Jay pushes open the bar door and is immediately hit with the smell of fried food. Laughing, he glances back at Kevin and Mouse to say, "This is where Adam took a girl on a first date?"
"They went out to dinner and a movie first," Kevin clarifies while following him inside, "He was classy to start."
Jay chuckles and leads them over to the corner booth. "Went downhill from there?"
"He texted that she wanted to keep going and was craving fries," Mouse says. He slides into the booth then nods over a waitress. "I like her already."
The three of them quickly order drinks and baskets of fries and onion rings. It's a Wednesday night, and they're usually not one for drinking during the week, but Jay feels like he could use a buzz to prepare for what he's doing tomorrow: finally meeting that girl his mom had told him about.
He had wanted to go on Tuesday to introduce himself, but his dad unknowingly put an end to that by asking him to make a house call for a leaky sink. By the time he was leaving the house, the yoga class would have been going on for fifteen minutes, and he didn't want to interrupt. He probably could have met her after the class ended, but he figured she was probably busy or wanting to leave right away; he didn't want to be a bother.
The thing was, she didn't know he was coming. He told his mom he'd drop by the gym at some point during the week, but he didn't say when and asked that she didn't say anything right now. He wanted to get a feel for it all first and didn't want his mom making promises he wouldn't be able to keep. The plan was to drop in tomorrow morning before her first class and just introduce himself. He just wanted to meet her to start.
However, the thought of disobeying his dad or being disrespectful in any way by searching for his own clients scared him. It didn't matter that they still weren't talking in a personal way; his dad was his boss, and he didn't want to push any buttons that led to more fights for his mom to referee - especially since she would essentially be the cause of this one.
The worry of all that could go wrong had him craving a beer, so when Adam texted them saying he was going to be hitting up a bar with the girl he recently met online, he was the first to suggest they head over there to see what was going on. He figured a bottle of beer, maybe two, would be enough to take the edge off tonight.
"You don't think she crashed his car, do you?" Mouse asks as he looks around the bar, "Why aren't they here yet?"
Kevin shrugs and leans back against the booth. "Why do you think she would be driving his car anyway?"
"I don't necessarily think that," Mouse sighs, "Maybe she purposely made him crash."
Jay snorts. "You're really worried about this, huh? It's a girl he met online; she's not a serial killer."
"Poor logic," Kevin replies before Mouse can say anything, "I'm sure there are a lot of serial killers who find their victims online, but I doubt that women are the ones doing the killing."
"Women are smart, and serial killers have to be smart," Mouse insists, "Therefore, women can be serial killers."
"I'm not denying women can kill," Kevin says, "I've seen it, but-"
Immediately, Jay and Mouse begin arguing with him. Kevin has never seen a murder, and he's being dramatic, and if there's one thing that Jay and Mouse love doing, it's teasing their friend.
The waitress returns to their table with three beers just as Mouse is bringing up a recent documentary he'd watched where two girls had lured their friend into the woods to kill her. Jay is still laughing about how ridiculous he's being when the door to the bar opens and Adam and his date finally walk in.
"Hey, hey," he hisses. Nodding over to the door, he begins sinking in his seat to avoid being caught.
Kevin and Mouse glance over their shoulders as well, then follow his lead as an attempt to give Adam some sort of privacy. Their friend doesn't know that the three of them were going out tonight, and he certainly doesn't know that they're in this exact bar that he's taking his date to. On their way to the bar, they debated if they should tell Adam they were there, but the thought of spying on him and potentially catching him doing something embarrassing was a lot more fun.
"She's pretty," Mouse says quietly.
Jay nods and sips at his beer. While he personally doesn't have a thing for brunettes, he does think the girl sitting next to Adam at a table on the other half of the bar is cute.
"What's she do?" he asks.
"Uh, something with management," Kevin says, but it sounds a lot more like a question coming out, "I think she told him that she's currently an assistant manager somewhere, but she's moving into an official management role soon."
"Cool," Mouse replies, "I wouldn't mind finding a smart girl like that for my own."
"Hopefully she's smart," Kevin says, "She needs to be if she's gonna stick around with his dumb ass."
Jay laughs and shakes his head against his beer bottle. "Be nice to him."
"Maybe we should be judging her instead," Mouse says with a glance over his shoulder.
Jay tries not to laugh at that, and instead kicks his foot forward against Mouse's leg. "You're a dick sometimes."
"Yeah, well," Mouse chuckles and shrugs, "Sorry. I'll apologize to them both once this thing goes somewhere. Has he said anything about actually liking her?"
"I mean, enough to ask her out," Kevin answers, "He's been texting her a lot. Jay, your dad actually stopped by our job today, and I thought he was going to smack him. Adam's phone kept buzzing, and he had the balls to answer it while talking to the old man. I hope she's worth the roofing he got signed up to do tomorrow."
Jay winces. "Are you serious?"
Kevin nods. "He said if he was more interested in his phone than listening to directions, then maybe he should have some alone time up on a roof to evaluate if she's really worth risking his life over."
