Lizzy snorted. “Seeing Hunter like that after all this time? I don’t blame you!”
I clocked out, then went around to sit at one of the barstools like any other customer. One fringe benefit of working at the brewery was that staff were allowed two free drinks after every shift. Most nights I didn’t stick around to enjoy them, but tonight I definitely needed it.
“Excuse me, bartender?” I asked, mimicking the tone of an impatient customer. “I would like a beer.”
Lizzy raised an eyebrow at me. “You could’ve drawn your own beer before clocking out.”
“But then I wouldn’t get to make demands of you!” I grinned. “IPA, please!”
She stuck a glass underneath the tap and poured. “You usually drink the blonde.”
“Tonight I feel like an IPA.”
“It’s nine percent,” she pointed out.
“I rode my bike here. I can indulge all I want, and the only danger is to the squirrels on the bike path.”
“I’ve got your stuff in my trunk,” Lizzy reminded me.
I groaned. “Crap. I’m sorry. I can run home and get my car…”
“Forget about it. I’ll drop it by your place after closing up here.”
The glass was frothy with beer as she placed it in front of me. Without waiting for the foam to diminish, I began guzzling it down until only half the glass remained.
“Okay, now that you’ve had a drink,” Lizzy said, “how are you feeling? About Hunter, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” I said mournfully. “I feel a lot of things.”
“He looked good,” Lizzy said. “Reallygood.”
I pictured him standing there, wearing jeans and a faded T-shirt. Just like the old days. The five years since I had seen him last had heightened his rugged good looks and sexy charm in a way that was so much more apparent in person than in a video.
“Yeah,” I said. “He looked good.”
Tracie appeared next to the bar to retrieve two beers for one of the tables she was serving. “He looked good last night, too. I kind of wanted to slip him my number, but he left before I could.”
“He’s engaged,” I said. “He’s been engaged to the same girl for over a year. Someone he met in Portland.”
“Oh.” Tracie balanced her beers on a tray and gave me a weird look. “How do you know?”
“I… I watch his YouTube channel sometimes,” I replied. “He’s mentioned it on there. He even proposed to her on one of his videos.”
Tracie’s face twisted like she had just seen a puppy. “Aww, that isso cute. I didn’t realize Hunter was so swoony! She’s a lucky woman.”
She sure is,I thought, drowning my jealousy with the rest of my beer and then calling for another.
“What did he say to you at the expo?” Lizzy asked while pouring my second beer. “I couldn’t hear because someone walked up and asked me about my shampoo.”
“First he said I looked great.”
Lizzy groaned. “Twist the knife, why don’t you?”
“I know, right?” I accepted the beer from her. “He told me he was in town for dad’s funeral last month, but that he had to leave right after. And then…” I trailed off.
“What?” Lizzy asked.
“He said…” I frowned as I remembered the conversation. “I asked him why he was in town, and he said because he had to ask me something.”