***A/N: Hello again! I've got one more chapter after this one ready for publishing in the next day or so. After that, I'll be off holiday and back in LA, so my updates will probably be weekly moving forward. I would love to hear your thoughts on the story. And don't worry! Piper's coming to visit soon.***
Jameson POV
Jameson had barely entered his apartment when he heard someone hiss, "Shit," and saw the flash of a bare ass slip into his mother's room. The tan skin was enough to ease Jameson's mind. The ass hadn't belonged to his mother.
"I thought we agreed that community spaces where off limits," he called out, tossing his keys into the bowl by the door.
Without waiting for a reply, he shook his head and went directly into his bathroom to shower. Jameson was fortunate that neither he nor his mother were prudes. They were both very sexual people, and in sharing a living space, they had learned to deal with the occasional awkward run-in.
As he was dressing, he heard the slamming of the front door and chuckled to himself. Running a hand through his damp hair to ensure it kept its effortless look, he walked to the kitchen. As he was pulling a can of iced coffee and a slice of cold pizza from the refrigerator, his mother appeared from her room.
"I'd offer you a slice, but it looks like you've already eaten," he said, jutting his chin in the direction of the coffee table where a can of whipped cream was left abandoned.
Alex punched him playfully on the arm and said, "At least one of us is getting some."
"Hey! I get mine."
"Jamie," Alex began in a tone of mock disappointment, "I thought I raised you better than to believe that solo counted."
Jameson picked an olive off his pizza and chucked it at his mom.
"Anyway, isn't today a delivery day? Why are you home?"
"It's great to see you too, Mother. I treasure our time spent together," he replied sarcastically.
"Smartass."
Jameson laughed.
"Nicky's got this girl staying with her - the daughter of an old friend or something - but she was too hungover to deal with it today. I helped her get her stuff back here."
"A real Prince Charming."
"At your service," Jameson retorted before bowing melodramatically.
"She cute?"
"Like you wouldn't believe. Blonde, the bluest eyes I've ever seen, and legs for days."
Alex smirked.
"She's a little WASP-y, but you can tell she's dying to have fun."
The smirk vanished, and Alex got a far away look in her eyes. Jameson tossed his empty coffee can in the bin before waving his hand in front of his mom's face. Alex blinked a few times and seemed to come back into herself.
"You good?"
"Yeah, she just sounds like someone I knew once."
"Why don't you stop by the bar later tonight and meet her? Nicky was just complaining about how long it's been since you've been by."
"We'll see," Alex replied, settling into the couch with a book.
Jameson grabbed his keys from the bowl and gave his mother a playful salute before heading heading back to the bar.
[LATER THAT NIGHT]
The bar was packed. There had been a baseball game and a concert in the city earlier that evening, and they had let out at roughly the same time.
"Yo, J! Pass me another bottle of the Captain," Darcy called.
Jameson and Darcy were moving around each other to fill orders in a perfectly synchronized rhythm. Jameson confidently flung the bottle behind his back, and Darcy caught it without fail, earning them a round of cheers from the patrons seated at the bar. Fortunately for them, Nicky was too busy trying to help with the orders to yell at them about risking her product.
When Jameson turned around to mix another drink, he felt a feminine pair of hands snake around his waist. Hoping that the owner was a certain blonde, he turned with his most charming grin. His face fell a little when he found that they belonged to Josie Caputo. She and a group of her friends had just arrived.
"I think you get better looking every time I see you," she whispered into Jameson's ear.
Jameson turned around in her arms.
"I think you're stoned," he said upon seeing the red in her caramel-colored eyes.
"We smoked up at the concert. So what?" she laughed.
"I hope you saved some for me," he replied.
Jameson and Josie had met at an NYU party about three years prior. They'd briefly tried dating but decided they were better as friends...with benefits. Every so often they would hook up if they were both single.
Josie released him and turned to her friends. Jameson waved a greeting to them. He enjoyed their company for the most part. However, there was one member of the group he could do without.
Finn Harper made his way to the front of the group, grabbed a napkin, and wiped down the barstool before sitting.
"Have you descended to drink with the commoners tonight, Harper?" Jameson asked with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
Finn gave him a look that said, "Very funny."
"What can I get you?"
"Yeah, what do you guys want? It's on Finn tonight," Josie said with a laugh.
"Oh come on, Josie. Not again," Finn complained.
Jameson barely hid his smile as the group loaded up the guy's tab. When they walked away to get a table, Jameson turned to Finn.
"Just a Foster's," he mumbled moodily.
Jameson rolled his eyes. He knew the guy only drank Foster's because his father was Australian, and he never shut up about it. He also knew that he only got to see his father every other summer, and his stepfather was sort of a dweeb. Resisting the urge to push him further, Jameson slid the can toward him.
When Finn walked away without so much as a thank you, Jameson wished he would have given him a little bit of shit about Foster's being invented by two Irish brothers from New York. Instead, he took advantage of the lull in customers to clean his area.
"Check it out," Darcy said, jamming his thumb in Nicky's direction.
Jameson followed his gaze to find their boss starting slack-jawed at a short brunette that had just walked in.
"Your table, boss," Jameson called to the wild-haired woman.
"I can't go over there," Nicky replied.
"Why not?" Darcy asked, sharing a knowing grin with Jameson over their boss' head.