"What the hell?" Mouse murmurs, and Jay has to agree.
This is a very strong reason as to why he does not want to bring up the yoga girl and studio to his dad. He very much needs this job, and he can't risk it over finding his own client and possibly piss his dad off.
"I mean, he should not have been checking his phone so much when the boss is right there," Kevin says, "But-"
"Don't call him the boss," Jay mumbles before taking a long pull from his beer. His dad is the boss, but hearing him being referred to as such made him want to roll his eyes and flip someone off - mainly his dad.
Kevin raises his hands in surrender, then continues to say, "But I thought it was pretty harsh."
"Well, by the look on his face right now," Mouse says from his turned position in his seat, "She may possibly be worth it."
Jay followed his gaze and couldn't help but smile slightly. Adam was laughing right now and looking incredibly happy. He'd had a rough go at getting a girl to stick around lately, so it was new to see him on a date and actually enjoying himself.
"I don't think he's gonna say this one is too serious," he observes.
"She can't be too rude either," Kevin adds.
"What about the one who refused to meet his folks?" Mouse asks.
Jay points his beer at him and says, "Not sure if I blame that one. His dad is pretty damn annoying."
"He just never shuts up," Kevin sighs. Rubbing his face, he says, "He came over for a beer the other day, and he kept going on and on about 'working the streets.' I hate it because I swear he tells the same stories over and over. Adam hates it because his dad's pissed he didn't follow in his footsteps."
"Adam Ruzek as a cop," Mouse murmurs, "Can you imagine?"
Jay chuckles while sipping his drink. "In another life."
The waitress arrives with their baskets of appetizers, and they become distracted enough from Adam and his date for the time being. They each order another beer and take turns making jabs at the other over jokes that should have gotten old months before but they can't seem to let go. When you only spend time with the same set of people, Jay finds that the topics you have for random beer nights always go back to the same thing. He doesn't mind it, he loves his friends and thinks of them like the brothers he always wanted, but there's something that exists in the back of his mind that makes him wonder what it'd be like to meet someone new like Adam had.
Whenever he spends time with Allie, there is an excitement over having new things to talk about. They can talk about work for a bit before catching the other up on their family and new things they'd watched on TV. There is the occasional reminiscing that they do, but it's not the entire conversation, and Jay appreciates that. He likes that his time with Allie is expected and can be planned out; they've fallen into a groove that helps ease his mind.
He just wants to know if there's another girl out there who could maybe be a little bit more exciting. Maybe it could be something as simple as she likes to go on random trips or she plans dates on her own sometimes. Maybe she's someone who doesn't know about how broken he was ten months before, someone who doesn't always look at him with some sort of pity in her eyes. He likes Allie for what she is - the easy choice - but he doesn't see himself spending the rest of his life with her, and he feels like she agrees. If she didn't, she would have brought up the dating conversation on her own instead of just seeing what he'd do about it.
They were on the same page.
Mouse, however, is not.
"He still hasn't told his mom that him and Allie are not a thing," his friend says.
He rolls his eyes and says, "I have. We both have. She's just too stubborn to believe anything different."
"Aw, dude, you gotta break it to her," Kevin says, "You can't just let your mom think you're dating a girl that you definitely aren't dating."
"There's no harm right now besides being annoying," Jay replies, "Allie's parents aren't believing her either, so it's like a bonding kind of thing."
"Like you two need more to bond over," Mouse scoffs, "Man, you two need to either take your relationship for what it is - an actual, dating relationship where two people care about each other - or break it off. Stop dragging her along as some sort of toy you play with when you're bored, and stop letting her treat you the same way. Be a couple like your parents want or do your own thing."
Jay purses his lips and looks away.
Mouse is making sense, but accepting that right now when they're supposed to be getting his mind off of pissing off his dad tomorrow is not something he actually wants to do. In fact, thinking of breaking things off with Allie is on the same wavelength for him: doing so would upset one of his parents. He's already pissed them off and disappointed them enough in the last year. He can't do it again over something as simple as a girl.
"Hate to break it to you, but he's got a point," Kevin says quietly.
Jay stiffly nods and finishes his beer. He glances at them staring at him, waiting for a response, so he turns back toward staring at the door. Right now, he could walk out and ignore his friends for the next twenty-four hours over suggesting he do something stupid or he could walk up to the bar and order another drink - something that would actually probably piss off his mom as well.
Just as he's swallowing his pride and moving to get out of the booth, the door to the bar opens and two girls rush inside. They look around quickly before sharing a look with each other and hurrying toward one of the open tables.
Mouse follows his gaze and clocks the two girls laughing quietly with each other. He smirks and says, "There's a blonde for you. Go get her."
Jay scoffs and sits back in his seat. "I'm not going to just go get her. She just sat down."
Mouse shrugs and toys with his nearly empty beer. "She'd get your mind off Allie."
"Unless you want your mind on Allie," Kevin says, "Then, in that case, we'll drop it."
