After hours of walking up and down 6th Street, Austin’s famous strip filled with endless clubs, and filling out applications, I’d decided I’d earned a beer at the very least. Paige’s shift would end soon, and I didn’t want to use her money, but I’d failed my mission. I was still jobless, and I needed to numb the sting. The kicker to applying for a job at every place on 6th Street was that I couldn’t use my fake ID there in the immediate future. I ended up retracing my steps back toward Speak and found a bar called Louie’s around the corner. A flash thunderstorm had drenched me to the point of no return, and Samuel was pissed. And so was I. Pissed and disheartened, I finally let my shitty mood win. I sat down at the bar and tossed my ID that read Juanita Sanchez. She was my cousin and was only a year older than me. Her hair and skin were far darker, and she had brown eyes, but the ID had never been called into question. Ever. “I’ll take whatever draft you have for happy hour.”
“This one is on me.” Only a small part of me was happy about the fact that the man who just crushed my hopes had just bought me my consolation beer. Still, I couldn’t help the little dance my insides agreed to on their own accord at the sound of his voice.
“Mr. Butler, thank you.”
“Nate.”
“Nate. Thank you.”
“I really shouldn’t have done that,” he said, reminding me he knew my age.
“Well, then don’t.” I set the twenty on the bar, and he pushed it toward me.
“Be nice. I’m trying here.”
“Sorry,” I said as I took the money away and put it in my pocket. I felt like a wet dog as he looked down at me with something close to pity.
He stood close enough for inspection, so I finally let my eyes appraise him while he unbuttoned his jacket, hooked it on the bar chair, and dusted his glistening hair before he took the stool next to mine. I could see the outline of his undershirt beneath his damp, starched shirt, and under that nuisance of material, I saw a sculpted man. He was intensely beautiful, blunt, and a little cocky. But the half of me that was Latina knew I had already won the second he sat down.
He may have been arrogant, but I’d been battling machismo my whole life. I had more cousins my age than I knew what to do with, and I learned their tricks early. Which really did make me a dumbass for going after a toddler in a band called Meat.
Nate took a long pull of his beer. “No luck anywhere else?”
“Yeah, I can bus tables if I so desire. Pure progress.”
“Ouch, sorry.”
“It’s just one day,” I said, taking a long tug of beer. “There are more. And I’ll bus tables if I must. Nothing wrong with that, right?”
“Wrong. You want to work your way up from the bottom, but you don’t want to dig to get there. I think we know you’re capable of doing more.”
“But indulgent and unimportant. You might want to find better company, fair warning,” I said as I drained my beer and lifted my finger for another.
“I’m good here. And I think you know what I meant.”
I looked around the dark bar. There were exactly five people in it including Nate, the bartender, and me. “This doesn’t strike me as your type of place.”
“It’s close, quiet, convenient.”
“Deserted.”
He redirected, “What are you doing here?”
It was a loaded question. “Waiting.”
“On?”
“My sister. She’s working a few blocks away at The Plate Bar.” I chuckled to myself as he furrowed his brows at me. The question on my tongue, I took a sip of my fresh beer and asked what was on the forefront of my mind the second I entered his office.
“How did you get there? You can’t be more than twenty-four?”
“Twenty-six, and it’s my paper. You obviously didn’t do much homework.”
“It was a last-minute decision to come see you.”
He glanced at my soaked shirt. “I can see that.”
“Still would have worn this shirt,” I retorted.
“Now I’m even more convinced I did right by not hiring you.”
We clinked bottles and shared a smile. “You’re an ass. Why start your own paper?”
“For the same reason you got hit hard with the door today. I wanted it bad enough and I was tired of walking in circles. I’m doing it my way. This month will only be the ninth circulation.”
“Oh, wow. That new?”
He nodded.
“That’s kind of inspiring.”
“It won’t be if I have to close up shop, but worth the risk if it starts to take off.”
“Well,” I said before chugging my beer like I was at a frat party, “I wish you luck, though your talent is about to walk out the door.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said as he gripped my wrist and pulled it so I was forced to sit again.
“What’s that?”
“Keep writing like I did hire you, and in six months, if I read your stuff and I like it, I’ll buy a set of columns for a test run. But you’ll need to start covering locally and get familiar with the clubs.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yeah, I like your style. I read two more of your articles when you left.”
It was my first real smile of the day. “Which ones?”
“‘Beastie Theory’ and ‘Jane’s Abduction.’ I was going to call you tomorrow and make the same offer.”
“Glad you made it in person.” I couldn’t hold my smile.
“Yeah, me, too.” Nate watched me carefully before he spoke next.
“Do you have someone?”
His question caught me off guard. “Someone?”
He hesitated. “Do you need a ride?”
I gave him a sideways glance. “Sure, I mean, if you’re leaving.” He put a few twenties on the bar top before he re-wrapped his gorgeous frame in his jacket. “I’m leaving.”
Inside his Tahoe, I shivered in the AC, my hair still damp and matted to my face.
Nate drove with his fist on top of the wheel and his elbow on the console rest between us. I tried and succeeded to keep my eyes on the road, though he was tempting.
“So, two years left at school. Where will you go?”
“Everywhere,” I grinned. “But I have a few places in mind.”
“You’ll change that mind a hundred times before you graduate.”
I looked out the window to the gradually crowding streets. “I’m sure.”
The ride lasted all of four minutes, and I hesitated as I gripped the handle before turning to thank him. Before I could get the words out, he spoke up.
“I want to take you out. Back at the bar I was going to ask but, one, you’re too fucking young for me, and, two, I didn’t want you to think I was making that deal to get in your pants.”
I gawked at him openly. “That was four minutes ago. What’s changed?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m only four minutes older.”
“Noted.”
“I just broke up with my boyfriend.”
His eyes dropped to my lips. “So that’s a no?”
“No. I don’t care that we broke up.”
He dropped his head with a laugh. “Wow.”
“I really don’t know how to explain it. He was a lead singer in a band and had the attention span of a gnat.”
“I think that sums it up well.” He leaned over, so our eyes locked. “Just to let you know, I fucking love that T-shirt.”
“I knew you did.”
We shared some heavy static and a smile as Paige and Reid walked out of the restaurant, heads turned and eyes trained on us.
“So, I’ll call you tomorrow?”
“Sorry, I’m not dating. But I’ll see you in six months. Thanks for the ride, Nate.”
I jumped out of the car as Paige glared into it. Nate was already making a right turn by the time I looked back at two expectant faces. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I told you I had condoms.”