Jack & Lucy

Jack

I'm pretending to be engrossed in picking mint leaves. My hands run down the stems and I notice my plucking is getting more aggressive the closer it gets to six o'clock. I know she's starting back up today. I know Maggie put us in the back bar together. I know I am going to be working around her for six hours and I have no idea what mood she's going to be in. Lucy is normally easygoing. She hardly ever brings her drama past the threshold of the bar. Once she's here, she's here to work, rake in tips and go home. The other female bartenders wear their emotions on their sleeves. When Sabrina clocks in, I know what kind of night I'll have just by the look she has on her face. Ashleigh is our youngest bartender and she drinks almost as much as some of our patrons, so she's usually a bit buzzed and high on the possibility of where the evening can take her. Hannah B. is always fighting with some boyfriend, so she's either happy and in love or angry and looking for a guy to make out with. Hannah B. is the reason I insisted on having my number one rule at work- don't date co-workers.

I'm the only male bartender at Mag's and I started on the same night that one of Hannah's boyfriends broke up with her. She aggressively had me in her sight for a rebound our entire shift. Don't get me wrong, I like a pretty girl, but I could smell her craziness a mile away. I knew immediately she was not one to get involved with. Lucy knew it too and leaned in close to tell me.

"Hannah likes the chase. Don't give her one if you know what's good for you."

"I have no intention of diving into whatever drama she's carrying around," I said back to her.

"Don't dive into those boobies either. That's how she baits the men, she'll ask you if you want to feel them and next thing you know, you're carrying her purse around the mall." She looked over her shoulder to make sure Hannah wasn't lingering and then gave me a smile that hit me in the gut.

"Lucky I'm not a boob guy," I muttered. "Anyway, I'm seeing someone and I don't date co-workers. I've learned my lesson. I had to leave my old job because I had hooked up with two of the cocktail waitresses." Lucy grimaced but wasted no time telling my rule to every woman that started on rotation. As if she knew they'd give me flirty stares and sexy smirks and it was somehow easier for her to let them down than for me to do it. I stood by my rule though, even after breaking it off with Pepper from school because I could see a weird tug-of-war starting between Hannah and our old bartender, Rissa. 

Rissa Dobson came in, chose to dodge my rule, and flirted shamelessly with me every time we were paired together. Hannah didn't like the banter between us and asked Lucy to ask Maggie to sabotage Rissa's schedule. Lucy turned around and came to ask me if I wanted the schedule sabotaged and I said yes because I could feel that drama was brewing. Lucy went to Maggie, but Hannah's plan backfired. Maggie noticed Lucy and I worked the best together, so she created a month's worth of shifts where we were at the back bar together. That's where Maverick and Goose were born. That's where I learned everything about her and that's where I realized I was in love with her days after she announced she was dating someone. That's where she met Blake Andrews.

A squeal brings my focus to the present and I have a grip of crushed mint in my hand as I turn to face the pub tables. I watch Hannah throw her arms around Lucy and it takes a second for my brain to register it's her. She cut her long dark hair off and put some weight on her face. She looks healthy again and surprisingly older. She's still stunning and the wave of anxiety that washes over me tells me I am nervous. I'm not used to being nervous. Especially around Lucy. She's smiling as she says something to an energized Hannah and then her wide hazel eyes start to glide around the bar. It's only seconds before she'll find me staring, so I quickly duck behind the bar. 

Turns out that I'm not ready to face her. I wonder if Maggie can put her in the front bar? I'll take Hannah constantly finding reasons to touch me over facing Lucy.

"Of course you're back at the back bar," I hear Hannah tell Lucy, and then I hear her voice. She may look different, but she sounds exactly the same.

"Yup, it's like I never left." I'm still crouching behind the bar. She's coming toward the well and as soon as she lifts the panel, she's going to see me cowering in the corner. I can't let her find me hiding. She said messed up shit too. We are both to blame for the parking lot argument.

I abruptly stand and I feel something knock onto the top of my head. I hear, "Jack, what the fuck!" and spin around to face the commotion I somehow created. Apparently, I stood up at the exact moment Ashleigh was placing the filled garnish tray on the counter. I hit the metal container and sent cherries, freshly cut lemons and limes, and olives flying into the air.

"You're cleaning that up and cutting all those again," Ashleigh snaps before sauntering back up to the front. I find Lucy with a smirk on her face and Hannah looking annoyed beside her.

"Hi Jackass," Lucy says and out of all the nicknames she calls me, she went with that one. Alright. I guess I know what kind of mood she's in after all.

"Hey Lucifer," I snap back to her and I catch the twitch in her left eye. Yeah, that's right Lucy, I still know how to make you tick.

"Wanna go pick all that up so we can get our bar stocked?" She asks me in a tone usually reserved for drunk college guys that won't leave her alone.

"Sure, while I do that, why don't you go organize the keg room. Or grab ice from the back?" I suggest and I see her jaw clench. I know she hates the cold. We're setting the tone and I worry we're in for a long evening. I think of offering her an olive branch by suggesting that I do the heavy lifting if she'll help with the mop, but she cuts me off before I can.

"Need me to do the tough stuff? As usual?" It's another jab. She's not relenting so I won't either.

"We open in twenty, better get that ice," I reply with a smile. My heart is racing as she smiles a menacing smile that I have never seen before. There's a fire in her eyes and I am genuinely scared of her.

"Sure thing, Jack," she says putting as much venom in the "ck" as she can muster. She spins on her heel and I watch as she strides toward the back. She's 5'6 and her height is all from her legs. They look especially long in her tiny shorts and I force myself to stop staring. Yeah, I missed the shit out of her and I need to find a way to be friendly with her again. Or working four nights a week with her is going to be hell.