Jay shakes his head. "I can't stand either of you." Getting out of the booth, he makes his way to the bar and leans against it while saying, "Another Coors. Thanks."
"Coors? So you're basically just ordering water."
Jay looks to his left to see the blonde girl that had just run in the bar. His eyes widen, and he glances over his shoulder at Mouse and Kevin staring back at him in shock.
The bartender passes him a bottle then looks to the girl for her order.
"Do you have a stout on tap?" she asks.
"Yeah, you want that?"
"Yes, and then I'll also get a vodka cranberry for my friend."
Jay's eyes widen even more, and he shifts against the bar to get a better look at this girl. Allie never ordered a dark beer, actually, any girl that he'd gone on a date with had never ordered a dark beer. He wasn't even a huge fan himself, but here was this barely five foot blonde hair blue eyed girl asking for one and making fun of him in the process.
He kind of likes it.
She's dressed in a long sleeve black shirt that's tucked into her jeans. Her wavy hair is pulled off to the side so that he can see a thin gold chain around her neck, and when she reaches for her glass of beer, he can see a matching bracelet hanging from her wrist. It's a Wednesday night, but she's dressed for the weekend, and it's enough to make him wonder what she would look like on a Friday and in a bar that maybe has some better lights and music that isn't so scratchy sounding.
"Thank you," the girl says before sliding her card across the bar. She sips at the beer as she waits for her receipt and hums to herself.
"Is it good?" Jay asks.
She glances at him then nods. "You want a sip?"
Jay raises an eyebrow. "You're just gonna let a stranger sip your beer?"
"Hailey," the girl replies, holding her free hand out, "You?"
"Jay," he chuckles while shaking her hand.
"Nice to meet you," Hailey answers before nudging the beer closer to him, "So go ahead."
He's still laughing as he raises the glass to his lips and takes a sip. Hailey's watching him the entire time with a smile, and it's enough to distract him from what he's supposed to be doing.
"And?" she asks.
"And…"
"What's it like?" she clarifies with a laugh, "Do you like it?"
"Oh," he chuckles. He can't help but take another sip then nods and passes her drink back. "Yeah, kind of tastes like coffee."
Hailey laughs harder and shrugs. "I like it," she says, "It's more satisfying than that."
He glances down at his beer. "Maybe, but you'd really drink yours with fries and onion rings? Doesn't sound right."
"I'm not eating tonight," Hailey says, "My friend and I just stopped in for a drink."
"Right," Jay replies with a nod. He looks over at the girl's friend watching them and impatiently doing something on her phone. "If you need to go back…"
"Probably should," Hailey says. She steps back from the bar and adds, "You can join us if you'd like. Are you here alone?"
"Uh, no, I've got friends here too," Jay says. He nods over to Kevin and Mouse watching him as well, and Hailey laughs.
"Well, I guess we have to go back," she says, "Maybe I'll see you around?"
"Yeah," he replies, "Thanks for the drink."
Hailey laughs and lightly bumps her hip to his before walking away. Jay doesn't care if it's cliche or what, but he stares at her as she goes. Once she's sitting across from her friend, she looks back at him and laughs again. He chuckles to himself then walks back to the booth just for Mouse and Kevin to protest right away.
"Dude!"
"You're just gonna walk away?"
"She walked away first," he argues, "She literally walked away from me. I can't just follow her to her seat."
"She let you drink her beer," Mouse says, "That's commitment. You could be sick."
"I don't know about commitment, but it was definitely flirting," Kevin replies, "You can't just let that go."
"It was like two minutes," Jay says, "Really not a big deal."
But still, he lets his eyes cross the bar until they find Hailey and her friend. Her friend's back is to him, but based upon the way she's gesturing with her hands, he has a feeling that Hailey's getting a similar talk to the one that he received.
"Just go back to the bar and see what happens," Kevin prompts, pushing at Jay's arm.
Mouse nods and adds, "You don't have to order anything new, just go into neutral territory, somewhere where she thinks you're available."
Jay rolls his eyes. "That's-"
"Just go," Kevin sighs.
He could turn them down.
Jay knows that if he were to just drink his beer and remain parked right here in the booth, that his friends would tease him, but they'd let it go after a few minutes and they'd all move on. Maybe she'd come up again in a day or two when they talk to Adam about his date, but that'd be it. He could go on sort of dating Allie, hiding the truth from his parents, and trying to get by until he can get out from under his dad's thumb.
Or, he can go sit at the bar and hope the pretty blonde girl comes back to talk to him.
Part of him hates that he's giving his friends the satisfaction of being right as he pushes out of the booth and brings his beer back to the bar. Hailey might not even come talk to him, but there is the small chance that she will, and he really does want to see what will happen.
The bartender walks over to him as he sits on one of the stools, but he simply shakes his head and takes a drink of beer. He'll give it five minutes, then he'll return to sitting with his friends.
His drink is almost gone when he feels Hailey sit next to him. A smile crosses his face, and he glances at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Why are you at a bar on a Wednesday night?" she asks.
