Lindsay sighed in annoyance as another sad country song filled the barroom. The choice of music was left up to the customers who had control of the jukebox in the corner. It wasn't often that they picked country, but it was often enough to irk her; she was not a fan.
She had been bartending at McCoy's for three months now and had thought she was familiar with the cast of regulars. There were a fair amount of Navy personnel since the Cairns base wasn't too far away. She bit back an urge to yell at the patrons to pick better songs and distracted herself by checking inventory behind the bar.
A guy at the end of the bar muttered something to himself and she turned toward him. He didn't look familiar and she was always excited by a fresh face in a place like McCoy's, where the regulars made up the bulk of business. She had gotten adept at predicting when the usual crowd wanted another drink and when they wanted to be left alone. New guy here had no expression to tip her off either way.
"Another one, mate?" She jerked her chin toward the taps as she finished rearranging some glasses behind the counter.
He considered her question before nodding. He didn't look up. Lindsay sighed and considered the long night ahead of her if she didn't find someone to chat with.
She took her time filling up his glass; he clearly wasn't in a rush. He seemed to be intent on drinking himself into a stupor tonight. She'd have to cut him off before he could reach oblivion, but if he was like the others here, he'd reach it by the end of the night with or without her help.
She snuck a sideways glance at him while she filled his glass. He was the sort of handsome that made women speechless. He had soulful brown eyes and long dark lashes. His shirt sleeves strained against his biceps in a distracting way. God, he looked like he'd been through the wringer, though. He exuded sadness, just like the other regulars: drinking alone to forget something or someone.
"Alright?" She placed the beer in front of him and took the cash he dug out of his wallet.
"Thanks." It was the first word he'd said to her all evening. Took him four beers to get past pointing and nodding.
"Navy?" She asked. It was an obvious answer.
"Yup." He didn't elaborate but he did at least make eye contact with her, more than what half of the guys in here were capable of. They didn't want to chat–didn't want to be friends–they wanted to forget their problems or to get rowdy.
"Been Navy for a long time?"
"Yup." He nodded. "Very long time."
She paused and gave a small sigh. She wanted to draw him into conversation for entirely selfish reasons. Having someone new to chat with would make her shift pass quicker.
"Tough day?" She stated the obvious to him.
He met her eye again and she felt her own eyes widen in surprise at the depth of emotion she saw before he gave her a sad smile.
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you." Even tinged with sadness, he looked at least five years younger when he smiled.
"I love a good tale. Believable or not." She smiled back at him. She hadn't become a bartender because she liked minding her own business.
He launched into a horrific story about being forced to dig his own grave, and told her how he was only saved at the last possible moment and how he had almost killed his captor. He didn't seem the sort to be pulling her leg but for his sake she hoped some of his story was embellished. He took a long sip of beer and watched her reaction.
"You think I'm lying?" His voice was playful but she could see the set of his jaw was anything but lighthearted.
She shook her head. "I don't think you're lying." She paused, considering whether it would be wise to engage in further conversation with this sort of guy: the sort of guy who wanted to drink alone and had almost been murdered a few days ago. "I wish you were lying. What a horrible experience. Do you have someone to talk to about it?"
"Like a therapist? Yeah. Not sure how that will help." He shrugged.
"But still. It's something." She was a bartender because she was chatty and outgoing and enjoyed mixing drinks. She was not a therapist.
"You reckon?" He eyed her suspiciously. Clearly, he was not sold on the merits of therapy.
It was her turn to shrug.
"I didn't tell you the best part of the story, yet." He watched her, waiting for her encouragement to keep talking.
"There's more?"
"My girlfriend dumped me. She doesn't want to talk about it. I get back to shore and suddenly I'm single." His voice had a bitter edge.
"Sorry to hear it. But look around, there's plenty of options here." She scanned the room and noted several groups of women who were obviously also Navy.
He followed her gaze and turned back to her with a raised eyebrow, "Pass."
"C'mon! They're not that bad. She's cute. And so is she." Lindsay dropped her forearms to the bar and leaned closer to him as they chatted. One of her favorite parts of bartending was trying to set up the patrons with each other.
"Nah, I need a break from women." He sighed and brought the beer to his lips and chugged the rest of it.
"Sick of fighting them off, yeah?" She raised one eyebrow at him.
He looked surprised, which surprised her. She'd assumed he was a player like the other handsome Navy guys she was used to chatting with here.
"Fighting them off?" He repeated her question and shook his head. "Sick of never getting picked. Sick of never getting to stay for breakfast. Sick of never being invited to meet the parents. I'm a great shore leave fling but I'm not the sort of guy you'd want to wake up next to every morning."
