“A long time.” He leaned closer once the bartender walked away to fix my drink. “But not long enough for simple math to tell me that you aren’t twenty-one.”
Oh shit.
“I should go.” I clutched my purse close and slid off the stool.
“Stay, I’m not going to call your Dad or anything.” He patted the stool. “I’ll buy you a couple of drinks and make sure you get home. I was your age once.”
“Okay.” I looked at him nervously and sat back down. “Thank you, Mr. Yancy.”
“Please don’t call me Mr. Yancy. It makes me feel old.” He chuckled and lifted the glass of whiskey in front of him. “You can call me Harlan.”
“Thank you—Harlan.” I smiled and reached for my drink when the bartender brought it over.
I remembered Harlan. He always came to the annual barbecues my father threw to kick off the college football season. That wasn’t the only reason I remembered Harlan, though. I used to have a huge crush on him when I was younger. That felt like a lifetime ago. It was before my father got caught cheating on my mother and they got divorced. It was before I fell head over heels in love with Chad and got my heart broken. The years hadn’t changed Harlan much, even if he was a little older. He still had a jaw that looked like it could carve stone and dark colored eyes that seemed to stare straight into my soul when he looked at me. Judging by the way his shirt clung to his upper body, it looked like he had added even more muscle to what was already an incredible physique.
“So, how’s the wife?” I sipped my drink and casually looked down at his finger—which was empty.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged and drained the last drop of whiskey from his glass. “We got divorced last year and I hear she’s already engaged to someone else.”
“Oh shit, I’m sorry.” I looked down at the bar and sighed.
Open mouth, insert heel.
“Nothing to be sorry about, unless you were fucking her too.” He motioned for another drink. “Hopefully you didn’t have to wait in line too long.”
“Seriously?” I exhaled sharply and felt my jaw tighten. “Is it fucking impossible for two people to actually stay faithful to each other?”
“I guess so.” He picked up his new drink when it arrived. “I don’t even try anymore. One trip to the altar was enough for me.”
“I didn’t even make it that far.” I sighed and blinked when a tear tried to form in the corner of my eye. “The asshole couldn’t even marry me before he cheated.”
“I figured you were talking about your parents. I didn’t realize you got engaged.” His eyebrows raised in shock. “Aren’t you a little young to be thinking about marriage?”
The conversation led to Chad, and I couldn’t turn it off once I started talking about him. With the alcohol starting to churn in my stomach and enter my bloodstream, I also couldn’t stop the tears from coming. We paused the discussion briefly when my glass was empty, and Harlan led me to one of the tables in the corner of the bar. It was a lot better than bawling in front of all of the people that had started to notice my tears. The last thing I wanted to do when I walked in the
bar was start talking about the asshole that ruined my life. Still, it felt good to have someone to listen. My friends were as tired of hearing me talk about him as I was of saying his name, so I kept everything bottled up most of the time.
“You know what I would do to that motherfucker if he was right here in front of me? I’d punch him in the damn face.” Harlan reached across the table and took my hand. “Seriously, you’re a beautiful young woman. You’re going to make someone extremely happy one day. Hell, if I was a little younger, I’d keep buying you drinks until you went home with me.”
“You aren’t that old.” I scoffed and blinked away the last of my tears and looked down at my glass. “Besides, you can’t even keep my glass full as it is.”
“Damn.” Harlan shook his head several times as if he was trying to get rid of a thought. “I should probably call it a night before I forget I’m old enough to be your father.”
“You are not.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure you were his youngest friend.”
“I’m thirty-five. You’re what—nineteen?” He lifted his eyebrow and tilted his head.
“Twenty.” I smiled proudly. “See, you’re not old enough to be my Daddy.”
“I don’t know what you were doing at fifteen…” He chuckled and started to stand. “Let’s just say I’m damn lucky I didn’t end up with a kid your age.”
At fifteen? Wow, and here I am sitting on my cherry five years later.
I said goodbye to Harlan and decided to call it a night. He offered to give me a ride home, but I declined. I wasn’t drunk enough for a hangover but getting all of my emotions out had helped curb my desire for alcohol. It also didn’t seem like I had much of a choice since my credit card was declined. I could have hit up the ATM, but I really didn’t want to dip into the money I got from the engagement ring unless it was absolutely necessary. It wasn’t very far to Abby’s apartment, so I decided to just walk. I wouldn’t have been able to do that normally if I was blitzed, but I was far from being overly drunk. There was a time when a few drinks would leave me tipsy, but my tolerance had built up to the point that it barely did more than give me a mild buzz.
I wonder what I would have done if Harlan actually did want to take me home.
Harlan had been in my thoughts a few times when I satisfied my youthful urges. I knew he was nothing more than a fantasy back then that made my teenage hormones rage. It was a harmless crush that could never stray beyond my imagination. After my parents divorced and my father moved out, I really didn’t think of Harlan again. It wasn’t long after my parents split that I met Chad, and we were inseparable from our very first kiss to the moment he crushed my soul. Seeing Harlan after all those years started to bring back some of those dirty, forgotten thoughts. I was no longer a teenage girl staring at a fantasy when he sat across from me, and he was no longer a married man. By the time I got back to Abby’s apartment, I was feeling those familiar urges and my panties were wet.