He chuckles and turns to fully face her. "I could ask you the same thing."
She nods across the bar toward Adam and the girl he'd gone out with. "My friend strayed from her original date plans and said they were grabbing a drink here to end the night. Our roommate and I decided to check it out and make sure she doesn't get kidnapped. Your turn."
The way she drinks her beer following her statement stirs something in Jay's gut, and he tries hiding his smirk.
"Same thing," he says, "Our friend is that guy and told his roommate that they were staying out longer than planned. I felt like a beer, so we took this as an opportunity to make sure the girl wasn't a serial killer."
"The girl is never a serial killer, that's ridiculous," Hailey scoffs.
"I kind of thought the same thing, but Mouse insists it's possible," Jay explains with a nod back to his friends.
"Mouse?"
"Nickname from Afghanistan."
Hailey hums and nods, and Jay is suddenly aware of what he'd just said. Quickly, his face flushes, and he hates that he'd done it. He hadn't brought up Afghanistan or being in the army to a girl since he and Mouse spent every night in the bar looking for girls and a way to forget what they'd gone through. Suddenly, it feels dirty to have done so, especially tonight.
"Uh, Adam…Adam's not a serial killer either," he adds quietly, "You don't need to worry about him."
A smile flashes across Hailey's face, and she glances back at Adam and her friend. "I can tell. He's too calm, and she's laughing too much. If he were going to kill her, I think he'd be a little more stiff and not as funny."
Jay chuckles and finishes his beer. "Noted."
Hailey turns back to him with the same easy smile on her face that'd distracted him earlier. "So, you felt like a drink tonight. Want to elaborate?"
"Not really," he answers honestly. No matter how pretty the girl is, he doesn't feel like spilling his guts to a complete stranger after only having known her for a few minutes.
She hums again, and he realizes he likes the sound. He likes that she's acknowledging what he has to say without pushing him for more information. He's not used to that.
Her eyes are incredibly blue. He'd noticed it before, but now that she's right up next to him and staring at him, he can actually focus on it. They're clear and relaxed, if that's a way that he can describe someone's eyes, and nothing about them seems intimidating. She does look like she's truly studying him, though, and he's wondering what she's thinking of this first impression.
As her head tilts slightly to the side, he hopes she's liking him and feels something between them too. He doesn't know if it's actually something or if it's just because he hasn't slept with Allie in almost a month. It'd be nice if she were to say or do something that let him know where he stood right now.
"I'm not one to usually go up to guys in bars," Hailey admits softly, "But my friend back there, Vanessa - the one not on a date - insisted. She thought it was funny that you actually took a sip of my beer. I…I don't know why I asked you to do that. So I'm sorry if it put you on the spot or something."
"I don't mind," Jay chuckles, "Alcohol kills germs, right?"
"Yeah," Hailey laughs. She tucks her hair behind her ear and continues to say, "But still. What if you were allergic or something and I'm forcing you to drink beer?"
"I promise you, I'm not allergic to beer," Jay says, "Now, if you were to come at me with a cat, that'd be a completely different story."
"Cats, huh?" Hailey asks, "I wouldn't peg you for a cat allergy."
Jay laughs loudly and says, "What?"
"You don't look like you'd be allergic to cats," she repeats through a laugh, "I'd guess you'd be allergic to something like shrimp."
"What does that even mean?" Jay laughs, "How can you look like you're allergic to something?"
"I don't know!" Hailey says, and Jay swears her laugh is even better than that humming noise she makes. "It's just a vibe I get from you. Apparently I'm wrong though, so just ignore me."
"No," Jay chuckles, "I don't want to."
He doesn't think he ever wants to ignore this girl ever again. He was right in coming back over here and hoping that she'd join him. She was not worth ignoring.
"Do you do that a lot?" he asks, "Guess what people are allergic to?"
Hailey blushes, but still laughs while pulling at the ends of her hair. "Sort of. Not necessarily allergies all the time, but people's stories. And not in a stereotypical way, at least…well, I don't know, maybe it is, I just…I like imagining what people are like and going through."
"Like people watching on steroids," Jay chuckles.
"I guess," Hailey replies with a laugh.
"Tell me one?"
Jay doesn't know where he's going with it, but he wants to hear Hailey talk. He wants to get to know her, and he knows that asking her to share her mind in this way could give him even a little glimpse into who she is as a person.
She raises an eyebrow and says, "What?"
"Tell me one of these stories you've come up with," he explains, turning better on his stool to look at her, knocking their knees together as he moves, "Or maybe look around here and pick someone to tell me about. Teach me."
Hailey's gaze is shocked, but steady as she stares back at him. He can tell she's thinking it over and studying him as if she thinks he might make fun of her for what she's about to say, and suddenly he's all too aware of what he looks like and how he's sitting.
He wants her to talk to him. He wants to seem approachable in this second, so he starts over thinking how his hands are resting on the bar and on his legs. He mentally reviews his posture and perks himself up when he thinks his back is kind of slouched forward. This needs to be a good first impression, and every little bit counts.