She was thrown off by his low opinion of himself and was rendered momentarily speechless. She was getting ready to pivot into a conversation about the cricket when he suddenly stood up and held out his hand to her. "I'm Peter, by the way. Pete."
She shook his hand, "Lindsay."
"Good to meet you, Lindsay. Maybe I'll see you around." He smiled at her before turning and heading for the door.
"Try not to get nearly murdered before I see you again, yeah?" She called after him as he walked away.
He turned back and grinned at her. "Occupational hazard."
As she watched him leave, she dwelled on the rarity of the guy she had just encountered. He looked the part of the playboy but apparently wanted nothing more than to be seen as marriage material. Most guys in this bar had a 'fuck her and forget her' philosophy. Then here was Pete, trying his best to be the one to stick around.
Lindsay's attention was snapped back to reality by her regular customers at the other end of the bar and their empty glasses. She hoped to see the new guy, Pete, again. And she hoped that if she did, he'd be in better spirits.
00000000
"Pete!" Lindsay called out a greeting as he appeared at the crowded bar. A rare after-work crowd of businessmen had descended on McCoy's and the bar was packed shoulder to shoulder. "The usual?" She asked, giving him a broad smile. Over the last year, he'd stopped in regularly when he was on leave to have a few drinks and a chat. She'd learned that despite her initial assessment of him as a sad sack loner, he was actually mischievous, hilarious, and very friendly. He had a solid group of friends whom she'd heard so many stories about she felt as if she knew them.
He smiled back at her and nodded. "Busy place."
She rolled her eyes and placed a beer in front of him, pausing for a moment from the craziness of the business people and their demands. "Any brushes with death this time out?" Since he'd explained to her that danger was part of his job she'd started teasing him about the frequency with which he got into risky situations.
He took a sip of his beer and nodded. "Actually, yeah. I got trapped in an underground oil tank." He smirked at her as she opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the right thing to say. "Don't worry, I'm fine." He winked at her.
"I see that. You know, I'm starting to think you get into these situations just so you have something exciting to tell me when you get back on shore." She teased him.
"You won't have to worry about it much longer. I've requested a transfer." He let the bombshell drop. The amount of danger he'd been in the last few years must have finally taken its toll and she reckoned that he had requested a transfer in the hopes that his luck would turn around if he switched ships.
"Will you still be based in Cairns?" Lindsay hated to think of him leaving. Their chats had become a highlight of her job.
"I don't know yet. I'll go wherever the Navy needs me." He gave a small shrug. "But if I have to move, I'll make sure to stop by and say goodbye before I go." It was too busy for her to chat more, but his news had put a damper on her mood. More than a year working in a dive like McCoy's was taking its toll on her, and he was one of the few bright spots left.
The next time she stopped by with a drink for him, he was deep into a flirtatious situation with a well-endowed redhead in a pencil skirt—presumably one of the business people. The redheaded woman was pressed against his side and laughing at everything he said. Pete was grinning from ear to ear. He saw Lindsay and raised his eyebrows, subtly nodding at the redhead, making sure Lindsay saw his luck.
She passed the drink to him and leaned in close to his ear. "Remember when you told me you needed a break from women?" She brought up an old joke between them. It had become common for him to show up at the bar moping about a woman who had broken his heart and by the end of the night he'd be leaving with someone new; he never actually took a break. But these women were never the one he was looking for. His search for someone to take him seriously and turn him into a long-term prospect continued.
"I was drunk when I said that, I wasn't serious." He protested. The redhead snaked her arm around his waist and gave Lindsay a warning look. "Looks like I won't be sticking around to keep you company until last call tonight." Pete grinned at Lindsay before turning his attention back to the woman at his side.
"By all means, go enjoy yourself. I can hold my own here." She grinned at him but she was secretly worried that this woman was about to be his latest heartbreak. One thing she had learned about Pete was that he fell in love easily and quickly.
Later, she caught a glimpse of him through the crowd, the woman tucked under his arm, as they headed for the door.
A few weeks passed before Pete showed up at the bar again. Lindsay was working, because it seemed like all she did these days was work.
"Haven't seen you in a while, Pete. What adventures have you just crawled back from this time?"
"Nothing too extreme. Running through the jungle at night, arresting fishermen who refuse to stay in their own waters, losing a weeks pay in an on-board poker game…the usual." He grinned at her and leaned his elbows on the bar.
"The usual?" She asked, already filling a glass at the taps for him.
"I've been meaning to ask you–how'd it go with the lady you left with last time you were here?" She raised an eyebrow at him suggestively.
He grimaced. "Nothing to write home about."
"Peter." She leveled a look of disbelief at him.
"Look, we had a great weekend together. But she obviously wasn't interested when I tried to make plans with her for the next time I'd be on shore." He took a sip of beer.
