“From the gentleman down the bar…for you,” the bartender said.
I looked from him down to the fresh cosmopolitan he put in front of me then down the bar at an attractive man with blond hair, a little gray at the temples, his smiling blue eyes on me.
“Holy shit,” Alyssa said, sitting on a stool at a nice restaurant with a respectable bar one town over called Breeze Point.
“Lovely,” Josie, sitting on my other side, murmured.
We were out “trolling” as Alyssa put it, or “having girl time with the possibility of something happening” as Josie put it.
I decided to think of it as the latter as well as an opportunity to wear another of my going out outfits.
But at that moment, when the possibility of something happening happened, I didn’t know what to do. I hadn’t had a man buy me a drink in so long that I forgot what I’d done when they did.
Since my current drink was running low, I lifted it to my lips, finished it and put my fingers to the stem of the glass of the new, shifting my eyes back to the man.
I smiled.
He smiled back again.
“Pure cool,” Alyssa approved.
“Well done,” Josie did the same.
I looked to Josie and noted, “He’s only sent this because you both have huge rocks on your fingers.”
They did. Although Josie’s was a fair sight bigger than Alyssa’s, neither ring failed to state the giver’s intention that these two women were t-a-k-e-n, taken.
And they were far more attractive than me, both tall, both blonde and both stunning.
“You say shit like that again, I’m bitch slappin’ some sense into you and don’t you doubt it,” Alyssa muttered.
I looked to her to see her eyes squinty on me, but I did doubt it.
Alyssa would never do that. She’d threaten it repeatedly (if needed), but she’d never do it.
“You’re hot,” she went on to declare.
“I’m not a tall, built blonde,” I pointed out.
“No, you’re a petite, beautiful brunette with big knockers, awesome gams and a great ass even though you pushed out a coupla kids and the rest of you is still too skinny,” she retorted. “Now shut up or I’ll bring a catfight to Breeze Point, I don’t care how ritzy this place is.”
“She’s right, you know,” Josie said and I looked her way. “There are many varieties of…hot.”
Josie using a slang word, something she rarely did, made me giggle.
“Now grab that drink, sister, and get that great ass over to that hot guy,” Alyssa ordered.
I looked to her in surprise.
“Me go to him?” I asked.
“He laid it out,” she said by way of answer. “You got your bitches with you. Don’t make him come over here and lay it out in front of your bitches. It’s already hard enough to put himself out there, buyin’ a drink for a beautiful woman, settin’ himself up for a crash and burn seein’ as he’s cute but you’re all that’s you. Don’t make it harder.”
I saw her point (though I might not have entirely agreed about “all that’s me”) but I didn’t like this.
And it struck me that I didn’t like this because I was me.
I was greedy.
I wanted it all.
I wanted a man who had confidence enough in himself not to lay it out but to lay it out. I wanted a man who looked at me and was so drawn to me he’d put himself out there for me. He took the chance to walk over to me with my friends and show me how much he wanted me. I wanted a man who would demonstrate he wanted me so much, he’d do anything to have a shot with me.
He’d buy me a drink.
He’d walk over and speak to me.
He wouldn’t give one thought to “shitting where he lived” because he was my neighbor. Instead, he’d want me so badly he’d throw caution to the wind just for a chance to be with me.
That’s what I wanted.
And that was what I would get or I’d take nothing.
Shock of shocks, I was okay being alone in my big house with mostly me as my company. I wasn’t going to settle for just anybody so I’d be less lonely because I was no longer lonely.
I was just alone.
And I was fine with that.
“If he wants me,” I mumbled, lifting the drink he bought me to my lips and before taking a sip I finished, “He can come and get me.”
“Well, batten down the hatches, babe, ’cause here he comes,” Alyssa stage-whispered loudly.
My body locked.
“Ladies,” a smooth male voice said.
I took my sip, luckily not choking, and swiveled on my stool.
He was right there, smiling at me then he looked beyond me. “If you’ll get these other ladies a drink and put them on my tab.” He looked from the bartender to me. “I’d like a moment with you to introduce myself privately.”
He lifted his hand to me.
I looked into his blue eyes that were not as beautiful as Mickey’s but they were still handsome.
Then I looked to his hand, which was not as strong as Mickey’s, and not rough at all, but it was a nice hand.
And of its own accord, my hand lifted and my fingers curled around his.
He gripped them and helped me off my stool.