Page 13 of I Wanna Be Your Lager

“Not really.” Jake shakes his head. We’re not the type of friends who analyze each other’s sex lives.

“Seriously?” She peers at Jake, then at me. “You two are best friends. What the heck do you talk about if you’re not talking about your random hookups?”

Jake lifts his gaze and meets mine, brows drawn together. “Sports. Beer. Video games.”

“Jake helped me fix the brakes on my truck,” I add.

“Lach helped me with my upstairs bathroom remodel,” Jake says.

Nora closes her eyes and drops her head back, fake snoring. “Oh my god. You guys are so boooring.”

“Alright, while you two discuss Lach’s sex life, I have to go pick up my sister in The Cities.” The barstool scrapes across the linoleum floor as he pushes away from the bar. “I guess her plane got delayed or something. A guy had a seizure, and they had to make an emergency landing.”

Nora’s eyes go wide. “That’s so crazy.”

“There was a guy on my flight that had a medical emergency. We had to make an emergency landing as well,” I say. “What are the chances?”

“That’s definitely out of the ordinary. Don’t burn the place down.” Jake’s gaze flits between me and Nora.

Nora gives him a two-finger salute.

Jake rolls his eyes and strolls out the door, stack of mail in hand.

When the door closes, Nora turns her attention to me, a wide grin on her face. “Well, lucky for you, I’m not Jake, and I want all the dirty details.”

I give Nora the briefest of rundowns of my hookup—just enough to satisfy her appetite. Luckily, a customer approaches the bar to distract her and, hopefully, she forgets all about me.

While Nora’s serving the customer at the other end of the bar, I flip over a cardboard coaster and grab a pen from my back pocket. The black ink slides across the cardboard, leaving a small indent in its wake. With one long stroke, I loop around, connecting one end to the other. I continue all the way around the coaster until the loops connect to themselves. With small, soft strokes, I fill the center of the loops, forming a circle.

Nora peers over my shoulder. “Is that a sunflower?

“Yep.”

“I didn’t know you were into drawing floral arrangements.”

“It’s just a sunflower.” Without taking my eyes off the coaster, I continue drawing.

She rests her elbows on the bar, watching me, not the pen. “But why a sunflower?

“Something that just came to my mind.” Not because it’s the tattoo on Kat’s neck, right below her ear. I continue shading under the petals.

Nora pushes to her full height. “I call bullshit.”

My pen falls to the bar top, and I turn to face her. “Why?”

“Because you’re not a flower type of guy.”

“Guys can like flowers.”

“Yeah, but not you. I’ve watched you doodle tons of drawings, and you’ve never once drawn a flower.” Her eyes flicker to life as if she discovered the holy grail. “Is that her name?”

“Sunflower?” I scoff. “Who has the name Sunflower?”

“The woman you hooked up with.” She quirks a blonde eyebrow at me. When I say nothing, she continues. “Spill now, or I’ll keep hounding you for the rest of our shift. And basically for eternity until you tell me.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” She’s like an annoying little sister. At times, you want to ignore her, but you’ll also be the first person to have her back if she’s in trouble. I exhale a deep breath. “She had a tattoo of a sunflower.”

“Tell me more about her.” With her elbow resting on the bar, she props her chin on her hand.

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