Page 3 of vKissed By the Bartender

Who is she?

A few minutes later, Patrick and Olivia scamper out from the back with smiles on their faces.

“See you later Doc,” Olivia yells as Patrick pulls her outside towards their SUV.

“Bye you two,” I yell across the room as thunder cracks as if on cue.

I wipe up the bar and dump out the margaritas. I can’t help but look towards the woman by the door.

My eyes stare at her legs as she crosses them. She is slumped over her notebook, furiously jotting down something.

She seems to be about my age. Her brown eyes sparkle whenever she looked up from her notebook. I feel a connection to her and I have to figure out who she is.

Her long, wavy, chocolate-brown hair touched her ass and suddenly I want to be doing the same thing.

“Hey Candice,” Kyndrah calls out to her from halfway across the room. “Do you need another water, honey?”

“Sure! Thank you, Kyndrah.” So, her name is Candice. Suddenly the realisation hits me like a ton of bricks.

She’s Candice Barron. My childhood best friend and the only person I ever wanted to be with. I just didn’t know how she felt so I let things be. When we graduated, I let her slip away for a better life. My, has she grown up to be a fine woman.

And now, here she is, in my bar.

“Hey, Kyndrah, let me take that over to her please,” I ask as I take the water from her hand.

“Sure thing,” Kyndrah flashes a wicked smile. She is reading a little too much into it.

“Thanks. Will you watch the bar for me?” I ask her. “The crowd is thinning out. Probably because of the storm coming, but I just need to talk to Candice… she’s an old friend of mine.”

Kyndrah smiles as she recognizes something in me that I can’t place. She sends me away to take the water to Candice.

I walk over slowly and not once does Candice look up from her paper. My stomach twists. This is not nerves; this is longing to do the things I can’t do with her seven years ago.

“Candice Barron,” I say, as I place the water down in front of her.

“Why, if it isn’t Joseph Lyons?” She says with a smile as she shuts her notebook and nods to the seat across from her.

I take it.

“How have you been?” I ask her.

“You never called me,” she says. I’m taken aback for a moment.

“I…I…” I stutter. “I didn’t want to bother you… hey, you never called me either,” I say for a lack of better things to say.

“True,” she giggles, and my heart skips a beat.

The thunder is getting worse outside and more people are leaving the bar. I know a bad storm is coming since our town was tracking it for the better part of the week. I know I need to get home, but something is making me stay.

“There’s a bad storm coming,” I finally say to her.

“I don’t mind riding it out here,” she says as she takes a sip of her water. “With you,” she winks. “We have some catching up to do.”

“That we do,” I say.

“So, who are you with now?” she asks.

I guess she was expecting me to be married by now.

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