Page 25 of The Player in New Zealand
When the novelty of the faux-gin wore off—one shot for me, three for Alec—Marissa and Alec went home and I was back to my regular workday, albeit a quiet one.
Nina was in and out, asking me questions about ingredients and pricings, and I could tell that she was excited about making a change. My heart warmed to see her giddy, but I wondered where her brother was.
“Hey, what about Tane?” I asked her after we discussed placing an order for flavored simple syrup.
“What about him?” she said, distracted.
I shrugged, not wanting Nina to know how much it had bothered me that Tane had disappeared. “Where is he?”
At that, Nina looked up and glanced around. A crease formed between her eyebrows and she gave me a long look.
“Why are you so concerned, Claire?” she asked, and her eyebrows went from anxious to wiggling.
I scoffed and rolled my eyes, feeling my face heat up. It wasnotthat. “I’m not into your brother. I made him a drink; the least he could do was give me some feedback.”
“I didn’t say anything about you being into him,” Nina said, a slow smile creeping over her face. “He drank the whole thing. And I bet you twenty dollars he comes back around before the end of your shift.”
“Oh, come on, that’s a shoo-in bet. He’s down here most nights.”
Nina smirked over her shoulder at me while walking back to her office. “Most nightsyou’rehere.”
My face flushed further and she cackled, slamming the door on her laughter.
Three hours later I was thinking I should have taken Nina up on that bet. Tane hadn’t come down and we were starting to close up. Two servers had been sent home already, the kitchen staff was gone, and I was restocking for the next day.
I heard a door opening and turned, expecting Nina to be coming in from outside, but instead Tane stood opposite me at the bar. I froze, a bottle of tequila under one arm and a handful of limes in the other. “Oh! Tane. Hi.”
“Hey,” he said, shifting stools around to lean onto the bar. His mouth was turned down, eyes serious and steady.
I was tempted to make a joke about tequila shots, but that wasn’t appropriate with Tane being sober. Instead I just put the tequila and limes down and leaned on the bar, mirroring him, my forearms just a few inches away from his. “Are you okay?” I asked quietly.
Tane broke eye contact and looked down at his laced fingers. Nerves fluttered in my stomach as I looked at his face. This close I could see little crow’s-feet around his eyes and a scar on one earlobe.
Tane took a deep breath and I turned my attention away from his ear—why was I staring at it anyway?—to his eyes.
“I just wanted to say thank you for all the effort you put in today. With the gin, and the cocktails. But mostly the gin. That was... nice.”
He looked at me then, so open and genuine and trusting. The flutter moved from my stomach up to my chest and I smiled. Tane turned his face away again with a flash of his white teeth. “I also have a sober coach. And one of the things we talk about is finding people who support us. And I think it’s lucky that even though I own a bar, I’ve found that kind of support here. With you. And Nina, of course.”
I pressed my lips together. Tane wouldn’t understand, but I was feeling the same way about this place. Tane and Nina, my other friends at the bar and the hostel, they didn’t realize how they were supporting me, but it had been a long time since I’d worried about Devon. That was the gift Tane and Nina had given me.
As if summoned, a door opened and Nina’s voice filtered in over the music. “Tane, what are you doing here?” Nina pressed an exaggerated hand on her hip. “I thought forsureyou were in for the night.”
She looked too damn smug for her own good, but the interruption made me realize how close Tane and I were to each other. He moved first, straightening and throwing a perplexed look at Nina. “Am I not allowed to be down here?”
Nina’s face turned innocent. “Nah, you’re fine, bro. I’m going to go outside and clean up the deck. You hanging out?”
“Yeah.” Tane looked at me. “Can you make me a drink?”
I mixed Tane a mocktail, and he sat across from me while I kept working on inventory. We talked a little bit about the drinks and then he asked how my new hostel was going before the topic shifted. “You know something else I’m doing?” he asked.
“What?”
“I started coaching,” he said, grinning.
“Coaching rugby?” I paused, half in the reach-in cooler, and Tane nodded.
“That’s awesome,” I said, pulling my attention back to the task.