"She came in here last week, and I gave her my number."
"So?" Darcy shrugged.
"So, she called, you idiot."
"I'm the idiot?"
"Isn't that usually what people expect when they give out their number?" Jameson added. "Look, she's a regular. I can mix up her usual Tom Collins, and you can take it to her on the house."
"Since when do you get to decide what's 'on the house?' Last time I checked, I was the house."
Jameson had known his boss his entire life. She was just being difficult because she was nervous.
"Fine," he said, unfazed.
He reached into the tip jar, pulled out a $5 note, and handed it to Nicky.
"Then tell her the drink is on the stunningly handsome young bartender."
Nicky stared at the money for a beat before swatting his hand away.
"Just make the fuckin' drink, Vause."
Jameson and Darcy laughed. Jameson did as he was told, and the pair leaned on the bar to watch their boss in action. Darcy ran a running play-by-play like a sport commentator.
"In today's match we have Nichols versus…"
"Morello-Muccio. Lorna Morello-Muccio, or at least that's what her receipts always say."
"Fuck that. That's a mouthful. Nichols lines up for a shot against Morello."
They watched as the brunette invited Nicky to take a sit.
"Oh, and what a beautiful shot it was! That's 1-0, Nichols. This could be an interesting folks."
They shared another laugh before going back to work. It had slowed down significantly, but the regulars remained. Darcy seemed to handle them just fine, so Jameson put a fresh round of drinks on a tray and carried it over to Josie and her group. The Italian girl beamed and locked her arms around his waist.
"What are you doing when you get off?" she asked in a voice that was only loud enough for him to hear.
"I don't know yet," he replied.
"Wrong answer."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah."
"So, what am I doing?"
"Me," she purred before pulling him into a deep kiss.
Jameson felt himself sinking into the embrace when the front door burst open.
"DARCY MUTHAFUCKA JEFFERSON!"
Jameson disengaged himself in time to see Taystee blow past him and Paris quickly avert her gaze. The look on the blonde's face confused him a little, but when he waved her over, she came.
"Is his middle name really Muthafucka?" Paris asked as she approached. "She's been calling him that all day."
"Might as well be," Jameson laughed.
Jameson felt Josie tighten her grip around his middle. He gave her a subtle warning look and disengaged himself. He knew the game she was playing, and he didn't want to be in the middle.
"Guys, this is Paris Chapman. Paris, this is Josie Caputo and-"
He was cut off by the sound of shattering glass.
"Josie can introduce everyone else," he said quickly.
He quickly made his way toward the bar where Darcy was just barely managing to dodge the items Taystee was throwing at him. However, he hadn't missed the way Finn perked up at Paris' arrival. The guy was practically drooling into his fake Australian beer over her, but Jameson didn't have time to deal with that right now.
He just managed to grab the bowl of pretzels from Taystee's hand and shuffle her and Darcy into Nicky's office where they could continue their "chat" away from the customer's.
Now, as the only bartender, Jameson could no longer hang out with Paris and the others. As he swept up the bits of broken glass, he couldn't help but notice how friendly Finn had gotten with Paris.
When he saw the other guy put a hand on the blonde's back and guide her toward the bar, he pretended to be busy rinsing glasses.
"Hey, Vause, let me get another Foster's and whatever the lady wants. Maybe a Cosmo?" he said, trying to guess Paris' drink.
Jameson scoffed under his breath.
"Sure, Ben," he said, purposefully getting the boy's name wrong. "Another Foster's and a margarita for you, right?"
Paris glanced sideways quickly at Finn once before nodding. When Jameson turned around to fill the order, he couldn't help but eavesdrop on the pair's conversation.
"So, you've really never been to Australia?" Finn asked.
"Nope."
"Oh, you've gotta go. It's incredible. I go every other summer to visit my dad."
"That sounds nice," Paris responded politely.
"Here you go," Jameson muttered as he handed them each their drinks.
"You can just add this to my tab, Vause." Finn winked at Paris. "My stepfather just published an article in the Times. Maybe you've heard of him. Larry Bloom?"
Paris shook her head and shrugged.
"And my mother's soap company is doing very well, so anything you want to night is on me."
Jameson kept his face impassive. If Paris was wooed by this Park Slope bullshit, maybe he was better off leaving her to Finn. Besides, this was Nicky's place of business. As long as Finn was a paying customer, Jameson would play nice.
"That's really sweet of you, Finn, but I actually came here to see Jameson. He invited me."
"Oh," Finn replied dejectedly. "Well, you can keep the margarita on my tab."
"Don't worry about it, Glenn. It's on the house," Jameson replied.
Finn shot him a dark look before returning to Josie's table.
"How was the rally?" Jameson asked, leaning over the bar. "Did you miss me?"
"I don't know if your girlfriend would appreciate my answer."
Jameson blinked in confusion before he finally caught on.
"Oh, Josie? No! I mean, once upon a time, yeah. But not anymore."
"It didn't look that way," Paris mumbled, toying with a piece of paper on the bar.
"You want the truth? We sleep together sometimes when we're both available. It's hasn't been anything more than sex in a long time," Jameson confessed.
"Good to know," Paris replied as the smile returned to her face.
A familiar figure in the doorway caught Jameson's eye. He nudged Paris' glass toward her.
"You better drink up."
"What's the rush?"
"You're about to meet my mom."
