The Bartender

Chapter 12

"April please just this once, all my friends are talking about it,"

"Kim you're sixteen!" I deadpanned.

"Seventeen next month! come on April it's not cool that my sister works at BOTS and I've never been there once."
She challenged.

"Oh what a loudmouth you've got there, but guess what young lady, you're not going with me!!"

"But,"

"Uh-uh nope, when you're twenty-one and finally at the right age, then you can go. If you'll excuse me, I'm running late for work." I grabbed my bag from my dresser and headed downstairs leaving Kim seated in my bed. I could already imagine the look on her face.

At BOTS, it was a typical workday for me, Placing tabs and keeping track of orders. The night was quite still young.
Lauren has been a bit distant from me since I came to work today. I just hope she's not acting upon our conversation a few nights ago, cause that'll be so messed up.

There can never be anything between Wayne and me period. And honestly, I don't think anything is bound to happen between her and Wayne either. Not that I want him for myself or something but taking in Miley and considering Wayne, they don't match at all. Lauren is a good girl and all, but I doubt if Wayne would want a woman from the ghetto.

"Hey, you're quite...are okay?" I asked, trying to spark a conversation.
When she remained silent, I used it as a clue to speak up again.

"Look I hate for things to turn weird between us, I mean we're here together and doing the same thing...it's uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry, it's not you. I'm just having a sucky night." She explained.

"Well, I hope you recover cause the night is pretty still young," I stated and returned to recording tabs and attending to orders she's completely ignoring.

It was barely November and the fall weather was gradually sipping in. It has gotten colder than it was at the beginning of October. I had half started wearing winter clothes, I could feel it approaching fast but I dreaded it to the core.

"April!" I heard a high-pitched voice yell my name once I had stepped down from my truck in the students' parking space of my college.

Of course, the voice just had to belong to Miley. She was in the arms of a black young man I'm guessing is Hakeem, her current boyfriend. As I approached both of them, Hakeem in manners untangled his arms around her. Something my friend didn't have.

"Hi." I greeted with a fake smile, which was directed to Hakeem. He returned the smile with a much real one than I offered.

"Baby meet April, my diaper friend. April, meet Hakeem, the love of my life"

I burst out laughing at that instant and completely regretted it because both of them were now looking at me with questioning stares.

"I'm sorry, but did I hear you say the love of your life?" I tried to look serious but I failed miserably.

"April, come on," Miley warned.

I raised my hands in surrender and tried to wipe off the grin on my lips.

Hakeem remained collected and showed no emotion whatsoever.

"It's nice to finally meet you April." I took his hand and shook it firmly.

"It's nice to meet you too Hakeem," I said.

"So since you're already here, Hakeem and I were planning on a dinner after lectures and you're coming with us."

Miley said, a little bit of hope in her eyes.

"Do I get to ebb?" I teased.

"Hell no! You either you come or you come."

"Well, then I guess I'm coming." I agreed.

"Great! babe be here at 6:30"

"Sure, just text me as soon as you get out," Hakeem said.

After literally sucking each other faces for a whole five minutes, Miley finally let go of her boyfriend and we headed to our classes.

Going out with them would obviously cause me to miss Liam a lot. But I'm going anyways. I'll just probably call him later on.

Meanwhile, today is the day of our presentation of our due project work.  My project was nothing too extreme. I just had to make fastening and openings at the right places on various outfits.

I waited patiently for my turn to present. Since the names were called alphabetically by order, my name was called sooner than I had anticipated.

I walked to the front of the hall and began presenting. "I assessed the colour of the suit set to work with. In doing so, I figured black buttons would make the work look neater, as I've done." I showed the sample to the lass and proceeded to embellish further.

"An invisible fastening could also be used in place of a button. It depends on what makes you comfortable on our end, and what your client prefers. It's also very easy to invisible openings on clothes without effort, thank you." Mrs Evans accepted my project and showed me a proud smile.

"Excellent Mrs Lucas, very well presented." I smiled politely, returned to my seat and watched the rest of my mates present their projects.

Barely ten minutes till the end of our final lectures, I got a text from Miley.

'Come outside, I'm waiting.'

After reading the text, my eyes quickly glanced towards the door of the hall and she was actually standing there lingering.
I released a sigh and grabbed my bag as I silently prayed the professor doesn't notice that I'm leaving before time. Luckily, he didn't.

Hakeem took Miley and me to an expensive restaurant. What was it called again, oh, Ministry? I guess. It's so trendy and overpriced. I've heard about it a couple of times but I've never been inside. The three of us sat on reclaimed church pews at the table. Miley is to my right, while Hakeem is to her right.

After we placed our order, we talked about random stuff while waiting on our repast.
During this time, I took my time to observe how gentle Hakeem was towards Miley. I noticed how he tiptoed around her, either trying not to hurt her feelings or making her fall deeper into love with him.

Either way, he was succeeding because once Miley started to giggle at almost everything he was saying, I knew she was in love.

AN
well, well, well
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