“Babe, what the hell is this place?” he asks, looking at the metal building with two huge silos out front.
“You’ll see. Just trust me.” I hop out of the truck, unwilling to wait for him to come around and open my door and meet him at the tailgate. “Come on.” I grab his hand and drag him through the parking lot, then down the sidewalk to the glass door of the building. As soon as we step inside, Tony is there to greet me with a bear hug that lifts me off the ground.
“I’ve missed you, girl.”
“Okay, okay, let her go before her guy hurts you,” I hear Toya tell her husband, and he laughs, placing me on my feet, then I feel Aiden’s hand meet my lower back.
“Guys, this is Aiden.” I look between my two closest friends, then tip my head back to introduce Aiden. “Honey, my best friend Toya, and Tony, her husband.”
“And May’s friend.” Tony reaches out to shake Aiden’s hand, and Toya rolls her eyes.
“Listen, if my husband gets to manhandle your girl, I at least get a hug from you,” she sasses, giving him a squeeze he returns with a chuckle but without hesitation.
“Did you guys get a table?” I look around. Not surprisingly, the place is packed, not just with people our age but with couples with kids, and groups of old men hanging out, standing around tables, and drinking beer.
“Not yet. There are tables in the back that are empty, so I figured we could just put in our orders and get our drinks before we go find one,” Toya says, heading for the bar.
“So this is a restaurant?” Aiden asks me as we get in line.
“Kind of, but kind of not. You order your food at the bar along with whatever drinks you want, and they give you your drinks, then send you a text when your food is ready. And you pick it up from there.” I point to the food truck that is set up next to the front door. “During the day, this is a working brewery.” I show him the silos in the middle of the building and huge industrial shelves that line the walls stacked with cans of beer. “They ship their beer all over, and I don’t know who thought of opening it up to the public in the evenings and serving street food, but they were a genius. I’ve never seen this place empty. It’s just a cool environment that isn’t a bar but also isn’t a restaurant.” I shrug, then look around when I hear someone call my name.
“Oh, Lord,” Toya mutters, and I see why when I spot Zach getting off his stool at the table he’s sitting at with a woman and start coming our direction, the medical boot on his foot hardly slowing him down.
“Hey,” I greet him when he’s close, and he smiles at me, then looks at Toya and lifts his chin in greeting.
“What are you guys doing here?” he asks me, then glances at Aiden, who is standing behind me with his hand wrapped around my hip, and does a double-take. “I know you.” He snaps his fingers while pointing up at Aiden. “You’re Aiden Bender. You play soccer, right?”
“I used to play,” Aiden says, and Zach nods.
“Yeah, that’s right. You got kicked off your team.”
“I was injured and couldn’t return to my team,” Aiden mutters, sounding annoyed, while his fingers flex on my waist.
“That sucks,” Zach says and shakes his head, then asks, “Would you be willing to sign something for me? A guy we work with is a huge fan of yours, and he would flip his shit if I got your autograph.”
“Sure,” Aiden agrees, and I expect Zach to take off so he can find a pen and paper, but instead, he just stands there with us.
“I think your date is getting upset that you’re talking to us,” Toya tells him, and his eyes go to the table he was sitting at, and I look that direction, finding she’s right. The woman he’s with does, in fact, look annoyed.
“She’ll be fine,” he says, then his eyes come back to me and move down my body. When they land on Aiden’s hand on my waist, his brows drag together.
“Sorry, I’m being rude. You know Aiden, but I didn’t get a chance to introduce you two,” I say to Zach, and he lifts his gaze to mine. “Zach, this is my boyfriend.” I look up at Aiden. “This is Zach. He works at the high school.”
“What’s up?” Aiden lifts his chin but doesn’t make a move to shake his hand. Then again, Zach doesn’t stick out his hand either.
“When you said you were kind of seeing someone a few weeks ago, I thought you were just blowing me off,” he says, and I feel my face instantly become hot, while Aiden shifts behind me.
“I wasn’t,” I mumble, and he nods, then runs his fingers through his hair before glancing at the table, where his date is watching us with a sour look on her face.
“I’m gonna check on Mandy. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
“Sure, have fun.”
“Yeah, you too,” he says over his shoulder as he walks off, and I know I shouldn’t feel bad, but I still kind of do. Okay, maybe I don’t feel so bad, since after he was injured and I sent him an email, his reply back to me was to ask if I wanted to come over and play nurse. I, of course, ignored it, because first of all, it was on the school’s email server, but also because at that time, he thought I was dating someone, proving he is a jerk.
“You wanna explain to me when exactly it was that we were kind of seeing each other?” Aiden whispers against my ear, and even though it shouldn’t be possible, I feel my face become even hotter than it already was.
“No.”