of my hand!”
I continued to chuckle, turning to accept our drinks from the bartender. Holding out a ten, I looked at him questioningly when he didn’t take it from my hand.
“These are on the house,” he said, smiling at me.
“Oh, thanks,” Ireplied, surprised at the gesture. I took the drinks and passed one to Lexi. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I wanted to. I’m Tim, by the way.” He held his hand out for me to shake.He was good-looking – definitely cute enough to distract me from my life for a few hours. Maybe I’d let him take me home when the bar closed.
“Brooklyn,” I responded, placing my hand in his.
“Like the city?”
“No, they actually named the city after me,” I joked, rolling my eyes.
“Wait,” he said, clearly confused. “Are you serious?Is it, like, a family name or something?”
“Thanks for the drink, Tim,” I said, removing my hand from his grasp and trying desperately to keep a straight face.
The giggles finally burst out as I walked away from the bar, Lexi in tow. She broke away from her Tyler-induced fangirl adoration long enough to look down at me.
“What’s so funny? And why aren’t you back there flirting with that bartender? He was cute and you totally could’ve milked him for free drinks all night.”
“He was dumb as a doorpost, Lex.”
“Your standards are way too high,” she complained.
“Lexi, he thought I was serious when I told him a well-known historical borough of New York City is named after me, not vice versa.”
“Okay, so maybe he’s not the brightest bulb in the box, but it’s not like you’re looking for a relationship anyway,” she reminded me, fully aware of my dating policies.
“True, but I like them to have at least above a fourth grade vocabulary and reading level if I’m going to have to spend any amount of time with them.”
“That’s probably a good benchmark,” Lexi noted, giggling.