Matt nodded. “Everything is fine. He just texted to let me know that he’s having a good time. I hope he stays the whole night—that’ll be a big step for him.” We went on talking more about Will after that, and then sometime later Matt went to the bathroom, and I found myself looking over near the back booth and humoring the idea of talking to the woman seated there. Then she looked up, smiled, and waved. For a moment, I thought she was waving at me, but thankfully I had the good sense to check over my shoulder before I waved back like a fool.
“Over here,” the woman called, and as the crowd parted, I saw who it was she was calling to.
You’ve got to be kidding me,I thought.What are the odds?
Of all the bars in the whole city, of course, this was the one she had to spend her Friday night at. Her friend waved more frantically, “Hey Lily!” she said. “Over here!”
I turned back to face the back of the bar so that she couldn’t spot me and kept my head down until I was pretty sure she’d already walked across the room. Matt returned shortly thereafter and clapped me on the back. Then, he saw the way I was sitting and made a face.
“Uh oh,” he said. “The man is hanging his head. What happened? Did you strike out? This is why you shouldn’t talk to girls without your wingman around. Let me see if I can rectify the situation.” He looked over his shoulder and smiled in the direction of the booth where Lily’s friend was.
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t,” I said under my breath. “Don’t look over there. We have to go,right now.”
“No way, we just got here.”
“We’ve been here a while,” I said. “And now it’s time to go.”
“What has gotten into you? I thought we were having a good time?” Again, Matt looked over at the booth and I saw his expression change. “Oh, there’s another girl over there now. A pretty blonde. What do you say we go over and talk to them.”
“Nope. Can’t do that.”
“And why not?”
“Because the blonde is Lily, as in the woman I hooked up with in Hawaii and who currently works for our company!”
He squinted, still staring at them, much to my disdain. “Oh yeah, you’re right. That is her. She’s even hotter than I remembered.”
“Focus, Matt! I have to get out of here before she sees me.” I took my wallet out and left enough money to cover our tab plus tip, then I gave my brother a glare that I hoped would convince him that I wasnotplaying around.
“All right, fine,” Matt said. “We’ll hit another bar. Tonight was about helping you forget about work anyway, and as far as I’m concerned that includes helping you forget about this girl from work, so let’s go.” He smiled at the bartender and then headed for the door.
I looked down at my feet and tried my hardest to resist the urge to glance over my shoulder. When we reached the door, curiosity got the better of me and I ended up looking back at Lily and her friend. Of course, right at that second, she looked forward towards the door and our eyes met.
She frowned at me, and I frowned right back before following Matt through the door and heading out into the night.
ChapterFive
LILY
Imust’ve stopped talking mid-sentence when I saw David and his brother standing by the door of the bar because Rosa snapped her fingers in front of my face a few seconds after David disappeared.
“Hey,” she said. “You okay?”
“Wha—oh yeah. Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly at my new friend. “I just saw someone I knew, but anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah! I was telling you about Gina. She’s been my friend since we were kids. Her brother lives in Santa Cruz and she’s here visiting him.”
“What time is she supposed to get into San Francisco?” Rosa asked.
“Soon,” I said. “She texted not too long ago to say she was close.” I had made plans with Rosa to get drinks that Friday when I saw her the day after I moved into the building, and when Gina told me she’d be in town that weekend, I thought it would be fun to all go out together. I hadn’t, however, expected to see David at the bar while we were out having a girls' night. But I was determined not to let that ruin my good time. I had done an excellent job avoiding him this past week, and now that he left the bar, I considered him both out of sight and out of mind.
Attempting to distract myself from the memory of him frowning at me just then, I asked Rosa how she became the building manager, and she launched into a story about how she moved to San Francisco on a whim, bounced around from shitty apartment to shitty apartment before she saw someone advertising for a building manager who would get to live in one of the downtown units at a cheaper rate. She jumped at the chance, and she’d been working as the manager ever since. She was just about to tell me what she really thought about the landlord, an opinion I was quite sure we both shared when I spotted Gina walking into the bar.
“Oh, there’s my friend.” I waved to Gina. She saw us and hurried over to the booth where I introduced her to Rosa and Rosa to her.
“Rosa,” Gina said. “You’ve got a friend named Rose and a friend named Rosa, how fun.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t even talk to me about Rose right now. She’s mad at me, but I honestly have no idea why. I texted her and asked why she was ignoring me, and she texted back saying she’s just been busy, but trust me, I know when I’m being ignored.”
“To be fair, last I talked to Rose, she was pretty busy.”