Hailey's gaze shifts from him to the rest of the bar, and she breathes in slowly so that her chest rises and her shoulders seem to relax more.
"Don't make it obvious," she murmurs, "But there's a couple sitting over there by the window. They're behind Kim and Adam. Maybe our age, but I'm thinking a little younger."
Jay glances back to where she's talking and nods. "I see them." They do look like they might just be out of college, maybe even in their final year. The girl has some sort of mixed drink in front of her, and the guy is picking at the label of the beer in his hand. They look almost related, the way they both have deep red hair, but every once in a while, the girl's hand reaches over to brush against the guy's wrist, and he knows that's not how siblings should act.
"She broke up with him about a month ago," Hailey explains quietly, "Something about how she was feeling like they were just in a rut and going through the motions. She said they have their whole lives in front of them to be regular, normal people, so why are they starting that now?"
Jay's eyes widen slightly, and he says, "Really?"
Hailey scoffs slightly and pushes his knee. "Do you want the story or not?"
"Right, right, sorry."
Hailey smiles at him and is visibly holding back a laugh as she continues, "The guy was devastated. His name's Jerry, by the way, short for Jared. His parents started it, and even though he thinks it's an old man's name, it's stuck whether he likes it or not. Anyways, Felicia - only ever Felicia, not Filly or anything like that - broke his heart by saying that. He was so worried that she saw him as boring that he went and got a tattoo on his upper arm."
"Which shoulder?" Jay interrupts.
Hailey's smile widens at his question, and she answers, "Left."
"He's a righty," Jay clarifies, "He didn't want the potential pain to hinder his performance."
"Exactly!" Hailey praises, "So he got this tattoo in defiance for what she'd done to him and what he was afraid he was, and he even picked up a girl at a frat party just to try and get over her. Well, Felicia lived her life for a few weeks without him and thought she was happy and doing well, but she realized she's better off with a partner. Even if their life is a little boring at times - like on nights where all they'd do is lay in bed and watch Gilmore Girls-"
"I've never seen that," Jay says.
Hailey waves her hand. "It's fine. I'm not a fan, but Kim's obsessed, so don't ever insult it in front of her."
"Got it," Jay replies. He leans his elbow on the bar to prop his chin up. "So Felicia realized she needs him back?"
"Obviously," Hailey answers, "She likes the predictability of life with Jerry. She likes knowing that someone is there for her at the end of the day, and she realized that maybe instead of breaking things off with him, she should have just asked that they be a little more spontaneous in their relationship."
Jay nods and looks back at the couple. "And this is her trying to introduce that to him as she asks for him back in her life."
"Exactly," Hailey says. She turns in her seat, brushing her legs right up against Jay's, in time to see the girl - Felicia - stand up, shaking her head, to walk right out of the bar.
Jay whistles low under his breath. "Damn."
"Mhmm," Hailey hums. She sips her beer then shrugs. "What can I say? Jerry wasn't having it. He didn't like the insult, and he realized he could be a fun guy; she just didn't see it first."
Laughing, Jay shakes his head and says, "Bravo. That was good. I liked it."
Hailey laughs with him and says, "Thank you, thank you."
"Are you a theater person? Maybe a writer?" Jay asks.
Hailey laughs harder and says, "No. I…no. I just like reading and looking at people."
Jay raises an eyebrow, but before he can say anything, Hailey is blushing bright red and waving her hands at him.
"Not like that!" she says loud enough that a few people look over at them.
"Uh-huh," Jay chuckles, "I see you. I get what you're saying…stalker."
"No!" Hailey laughs. She shoves his arm before covering her blushing face, and it shoots a bolt of relief through Jay that she's okay with his light teasing.
"What?" he asks, "You're the one who said she likes looking at people."
"And reading," Hailey points out, her hand lightly falling down his arm until it's resting right next to his wrist on his thigh, "I also like reading. I'm more than just a weirdo who stares at people all day."
"Read what? What kind of books are you into?" Jay asks as he glances down at her light hold on him.
"Oh."
When he looks back up at her face, he can tell she's softened at his question in a way that maybe embarasses her a little, and he immediately feels bad like that's not the kind of question he should have asked. He doesn't read books himself, but he wants to hear more about her, so he's left scrambling his brain for something else he could talk to her about.
"Fiction," she settles on saying, though, while dragging her hand away, letting her fingers brush along the back of his hand, "Fantasy was sort of my thing when I was younger, but now I just stick to, um, realistic fiction."
"Gotcha," Jay says. He watches her take a sip of her drink and decides not to push her any further on books. If it's a topic that's more personal than he assumed, he doesn't want to make himself come off as nosey or rude.
"What about you?" Hailey asks softly, "What do you do in your free time?"
"Uh," Jay chuckles and rubs the back of his head. "I…"
He's not sure what even counts as free time. When he's not working? When he's not at a group meeting? When he's debating if he should or should not leave the house for a beer?
