Page 59 of Body Shot

“Awesome.”

“I’ll have one of those.” A woman two stools down the bar speaks up. “That looks great.”

“Sure thing, Helena. How about you, Joe?”

I look toward the woman and the man on the other side of me, whom Beck apparently knows.

“I thought we were leaving,” the man says.

“We can stay for one more,” she snaps.

I blink.

“You always want to stay for one more,” he clips back.

“Maybe because I’d rather stay here than go home with you.”

I shoot Beck an alarmed glance. He meets my eyes and shrugs. “So two Palomas?” he asks the couple.

“Okay, why not.” The man sighs.

Marco leans across the bar to say in a low voice, “They fight all the time. No idea why they’re still together, but it seems to work for them.”

“Oh. They’re, uh, regulars here?”

“Yeah.”

The woman turns on her stool and smiles at me. She’s probably about my age, with short dark hair and stylish dark-framed glasses. “Hi. You’re new here.”

“Um, sort of, yeah. I’m Hayden.”

The woman holds out a hand and we shake. “I’m Helena. This is my husband, Joe.”

“I was here for the first time for the tequila tasting,” I say. “That was fun.”

“You going to do that again, guys?” Helena looks over at Beck and Marco.

“Yeah, we’re thinking of doing it once a month.”

“I told you we should have come to that,” Helena says to Joe.

“No, you didn’t. You didn’t even know about it until after.”

“I did too! You never listen to me!”

I suck briefly on my bottom lip.

“Don’t worry, they’ve never come to blows,” Marco whispers.

Beck serves them their drinks, winks at me, and says, “Be right back.” He heads down to the other end of the bar, apparently to check on other customers.

“So,” Marco says, back in a normal tone of voice. I turn my gaze from watching Beck to Marco and blink at his intent scrutiny. “Beck invited you tonight, huh.”

“Yes. Is that okay? I won’t get in the way; I know he’s working.”

Marco laughs. “Not worried about that, belleza.There are many of us here to look after customers tonight.”

“Oh. Okay.”

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