Page 7 of Good Time Boyfriend
I winced. “I am so sorry.”
“You want a drink?” he asked, nodding towards the bar. “On the house.”
“Oh, I’d love a drink, and I’ll pay. Because, well, I think you’ve done a lot already.”
“Oh, I think we’re both going to need a drink after this.”
“Can I get a lemon drop?”
“Do you like sugar on the lemon?”
“Not really. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. At least not for ordering the drink how you like it. And I don’t think you need to apologize for what just happened. But I would love to know exactly what the fuck just happened.”
“And I would love to know why you went along with it,” I said as I sat at the end of the bar. He turned toward the other bearded man and said something too quiet for me to hear, but neither of them looked in my direction. Maybe they weren’t talking about me and how insane I was. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. After all, nearly half of my family had just shown up to lambaste him over something he hadn’t done.
I really needed to leave. Why was I staying at the scene of the crime?
“So,” he said, as he handed a chilled glass to me, filled to the brim with a delicious looking cocktail. “Take a sip, and then you can introduce yourself to me for real this time.”
I sighed, and then took a sip. It was sweet and tart all at the same time, and was so good I held back a groan. Or at least I tried to.
When it escaped my lips, Heath raised a brow, his eyes darkening.
“This is delicious.”
“Good. I’m glad. Now, Devney, is it?”
Mortified, I set down my glass, and sighed. “Hi, I’m Devney Womack. We’ve met once before.”
“I remember,” he said, his voice a deep growl.
I froze, because it had just been that one time. Opening night, when I’d come in with my friend Addison before she went back to finish grad school. Addison had only had one year left and had been here for break. We’d come in to see the new place, I had met gazes with the bearded bartender, and had an instant crush. Of course, I hadn’t spoken to him, hadn’t seen him beyond those few moments, and then when we left, I’d put him out of my mind.
Or at least I’d tried.
“I saw you and read your little name tag,” I said, gesturing towards his shirt.
He snorted. “Okay. I guess I was the first person to pop into your mind for your little… What was it, a daydream?”
I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t like I thought it was real. You see, I have five stepsiblings.” I gestured towards the door where they’d left, and Heath’s gaze widened for a moment. “Only five? They seem so much larger in the group.”
“Tell me about it. I also have five half-siblings that are younger than me.”
He set down the glass he had been drying. “You have ten siblings?” he asked, his voice rising just enough that someone looked over.
I blushed and ducked my head. “Yes. And I try not to think about things like that. You know, about the fact that my mother and stepfather must really love each other,” I said as he threw his head back and laughed.
He was gorgeous when he did. I asked myself again why hadn’t I ever had a boyfriend? Yes, my siblings were overprotective. Yes, I had been focused on school and life and being shy, but if I could sit here and have a drink with the man who had been part of my lie, why couldn’t I have done it for real?
Then again, it wasn’t as if my fake fantasy relationship was real at all.
“So, you’re the middle child of middle children. That’s got to suck. Tell me about it.”
“They’re overprotective because they’re a few years older than me. I was the baby when they showed up. And when I didn’t want them setting me up with random people, or worried about me, I sort of…made you up.”
“I was the first person you thought of. You couldn’t have made up a fake person?”