He decides it's when he's not spending time with Mouse because being with Mouse means that he's at work or at a meeting. So when he's alone, that's what free time is.
"I've been running," he says, "The past few months, I go for runs in the morning if I'm not at work. Sometimes I'll even go at night before dinner."
Hailey crinkles her nose. "Good for you, but running's not really my thing."
"Took me a while to like it," he admits, "It's kind of a pain since it depends a lot on the weather. Actually, it's real easy to avoid because of the weather."
Hailey laughs as she catches on to what he's saying and nods. "I can see that. Where do you run?"
"Everywhere. Along the water, around the neighborhood, in the parks. I don't know. Wherever I feel like it that day."
"Wherever the wind takes you."
"Yeah, I guess."
Hailey smiles at him then sets her empty glass down on the bar. She kicks her foot out so it brushes against his calf. "What made you start running?"
He looks down at their legs gently tangling together, and makes a split second decision to push it a little further. His hand drops next to hers so that his pinky can brush against her thumb.
"Just needed to get my mind off some things happening in my life," he quietly admits.
It's the first time he's explained why he runs to someone other than another veteran. The VA support group that he attends is the reason that he runs. One of the older guys that volunteered to be a mentor of sorts to him recommended it after he had a particularly rough night of nightmares and whiskey.
"You need to find something not so destructive," he'd told him when he cornered him during a bathroom break, "You're going to crash and burn if you keep this up, man, and you can't let the war take that from you. You're better than that."
The advice had been punctuated by the news that another guy his age, back from a different part of the war, had been recently admitted to the hospital due to his alcoholism. He didn't want to be like that. He couldn't go back there.
So he ran.
The first day, he ended up running six miles before crashing out and having to call Mouse to come get him. It was embarrassing, but he'd also been rather proud of himself for even doing it. After everything he'd been through, when he thought he'd never run properly again, any distance at any speed felt rewarding.
There were several days where running was the last thing on his mind, but he simply pushed himself to remember that original advice: he couldn't let the war take over his life. It was a part of his past, but it wasn't meant to be who he was for the rest of eternity.
"I get that," Hailey breathes, "Sometimes it's easier to push yourself into doing something mind numbing than acknowledging the…pain."
His eyes flicker to hers the moment her voice becomes nearly silent at her final word. This time, he's the one who hums at her confession.
Again, he knows not to push her for more information.
Instead, he hooks his pinky over her thumb and offers a small smile. He needs her smiling again, and based on his few conversations with her, he thinks he knows how to get it to happen.
"Is your middle name Grace? You look like a Hailey Grace who loves puppies and summer and has strong opinions on the color black."
She bursts into laughter and almost folds in half because of it.
He chuckles and slips his hand further on top of hers. Squeezing lightly, he asks, "Did I get it right? I'm right, aren't I?"
"What does that even mean?" she asks through her laughter while straightening up, "Strong opinions on the color black? What the hell?"
"I don't know!" he laughs, "Like you probably think it's a good color when I don't know if I even consider it a color."
"It's a color. It counts," Hailey assures, laughter still shaking through her voice.
"In the rainbow? I don't think so," he says, "I know my rainbow colors, and I know that black is not in there."
"You are actually ridiculous," Hailey says, "That is crazy."
"No, it's not," Jay laughs. He brushes his thumb over her wrist and raises an eyebrow. "Was I right?"
Hailey purses her lips over a smile as she stares back at him. "Maybe," she says, and suddenly her hand twists in his so that their fingers intertwine. It sends a jolt through Jay, and he stops breathing for a second. He silently sends up a prayer that his palm isn't as sweaty or shaky as he internally feels.
"Explain it to me," he says, "Tell me how right I am."
Hailey laughs again and squeezes his hand. "I do love puppies; I'm not a monster."
"Good," Jay replies with a nod, "We can continue being friends."
The way Hailey's eyes light up at that make Jay realize he's really falling for this girl despite only meeting her tonight. He wants to see her look like this - carefree and happy and maybe a little silly - for a long time.
"And I do love the beach," she continues, "Whenever I have a free day during the summer, I can almost guarantee that I'm at the lake. I don't always go for a swim, but I like being there and taking it all in."
"Right - the people watching thing," Jay teases. He winks, and satisfaction courses through him when Hailey's cheeks flush pink again.
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" she asks.
"I don't plan on it, no," he chuckles. He brushes his thumb along the side of her hand, and he realizes how smooth her skin is. His mind briefly wanders into dangerous territory, and he wonders how soft the rest of her is and if she's as warm as her hand is right now in his, but he can't go there. Not when they're sitting in a bar with their friends so close.
"I guess that just means I'll have to find something to tease you about too then, huh?" she softly asks, her own fingers tightening around his.
"If you want. I'll let you."
"Ah, you'll let me."
"Yeah."
"How kind."
He smirks and leans back slightly while still keeping a tight hold on her hand. "What can I say? I'm a kind person."
