Page 20 of Silver Linings
“Hey, gorgeous. What can I get for you?” His tone holds a flirty quality to it that I find endearing and amusing in equal measure.
“I’ll take a Cab Sav and a Dark & Stormy. Add it to Julien’s tab, please.”
“Got it.” He slaps the bar top with his hand and backs away to make our drinks. Suddenly, a loud crash sounds from the back of the bar, and I hear the barkeep mumble under his breath, “Fucking finance bros.”
He hasn’t even had a second to get out from behind the bar when I hear a deep, familiar rumble two feet to my right. “Sam, hand me a towel. The table of douches next to us shattered a bottle. I’ll help you clean it up.”
I turn toward the voice that sends a shiver skating down my spine, and a smile breaks across my face. There before me, looking like the mirror image of himself when I opened my apartment door, is Hendrix Wells.
Neither of us say anything for a minute, and I don’t miss the way his eyes quickly flick down my body, lingering briefly on the sliver of exposed skin between the top of my jeans and my cropped red baby tee before fixing his gaze back on my face.
I’m very aware of Sam staring at the two of us staring at each other.
“Well, Huxley, it would seem the universe keeps our paths crossing. Three times is a pattern.” I have a cheeky smile on my face.
“Purely coincidental. Sam, the towel?”
“Oh, absolutely not,” Sam says with that megawatt grin stretched across his face. “You stay right here, Henny. I’ll take care of the mess.” And with that, Sam leaves me and Hendrix staring at each other. A smile stretches across on my face, and he seems decidedly put out.
“Do you come here often?” I ask before realizing that is the quintessential cheesy pick up line.
Hendrix’s mouth gives a tiny quirk, like he’s actively trying not to emote. “Practically lived here in college.”
He doesn’t give me much to keep the conversation going, and I suspect that is highly intentional, so the idea of throwing him off a little off axis is too good to pass up. I drag my gaze down his body, taking in the simple t-shirt stretching over broad shoulders and displaying the tattooed vines wrapping around his muscled arms as they spiral from his wrists all the way up corded forearms until they disappear under the cotton of his sleeves. The dark ink pulls and flexes across his skin now, distracting me far more than I care to admit. I drag my gaze back up and settle on his face, not even attempting to hide my admiration.
“Right, well, I’ll just—” I signal over to my table with Julien and Kena and start to turn around.
“Doyoucome here often?”
I smile to myself before facing towards him again. “First time. My best friend Kena and his boyfriend Julien passed by it on their way home from the farmers market. I should probably get back to them now.”
“Yeah, I should get back to mine.” He signals towards his friends at one of the back tables, and when we turn to look, we catch them all peeking out of the booth, staring directly at us. They all duck quickly, but the damage is done. “For fucks sake,” Hendrix murmurs.
Sam makes his way over to the bar, telling me he’ll bring over our drinks in a couple minutes once he’s sorted out the issues with the rowdy table.
“Thanks, Sam.” I smile, reorienting back toward Hendrix. “I’ll see you tomorrow,Henny.”
I can feel eyes on me as I’m walking away. I’m not saying that I intentionally add a little extra swing to my walk…but I’m notnotsaying that either.
I’m halfway back to the table when I hear Sam. “Do you come here often?” It’s followed by a grunt from Hendrix and a barrel laugh from his friend.
six
. . .
I’m walking to work,Hozier crooning through my earbuds, when I feel my phone buzzing in my back pocket.
Mom.
I stop in my tracks and stare at my mother’s face beaming back at me from the caller I.D.
I’ve been dodging my family’s calls since I moved back to New York, and I don’t break that habit now as I stare at the screen, waiting for the call to go to voicemail. A knot forms in my throat, making my mouth feel thick. It’s official—I’m the world’s shittiest son. It makes me the worst sort of coward, to move across the country without giving them a reason and then not answer their calls. I just can’t stand to hear their disappointment. It’s selfish, but I can’t face them yet.
I pocket my phone once the call drops and finish the last few blocks to work while trying to shake the lingering feeling of anxiety I always get when I’m faced with the reality of my family. How fractured I left it.
I run down to the basement to my office to grab the supplies to start on Silver’s ceiling damage. I turned off the water pipe the leak was coming from so the water wouldn’t continue to dripthrough and onto her bed. Luckily for both of us, it was a pipe connected to an apartment that was having work done. No one knew there was a leak, so the outside contractors were running water pretty frequently for a couple weeks. That leak was right above Silver’s apartment, soaking into the wood and drywall until it all came bursting down.
As I make my way up to the fifth floor, I solidify my resolve and pray to the universe that this time when she answers the door, she has on more than a towel. I knock on the door to her apartment and take a step back while I wait for her to answer.