Lindsay got called to the other end of the bar to pour out some shots and when she returned to Pete's end of the bar, she had a plan.
"Tell me, who's your ideal woman? What are you looking for? Because I've only seen you with women who don't work out. And I'm curious, who is this elusive perfect lady that you're waiting to have come along and save you from bachelorhood?" He was leaving town in a few days, possibly forever, and she'd be remiss in her barkeep duties if she didn't try one last time to set him up with someone before he left.
Pete leaned back in his chair and laughed. "Save me from bachelorhood? You don't make it sound very romantic." He took another sip of beer and gazed at her with an expression she had come to know meant he was thinking. "Ok…passionate, independent, practical. Has a career that she loves because I love my job and wouldn't want either of us to feel second place to a job." He listed off his criteria and Lindsay nodded, those were solid traits to look for in a partner. He'd actually spent time thinking about it and it showed. Pete kept talking, "Good with the long distance relationship thing because we'd be on a ship at least half of the year. Funny. Fit…she likes hiking and she can dive." His gaze drifted to the middle distance and something clicked in Lindsay's mind.
"You already met her!"
"Sorry?" Pete brought his attention back to Lindsay.
"You just described your ideal woman as if she's someone you already know! Please don't tell me one of the women you left here with and never heard from again is making you pine this hard. Is she Navy?" Lindsay glanced around at the few Navy women currently drinking in the bar. None of them were gazing in Pete's direction.
"No! I'm not talking about anyone specific. And I'm not pining!" He scoffed at the very idea. "I'm just mature enough to know what I'm looking for."
"Sure, Pete, sure. You're protesting way too much. You've definitely already got a crush." She was really going to miss teasing him when he left.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He muttered as he blushed and tried to hide it behind his beer, taking a long sip.
They were interrupted by another of her regular customers and she left him and Pete to chat while she got back to work. Traffic picked up as the evening progressed and she didn't get a chance to finish her conversation with Pete. Before he left, he made sure to flag her down.
"Just wanted to check that you're working on Saturday night? I'm inviting my mates out for drinks for my last hurrah in Cairns."
"I'll be here. It'll be nice to meet the guys behind some of the crazy stories you've told me." She smiled at him, excited to meet his shipmates and excited to have something to look forward to at work this weekend.
"Be careful what you wish for." She watched him chuckle at the idea before he said goodbye and made his way to the door.
000000
"Buffer! Why didn't you tell us about this place?" A young blond man with a mischievous grin, 2 Dads, hollered down the bar at Pete.
Lindsay hadn't stopped grinning since Pete and his mates had shown up. She gave them their first round of drinks on the house in honor of Pete's last night out in Cairns. He'd introduced her to them all and they immediately treated her like one of their own since learning about her friendship with Pete.
It was a busy night, and having Pete and the rest of the Hammersley crew in the bar made it that much noisier and crowded, but she was having a great time. Her favorite coworker was tending bar alongside her, giving her a chance to chat with Pete and his friends.
"Lindsay, meet the XO." Pete introduced a petite blonde woman with bright eyes.
"Buffer, I'm not an officer when you're introducing me to civilians." The blonde woman laughed and reached out to shake Lindsay's hand. "I'm Kate. Thanks for keeping an eye on him when the rest of us aren't around." Before they could chat more, Kate was drawn away from the bar and forced to oversee an squabble between two of the oldest looking crew.
Lindsay took the opportunity to lean toward Pete. "This is the woman you've been waiting for? She's your boss!" Lindsay hissed at him. His entire mannerism when introducing her had been different than when he introduced his mates Charge and Swain and the others.
"I'm not waiting for anyone! Jesus, Linds, I told you what I'm looking for as a general idea of the type of women I like. I wasn't talking about anyone specific." Pete raised his voice as he defended himself to her. "I would never–" He looked around to make sure none of his shipmates were nearby. "–I would never make a move on my boss. It's not on. There are regulations about that sort of stuff."
"Mmm-hmm." Lindsay watched him get increasingly flustered and didn't believe a word he said. His boss, Kate, was clearly the woman he was hoping would finally take him off the market. She felt a pang of heartbreak on his behalf when she realized how hard it must be for him to work with her and never get the chance to admit how he felt. It must be an impossible situation for him.
Kate returned to the bar, stepping up next to Pete in a way that suggested they'd spent a lot of time around each other. He made room for her at the bar next to him without a second thought, their bodies moving easily into each other's space. Lindsay passed them fresh drinks and raised her own glass.
"To better luck with the ladies!" She toasted him, giving him a wink. Pete and Kate clinked glasses with her.