"Uh-huh," Hailey laughs. She studies him then takes a breath and says, "So the color black…I agree that it's not a color I think many people should say is their favorite or that they should even paint their house; however, I do think it's a very good color to wear."
Jay lets his eyes rake over her, and he doesn't even care if she's noticing what he's doing: she practically invited it.
"Do you agree?"
His eyes dart back up to hers, and there's a glint in hers that tells him that he was exactly right in assuming she wanted this to happen.
Two can play at that game.
And he wants to win.
Standing up, he tugs at her hand and murmurs, "Come here."
Her hold on him tightens as he drags her off toward the bathrooms, and she's practically pressed up against his back like they're walking through a crowded room, not a bar that has more empty seats than filled ones.
His gut tells him the bathroom is free, and he's thankful to be right when he pushes open the door. She follows him without protest and doesn't question when he reaches behind her to lock the door.
It's not the greatest place to have your first kiss with a girl who takes your breath away, but Jay doesn't care right now.
He pushes her up against the door at nearly the exact second that he presses his lips to hers. She gasps beneath him, and her hips jerk toward his.
It's fast and hot and he can hardly breathe, but it's satisfying a deep need within him that he hasn't had in months. Kissing Allie is nothing compared to this. This is new and overwhelming and a battle to see who can dominate the other in a fast race toward who knows what.
Hailey's fingers release from his so they can dig into his waist. She's scrambling to slip her hands beneath his shirt, beating him as he's attempting to do the exact same thing to her.
When he finally tugs her shirt out of her jeans, he feels her skin jump beneath his touch. Smirking, he bites at her bottom lip and pushes her harder against the door.
The sound that escapes her is quiet, but it does something to him just like her earlier hums had. He wants to hear it again. He needs it.
Dragging his teeth down her jaw, he tilts her head back and begins sucking a mark at the junction of her throat.
"Oh my god," she whispers, her head crashing back into the door and her nails digging into his heated skin beneath his shirt.
He presses his knee up between her legs, practically holding her up as he tries keeping her still against him. He's right in knowing that pushing her further, tracing his tongue along her skin, will cause those strangled gasps to escape her lips. Her hips join in, and she starts grinding herself down on his knee.
He releases his lips from her throat to kiss up to her ear and murmur, "You're addicting."
"Don't stop," she gasps. Her hand slips out from beneath his shirt to tangle into the back of his hair, and she weakly tugs him back to look in his eyes that he knows are dark with need for her. "Please."
He shakes his head. He's not going to stop. He can't.
He'd told the truth: she is addicting.
Kissing her makes him realize that Mouse was right: he needs to end things with Allie. He cannot think of one time that kissing Allie felt like this.
Raw.
Real.
Right.
Hailey's lips part beneath his, but the way her nails scrape into his back tell him she's not just going to take this. She wants him just as much and won't let him take all the control.
Not when she releases her fingers from his skin and drags them through his hair. Or when she manages to pull her lips from his to attempt to kiss beneath his jaw despite how tiny she is compared to him. Or when she pulls his hand up from her waist just to settle it on her chest.
He groans quietly and leans down to kiss her again. "You are…"
She hums against him in a challenge of sorts, and her hips jerk against his.
"Perfect," he finishes with a tiny squeeze of his hand.
He can feel her smirk into the kiss as her nails scratch down the back of his neck.
He could take her right now.
There's a sink behind him that he could prop her up on or lean her over. He could even spin her around against this door right now.
And he wants to.
He wants to so badly.
But before his hands can even move to play with the button of her jeans, there's a quick knock on the door and the handle wiggles.
"Someone in here?"
Hailey curses against his lips, and he wishes more than anything that he could drop to his knees right now and show her what it did to him.
She pulls away with a gasp and stares at him as he tries blinking through the haze in his mind.
"We should…"
"No, no, they'll-"
"Hey! Are you good in there?"
"We need to go," Hailey whispers.
Jay shakes his head and brushes his thumb over her shirt again. The way her eyes flutter at his touch, he has a feeling that her bra and shirt are rather thin. "Please," he murmurs, "They'll go away."
She'd begged him earlier, he feels like it's only fair.
"I-I can't. We can't," she breathes.
Her eyes are blown out, and she certainly has a mark on her throat from his lips. The way her chest moves beneath his palm tells him that she's still catching her breath, and he knows his is doing the same. Her hair no longer looks perfectly wavy and instead has a tangle to it from his hands dragging through it and angling her head back.
But she's beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful.
Jay doesn't know what it is. They're standing in a rather small bar bathroom that's seen better days; the lighting isn't great and there's a hint of a smell starting to hit his nose now that he's not making out with a girl. The setting should not lead to thinking she's beautiful.
But she is.
And the fact that he's still thinking she's beautiful in here of all places, he knows that it's true.
As much as it kills him to do, he takes a step back from her and finally nods. She's beautiful, and he wants her - maybe even needs her to take the edge off tonight - but he can't push for more. If there's any chance that he can see her again and do this again, he knows he needs to let her go.
