Page 54 of Prime Time Romance

She takes the paper from my hands. “Who are Seth and the Hungry Dingos?”

I nod at my busker. “Well, that’s Seth. There are no actual Dingos. I added that part because Just Seth felt a little plain.”

She watches him play for a moment. “He’s not bad.”

“He’s not good either, but no one seems to care.”

It’s true. The moment I say it, two women get up and push their table to the side to form a dance floor. They dance to Seth’s best attempt at an old Carly Rae Jepsen song. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Danny downing the last of his beer. He slams the empty glass on his table, takes a deep breath, and dances over to the women. There’s a moment where I’m not sure how his bold move is going to play out, but then they widen their circle, and their dance party of two becomes a threesome.

Brynn, who has seemingly been watching the same scene, drops her head into her hands and groans.

“You okay there?” I grab another beer glass, fill it with a hoppy IPA, and set it down in front of her.

She looks up. “I’m fine. It’s just that everything is backward.” She takes a long drink. “That guy dancing is Danny Strong. He was captain of the math decathlon team in this one episode where Fletch joined to avoid detention and discovered he was secretly gifted at math. Danny isn’t supposed to be dancing with cheerleaders.” She looks at Danny, then back at me, but then does a double take, her attention shifting to a table on the other side of the dance floor. “Wait, is that Mrs. Chuang the librarian and Doc Martin the pharmacist?” She pushes up high in her seat, leaning across the bar to get a better look. “They’re not supposed to be together either. And you!” She turns to me and glares.

“What did I do?”

“Fletch isn’t supposed to be the sexy, popular bartender getting eyed by his former English teacher.”

“Who’s my former English teacher?”

Brynn points across the room. I spot an older blond woman looking at me from the corner. When our eyes meet, she winks.

I snap my focus away from her. “Wait, did you just call me sexy?”

“No.” Brynn rolls her eyes. “Well, technically, yes, but you know what I mean.”

I try to hide my smile. “I don’t. You’ll have to enlighten me.”

She growls. “Forget it. All I’m saying is that the Bronze isn’t supposed to be the happening spot in town, and Spencer and Sloan aren’t supposed to be…”

The rest of her thought is cut off as she sighs deeply into her glass.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it wasn’t a dream date with Malibu Ken?”

She looks up. “No, not exactly. I don’t know.” She slumps to the side, resting her chin in her palm. “Maybe I set my expectations too high? Or maybe things are going exactly as planned, and I need to be patient and let our story build a little more. I guess I was just expecting our first real date to be magical. Instant sparks, you know?”

She drains what is left in her glass and sets it down on the counter. I reach for it at the same time she pushes it toward me, causing our hands to touch. There’s a sharp jolt of electricity between us.

“What was that?” She pulls her hand away, cradling it to her chest.

I shake mine. “Maybe that was the spark you’ve been looking for?”

Brynn rolls her eyes.

“You said you wanted magic.” I scuff my feet and then give her another zap on the arm.

“Magic? Or science?” She gets to her feet and mimics my own scuffing motion from a moment before. “Bibbity, bobbity—”

Bang.

The moment Brynn’s finger connects with my forearm, there’s a loud pop from somewhere in the bar.

Then complete blackness.

“Ahhhhh!”

The bar is filled with screams, including Brynn’s. But as our eyes adjust to the new dark and the noise begins to die down, I catch Brynn whispering, “Please tell me I didn’t do that.”