Page 4 of Jesse's Girl
“Why?” He frowns, scrubbing at a spot on the bar top with a cloth.
“Katie’s moving out.”
He stops wiping down the bar. “What? Why?”
“She’s moving in with Dimitri. He proposed last week.” I stack a few dirty glasses in a bus bin to take to the kitchen.
He sucks his teeth. “Yeesh. Another one bites the dust.”
“Hey, it’s good news, dickhead.”
He throws up his hands. “Didn’t say it wasn’t!”
“Just because you’d rather bone anyone who looks at you twice doesn’t mean other people have to live like hedonists too,” I say with a laugh.
“Ouch,” he says, pretending to be wounded. “Careful. You might hurt my feelings.” He pouts and dodges the towel I flick at him.
“Oh, please.” I shake my head and point at him. “Don’t even start.”
He gives me a smirk that shows off his dimple and winks. Kyle is almost excessively handsome and, unfortunately, he knows it. I swear, half the business the bar gets on the nights he works can be attributed to how blatantly he wraps customers around his little finger. The women drool over him and the men pal around like they’ve known him for years. Hell, even I have to acknowledge he’s an attractive guy. If only he never opened his mouth.
“So, come on,” I press. “Anyone you know need a place?”
He thinks for a moment. “I don’t think so? I’ll ask my friends, though.”
“Thanks.” I nod with a thin smile. The idea of living with one of Kyle’s friends has Plan B energy but, right now, I’ll take any leads I can get.
An older man approaches the bar and orders a scotch on the rocks. I scoop ice into a highball glass. “Maybe I’ll put an ad online or something,” I muse.
“Uh, yeah. You could,” Kyle says, closing out his sales at the till. “If you wanna end up on the news.”
“Shut up. I might have to.” Tomorrow’s July first. All the sane people must have places lined up already. “Whatever. I’ll figure something out.”
Kyle heads to the break room to get his things. When he comes back, he’s changed from his all-black bartending getup into jeans and a T-shirt. Seconds after he settles on the barstool in front of me, a cloud of cologne wafts my way.
I scrunch my nose. Easy, Kyle, geez.
“So, Katie’s getting married, huh?” He glances over his shoulder at the front door like he’s waiting for someone. He turns back, leaning his elbows on the bar and typing something on his phone.
“Yeah.”
He lifts his head. “Didn’t you just go to some chick’s wedding, like, a month or two ago?”
“That chick was my cousin.” I give him a wary look. “What’s your point?”
“Just seems like everyone’s getting married.”
“Two women I know is hardly everyone.”
“I dunno. You’re probably just getting to that age where it starts happening.”
“I’m getting to that age? We’re the same age, asshat.”
“Yeah, but I’m never getting married.” He leans in and gestures to his body, cocky smirk at full tilt. “Nobody’s gonna tie this shit down with a ring.”
“God, would anybody want to?”
“What about you?” he asks, ignoring the barb. “You don’t seem like the marriage type.”