Hailey sidesteps him to glance at her reflection in the mirror, and she winces, causing Jay's stomach to drop.
He's the reason she's making that face.
Maybe she regrets what they did.
"Shit," she whispers before trying to fix her hair. Her fingers brush through it quickly and then twist at the end as if to get it to properly curl again.
The knocking on the door persists, and Jay purses his lips.
Hailey turns to look at him and asks, "Do we leave at the same time?"
He raises an eyebrow. "I…I don't think we have a choice. That guy wants in. I don't think he's going to be cool with me stepping out and then closing the door back in his face."
Hailey blushes bright and nods. "Sorry. I…I've never done…"
Jay can't help but smirk. "You've never kissed anyone in a bar bathroom before?"
Placing her hands on her hips, Hailey says, "I don't like the way you said that. I have done stuff before, but I've never gotten caught. We got caught, in case you haven't realized."
The knocking reminds Jay all too well that they certainly did get caught.
"I'm not saying you've never done stuff," he teases, "I'm just saying, you were a bit too into that to suddenly get shy at the thought of leaving the room as if our friends aren't waiting for us. This wasn't a secret, princess."
He almost regrets the word the second it's out of his mouth, but when Hailey's jaw drops half an inch and her eyes widen, he actually thinks it's kind of funny.
"Fine," she murmurs. She plays with her hair one last time then nods to herself. "Fine."
Jay raises an eyebrow and needs to step aside as she spins on her heel to head to the door. He's not even given a second to prepare himself for what's on the other side before she whips it open and confidently steps out into the hallway.
He's met with an older guy staring at him in awe, Hailey's blonde hair whipping around the opening of the door. He nods slightly and feels a twinge of that embarrassment that Hailey seemed to possess a second before. Maybe he shouldn't have teased her for it.
"Thanks," he murmurs while stepping out of the bathroom.
He makes his way down the hall and back into the bar in time to see Hailey gathering her purse and friend in her booth. His eyes widen in shock: she wasn't supposed to completely leave the bar.
"Hailey!"
Her head shifts enough that he knows she heard him, but she doesn't move toward him.
"Everything okay?"
Adam's voice stuns him enough to look away from Hailey to realize that his spot in the booth had been taken by his friend. His date must have ended while he was in the bathroom, which must mean the girl he was with - Kim, if he remembers correctly - is probably leaving with Hailey right now.
When he turns back toward where Hailey had been, the door is already shutting and telling him that she's gone.
He's not going to get his second chance with her - whether that be in another bar bathroom or somewhere else. She's gone. He doesn't even have her phone number.
"Dude, what happened in there?" Mouse chuckles, "You two were one hundred percent flirting over at the bar, and we can only assume what happened in the back-"
"Nothing happened," Jay murmurs, still staring at the door, "I…I don't know what happened, but we didn't…nothing happened."
"Clearly something happened," Kevin says, "For one, your shirt's all twisted and you've got scratches down the back of your neck. Two, she just ran out of here so fast. If you didn't have sex, you had to have said something stupid."
Jay snaps his head toward his friends, and he knows that if he could, he'd be shooting fire out of his eyes right now.
"I didn't-" He groans and rubs his face. "Maybe I did. I…I wasn't thinking. She's different than Allie, but I think that's what happened: she's different than Allie. I shouldn't…"
He has regrets.
He shouldn't have taken her back to the bathroom like she was some girl he wanted to have sex with to make falling asleep that night easier.
He shouldn't have teased her when she got nervous about having to leave and confront whoever was on the other side of the door.
He shouldn't have called her a princess like he often did with Allie when making fun of her for doing something without thinking.
He shouldn't have let her walk out this bar so easily.
She was a good person, and she didn't deserve her night to end like this: like she was just some joke in his eyes.
She'd been honest with him and made him smile and took a chance on him, and he somehow managed to twist it around and mess it all up.
"Well, I'm sorry, man," Mouse says as he gets out of the booth, "Let's head home. I grabbed your tab for you, and I won't even make you pay me back."
Jay scoffs slightly and runs a hand over his head before finally turning away from the door to look at his friends.
"Thanks, that'll totally make up for it."
"I'm sorry too," Adam says, clapping him on the shoulder on their way to the door, "Will it help to hear that my date actually went well for once? Maybe I can talk to her and we can clear this whole thing up with that Hailey girl."
"Not sure that's helping," Kevin murmurs.
Jay rolls his eyes. He's not sure that's the best thing that could happen right now. If anything, he feels like he needs to talk to Hailey himself - that's if he ever actually sees her again.
He wants a do over, but after the way she ran out of here so fast and wouldn't even respond to him calling her name, he doesn't know if she wants the same.
And, because of that, he doesn't think he actually wants to talk to her again.
He screwed up - again - and just wanted to forget about it all.
He needed to call Allie.
A/N: Have hope? :) And let me know what you think! This was the first chapter of this fic that I was super excited to share with you all, so I really hope you all enjoyed it!