"Oh, have you been having problems with the ladies?" Kate smirked at him. "Come to think of it, I haven't heard about anyone new since Monica. That was a while ago."
Pete briefly choked on a sip of beer. "I don't think that's something we need to discuss here." He glared at Lindsay for having brought up the topic.
Kate turned to face Lindsay and comically boxed him out of the conversation. "I've given him great advice about dating but he doesn't listen to me. He's very popular with the ladies but doesn't let them hang around for long." She rolled her eyes in jest.
The mood had been lighthearted and Lindsay thought it was obvious that Kate was just joking around, but Pete stood up from his bar stool and turned toward Kate; he looked pissed off. Lindsay took her cue and faded back, grabbing a glass and pretending it needed to be polished as she kept an ear on their conversation.
"I've gotta watch out for these university type women, right?" Buffer's words were bitter. "I wouldn't want to end up punching above my weight." He kept his steely gaze focused on Kate. "It's not that I don't let them hang around for long, it's that they don't want to hang around. I'm not a keeper, X. I'm not the guy that women want to wake up to every day."
Kate opened her mouth to speak and shut it again. She cocked her head at him, confused. "Is that what you think I meant?" Her voice was soft, barely audible above the noise of the bar. She placed a hand on his forearm where it rested on the bar. "Buffer, I know I shouldn't have, but I was flirting with you. I meant that I am one of those university type women." She paused. "Why do you think I've been single for so long? I thought…" Kate's voice trailed off. "...I thought it was the same reason why you never get into serious relationships."
Lindsay snuck at glance at the two of them. They were silent against the backdrop of raucous conversation. Buffer was gazing down at where Kate's small hand rested on his tan arm. Kate was blushing and looking up into his face. Pete brought his gaze up to her face and they stared at each other.
"You were flirting with me?" He sounded unsure.
Kate nodded. "For years, Buffer." She looked horrified as the weight of what she said sank in. "I'm so sorry. I thought you picked up on it. That time on the pearl lugger? On the dock after your run in with Ray Wahlsman? When I told you that Monica was lucky to have you?"
Lindsay grimaced as she watched Pete's face slowly register his shock at Kate's words. He'd been sitting at her bar, pining, for more than a year, when the very woman he was pining over had been trying to get through to him the entire time.
Kate took her hand off his arm and dropped her face into her hands. Lindsay noted the look of grief that passed over Pete's face when he saw Kate in distress. Except when Kate brought her face up from her hands she wasn't in distress–she was laughing.
"Oh my God, I can't believe this. I'm sorry I'm laughing. It's really not funny. I can't believe I've done this…this entire time I thought I was being so subtle." Kate put a hand to her mouth to stifle her laughter.
"What's so funny, X? I don't get the joke." Pete was watching her nervous laughter with concern.
"I thought–" She waved her hand between them. "I thought we were on. That whenever one of us had the opportunity to transfer we could finally…" Her voice faded into the space between them.
"You thought that…you thought that we could finally…" Pete repeated her words back at her in disbelief.
Lindsay furiously polished a glass and tried to hide the smile that had spread across her face when she realized what Kate was telling him. Of course, if it had been obvious to herself that he liked Kate, then Kate herself must have known for ages. Lindsay's observations had led her to the conclusion that Pete didn't really do subtlety. His feelings were big and his actions were big–nothing about him was subtle. But if you were on a ship with someone then you'd be forced to rely on subtlety.
"Fuck, X." Pete swore quietly. "What are you telling me? Why did you wait so long to let me know?" He ran a hand over his crew cut and then shoved his hands into his pockets. He looked stunned. His eyes were wide and there was tension in his posture.
"It was against regulations. I thought subtle was best." Kate's face had gotten serious. She fidgeted with her glass. "Now that I've said it out loud, I realize that was the wrong approach."
Pete gave a sigh that Lindsay could see in the rise and fall of his chest from the other side of the bar. He tipped his face up to the ceiling and when he looked back down at Kate, he was smiling. He was grinning from ear to ear.
"I've got one more day before I have to report to my new XO. You have any plans for tomorrow?"
Kate smiled up at him and shook her head gently. "No. No plans. What'd you have in mind?"
Pete shrugged at her. "We could grab a coffee? Seems like we may have some things to catch up on before I leave."
"That sounds good. Really good." At Kate's words, his posture relaxed and he picked up his beer, managing to take a sip through his smile.
Lindsay's presence was suddenly needed at the other end of the bar where some of Pete's mates were trying to flag her down for tequila shots.
"Hold your horses, 2 Dads, the tequila isn't going anywhere." She grinned as she hollered at the boisterous crew.
She took a last glance at Pete and Kate, who were still facing each other in silence, smiles beaming.
