“Hey,” I replied. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, it’s going,” she said. “A bit better now. I finally have someone cool to talk to.”
“I bet you say that to all the guys who give you good tips,” I said.
“A girl got to make that money,” she said.
“So, how have you been?” I asked seriously.
“Good,” she replied. “Just working for the most part. But a few friends of mine are trying to put together a band. Did I tell you that last time?”
“A band? Nice. No, you didn’t mention it.”
“Yeah, they want me to join as their rhythm guitarist,” she said. “I’m thinking it might be fun.”
“That sounds cool. You doing this just for fun or are you planning to play gigs out, too?”
“I’m not sure, yet. I guess it depends on how good we end up being,” she said. “We might totally suck.”
“I doubt that. You will probably be awesome. I’ll check you guys out.”
“Sweet. So, how is work going? You always look so tired when you come in here. I bet you’ve been in the office since six this morning, haven’t you?”
“How did you guess?”
“Because I know you too well. What will you have tonight? The usual?”
“Yes.”
She grabbed a beer and put it on the bar in front of me. I grabbed the bottle and took a swig. It tasted refreshing going down. It felt like the entire day had led up to this point and I was already feeling the relaxation from great company and a wonderful beverage easing the stress from my mind and body.
“You need to get out more and have some fun,” Laney said. “I can tell you are wound up way too tight.”
“Oh, I have my own fun,” I said. “Hell, my work is my fun.” I realized how lame that sounded the moment I said it.
“That’s not what I meant,” she replied.
I wasn’t sure if she was hinting something to me, like that I should take this moment to finally ask her out, or what. But I didn’t take the bait. That mental block was still there. I would just have to wait until I felt right. I could have asked her out. That wasn’t really the problem. But I would have felt that sickening, fearful feeling about whether or not I was ready to move on and if I was just going to be wasting both our time.
“I know,” I said. “I’ll have to work on that. So, I didn’t know you played guitar.”
“I used to play a lot but just kind of fell out of it,” she said. “I’m getting back into recently. And I often wondered why I put it down. Isn’t it interesting how we can fall in and out of favor with our passions from time to time?”
“Yeah. It is. Did you start playing at a young age?”
“I started back in high school. Some friends of mine were putting together a band back then and asked me if I could play guitar. I had no clue how to play, but I did have an old guitar my uncle had given me way back when. So, I said I could. I learned a few chords and joined the band. That band lasted about three months, but by that time the bug had bitten me.”
“That’s cool. I would love to hear you play sometime.”
“Well, anytime you want to,” her eyes flirted with me as she smiled. I loved to watch this woman smile. She had that special smile that could melt even the coldest heart. And it had taken over my heart.
“I might just have to take you up on that,” I said flashing her a smile of my own.
A customer flagged her down for a refill and she went to take care of him for a moment. I watched her work, looking at her curvy body moving back and forth in those tight jeans that clung beautifully to her tush. Damn, she was a fine-looking woman.
I took a long swig off my beer finishing it off. I held up the bottle as Laney came back my way and she brought me another beer. She leaned against the bar again and locked eyes with me. I caught a whiff of her perfume and her beautiful, sexy scent began to drive me wild as it entered my nostrils. I sighed as I thought about leaning over and kissing her. How would she react? Would she kiss me back? Was she allowed to do that at work? I doubted she cared too much about those types of rules. Laney was a bit of a bad ass. This just added to her sex appeal for me.
“So, how is the dating situation?” Laney asked me.
I laughed. “What? Why do you want to know about that boring topic?”
“Because, I’m curious,” she said.
“Really? Are you asking because inquiring minds want to know? Or are you asking because you just want to see how single I am?” I was surprised by how open I was with the flirting sometimes.