Page 8 of When Sky Breaks
sky
“I can already tell this is going to be our new favorite spot,” Phoebe says as we enter through the heavy wooden doors.
Tipsy Tabletop, situated on a triangular lot, spans two stories high, with an outside loft bursting with people. We’re close to the big town college, and on a Friday evening at ten, the night is just beginning.
Graham gestures me in after Phoebe like the gentleman he is, and I immediately get hungry. It smells like the ultimate bar food. Greasy burgers, onion rings, and gooey mozzarella sticks.
“If you’re on a diet, Phoebs, you’re screwing it tonight.” I follow her to an open table near the back. A neon sign of a martini glass lights up on the wall, and a small, lit candle sits atop the table.
She laughs. “Why do you think I had a light dinner? Been craving this shit all day. When’s Johnny coming?”
I sit and pull my phone out to check for any messages. “He was going to go home and shower first after his shift.”
“Perfect. I’m so excited he agreed to come.” She claps her hands and wiggles in the seat before turning to Graham, who takes my purse along with hers and stuffs them in the booth’s corner. “Are you happy not to be the lone wolf?”
“Bee, I’m just going to sit here and watch you two ladies have fun whether the doc comes or not.”
She pouts. “You won’t dance with me?”
He pulls on one of her coils, watching it spring back in place. “Of course I will. But in the meantime, I’m warming this booth.”
“I’ll grab us drinks,” I say, sliding from the crinkly leather seat. “What do you guys want?”
“Surprise me,” Phoebe chirps and Graham gives me his choice of beer.
The air churns with a combination of men’s cologne and sugary drinks as I weave through the crowd, finding the bar top already sticky as I lean against it to order. “Two”—I browse the menu written in chalk above the bar—“uh, Blue Cosmos and a Michelob Ultra. Please.”
While the bartender makes our drinks, I let my eyes wander. The place is full of barely twenty-one-year-olds out for the college game streaming on the TVs in all corners of the bar.
As I wait, I brace my arms on the bar top, hoping Johnny isn’t annoyed about being here. Even I’m annoyed, and I’m of the right age group to get rowdy on the weekends.
Once I’m back at the table and sipping on my cocktail, my nerves kick in. Bars have never truly been my scene. When I turned twenty-one, Phoebe dragged me out to the clubs, and while I had fun, the hangover the next day made me never want to pick up another drink. Of course, I’d say that and then let her bring me back to another bar the following weekend. It was a rite of passage into adulthood that she wouldn’t let me miss out on.
The dance floor fills with people, the bass vibrating the tiles beneath our feet.
Phoebe bumps my shoulder lightly. “Come on, let’s dance before your lover boy gets here and steals all your attention.”
Graham hangs back with our stuff, and Phoebe leads me to a space underneath the strobe lights. I think they’re cheesy in a more upscale bar, but who am I to judge? I miss the glow-in-the-dark stars all over my childhood bedroom ceiling, and I’m a grown adult.
Soon though, the alcohol infuses my veins, and I let the beat take me away. I don’t think about the hospital and the never-ending stress of little patients relying on me. Or the way I use work as an excuse to avoid the real world.
The warm lights caress my skin, and the heat from all the bodies makes me sweat as we dance. I’m startled from my trance when a hand snakes around my waist and pulls me flush to a hard chest. Fear bursts through my body, and I squeak, trying to wiggle away.
“It’s just me, babe.”
At his voice, I relax and spin around to face a grinning Johnny towering over me.
“Hi.” A smile forms as I smell the expensive cologne on his dress shirt. I almost forget about Phoebe until she clings to my arm, her nails digging.
“Damn,” she whispers in my ear. “He’s much hotter than the last time I saw him. Look at the way his shirt clings to his biceps. Girl, you better leave here and go back to his place. I might even lock you out of the apartment, so you don’t have a choice.”
“Stop it.” I nudge her in the stomach as I watch him study me under the lights of the dance floor. His eyes rake over my body, and my face flushes as they flash with what I can only assume is desire. I’ve made him wait for sex, and while the buzz of alcohol urges me to step over that line with him, I still hesitate.
“Get out of your head, Sky.” She pushes me toward Johnny and sneaks around us. “I’m going back to Graham. Good to see you again, Doc.”
Johnny nods to Phoebe without taking his eyes off me, and anxiety zips through my belly.
“Want to go back to the table or grab a drink?”