Page 28 of Now & Forever
Seven Years Ago, Part 2
Gwen emerged from the back room of the bar to find James there,again.
She shook her head in nothing but curious amusement. That guy showed up twice or thrice a week at the most awkward time. (Was it too much to ask to have no customers while Gwen cleaned up and prepped for the rush sure to come in the next two hours?) Usually, he kept to himself, but occasionally he made light conversation with her. That didn’t count the amount of times she glanced over her shoulder while she did some dishes or took inventory and caught him staring at her ass.
Typical. Men always stared at her ass. They often hit on her, too. It wasn’t a Saturday night unless Gwen made a pile of tips because she charmed the men that came into the bar into thinking they had even the slightest bit of a chance with her.
Okay, so sometimes they did. Gwen didn’t make a habit of it, but for the right guy, she was willing to go home and have a good time. Bonus points if he came into the bar againandcontinued to give her tips. As long as they didn’t think she was their girlfriend, all was good.
James was trouble.
Cute, charming trouble.
Their conversations over the past few weeks had revealed that he was in training to take over his family’s business, whatever it was. Once guys started talking aboutbusiness,Gwen tuned them out. Blah, blah, blah. Stocks, bonds, buyouts, and mergers. Whatever. Sounded like a goofy ‘80s movie.
James was a goofy kind of guy. He may have looked like he stepped out of a men’s watch catalog – that wasn’t knocking his appearance, by the way – and was affable enough to joke around with, but every time James started saying something serious, he pulled back and turned it into a jest instead.
At least he was genuinely funny, and he didn’t rely on crass, offensive humor to get his points across. While most of those jokes weren’t fit for a kid’s ear, Gwen didn’t have to hear curse word after slur, and that was always a pleasant night at the bar.
That night, when she emerged to find her favorite customer waiting for her at the far end of the bar, she spared him a smile and approached with a slight wave of her hand. “Hey, stranger,” she said. “Get you the usual?”
“If the usual will make me forget that horrible meeting I had earlier.”
Gwen had a feeling it would, especially if she pumped it with a little extra liquor. “Bad day at the office again?”
“Theworst.My dad is a tyrant. News at eleven.”
Chuckling, Gwen swiftly made his favorite drink using the same top shelf stuff he singlehandedly made them reorder more than once since he started coming around. “Your life is so hard. Mr. Trust Fund.”
“Hey, I work for that trust fund.” James winked at her when the glass appeared before him. “I work to keep my father happy. A happy father means a happy trust fund for many years to come.”
“Is that how they work? I wouldn’t know. I’m from scholarship country.” Gwen braced herself against the bar. She knew her breasts were pushed toward James’s face, but she had long since decided she didn’t care if he respectfully ogled her. The man paid her enough tips to make her think she was in one ofthoseclubs, anyway. Might as well give him a little extra for his time.
“Of course it’s not how they work. But if I pretend it is, I can feel like I have more control over my fate.”
“Ah, yes, fate. Is that what keeps bringing you into my bar?”
“Why, Ms. Mitchell,” James said with a waggle of his eyebrows, “are you finally flirting back with me in earnest?”
She snorted. “You’d like that, I bet.”
“I mean, your lovely face and ability to banter with me is the second reason I keep coming back here.”
“Only the second?”
“The drinks are top notch, Gwen. I’m telling you, it’s amazing this place doesn’t have more customers.”
She laughed. “Wanna hear a secret? I don’t water your drinks down.”
She left him with that nugget as she walked away. She would have been disappointed if he weren’t staring at her ass.
James was the kind of customer Gwen appreciated while always keeping a careful eye on him. Guys like that? The ones with the big wallets and not afraid to drop in during the slow times to make light conversation and crack jokes? They usually wanted something. Namely,her.
Gwen had been dealing with guys like James for years, long before she started bartending full time. Apparently, she had a coolje ne sais quoithat made her popular with men of all types and backgrounds. Most of them weren’t worth her time. Occasionally, she picked up a temporary boyfriend or a one-night stand that was adequate enough for her to keep doing it. But there were some men that made her uneasy, and she wasn’t sure why.
Sure, creeps were creeps, and Gwen smelled them from a mile away. Those were the obvious ones. Sometimes guys were so good at hiding their creep levels that Gwen went out on dates and soon regretted it. After a few years of dealing with one creep after another, she was content to live the single life and ignore any guy who followed established patterns of behavior.
She couldn’t make out what kind of guy James Merange was.
