Chapter 1
1025 Words
"Hey...can I get your most embarrassing breakup drink? And..uh, please don't judge me."
Jade looked up from the glass he was wiping and raised an eyebrow.
The man who just sat on the barstool was younger, maybe in his late twenties, with dark messy hair, slightly wrinkled sweater like he'd been wearing it through difficulty. He loosened his collar and put both elbows on the counter like he was ready for a fight.
"Embarrassing how?" Jade asked.
"Sweet and strong, suprise me, I really don't care. My dignity already left with my ex, so..."
Jade actually laughed at that, "rough night?"
"Rough nine months," the man rubbed his face with both hands. "The guy I was dating was also dating someone else for most of those nine months. I just found out today... so yeah, strong drink please, thank you."
Jade nodded and got to work. The man sat back and looked around the bar slowly. The Hudson Bar was on the 1st floor of the hotel, and on a Friday night, it was quiet in a way that only expensive places could be.
There were small conversations, soft music, the occasional clink of glass. He scanned the room once and then his eyes landed on the man sitting far away from him.
He looked at the man, then looked a little longer.
The man at the end of the bar was staring straight at the bottles on the wall with his jacket off, his tie loose, one large hand wrapped around a glass of whiskey. He had a face that made you want to keep looking even when you knew you probably shouldn't. He had a sharp jaw, dark eyes, broad shoulders that complemented his white. He didn't look up once.
Jade slid a pale blue drink across the counter, and the younger man picked it up, took a slow sip, and nodded.
"Not terrible," he said. Then he picked up his glass and moved closer to the man with the whiskey.
Reid felt someone sit closer and still didn't look up. He knew someone was there, he just didn't care. He came here for the whiskey and the silence, and that was all he needed tonight. The Mercer deal was still pending on his table back at RT Group, his board members were restless and his mother had called him twice this week asking why he showed up to his cousin's engagement dinner alone again.
He told her he had to work, and she reminded him that he worked too much.
He finished his third glass and signaled Jade for another.
"You look like someone who's also had a terrible week."
Reid then looked up, mostly because the voice was directed at him and people didn't usually do that. Not when he was sitting the way he was, which showed very clearly that he didn't want to be spoken to.
The man with the blue drink was looking at him with a little curiosity and a small hint of amusement.
Reid stared back, and the man didn't flinch. "I'm fine," Reid said.
"You're on your third glass of whiskey alone on a Friday night." His eyes dropped to the glass then came back up, "that's not fine, that's just you coping."
"Do I know you?" Reid asked, his tone a bit gruffier than intended.
"Noah," he stuck out his hand like they were meeting at some work event. "And before you decide to ignore me, I'm not hitting on you. I just need some company that isn't my friends because they'll turn this whole thing into a big dramatic situation."
Reid looked at the hand, he didn't take it.
Noah pulled his hand back and turned back to his pink drink. He took another sip, looking unbothered like Reid's coldness was just a mild inconvenience at most.
"Nine months?" Reid said, he didn't mean to say it out.
Noah looked at him and smiled, "so you were listening."
"You were loud," Reid replied, his tone a bit softer.
"Fair enough," Noah turned his glass slowly on the table. "Yeah, nine months. I thought it was going somewhere real, I guess he had other plans." He said it with no attempt to make Reid feel sorry for him.
"Your turn, what's the whiskey for?" Noah asked.
"Work," Reid replied, his tone short.
"Just work?" Noah pressed, his eyes sparkling with curiosity.
"Just work," Reid repeated, his expression unreadable.
Noah looked at him for a second like he was deciding what to say, then he nodded and let it go.
That was surprising too. Most people didn't let things go with Reid, they either pushed harder or got nervous and looked away. Noah did neither, he just accepted the answer and went back to his drink, started singing quietly under his breath like he was perfectly okay.
Reid looked at his face, then he looked at his mouth. Noah had a habit of pressing his bottom lip between his teeth lightly when he was in thought. It was little and barely anything. Reid noticed it and looked away.
"You never told me your name," Noah said, breaking the silence.
"No," Reid said, "I didn't."
Noah smiled. "Okay, keep your secrets mystery man." He said it like it was genuinely funny, he just found it amusing and moved on, turning back to his drink like Reid was an interesting thing he'd decided not to stress about.
Reid had his fourth whiskey in front of him, he had an early morning, a 7am meeting and some unfinished deals.
Noah reached over without asking and casually took a nut from the small dish near Reid's glass. He popped it in his mouth and then looked at Reid with the most deliberately innocent expression Reid had ever seen on a grown man.
"Sorry," Noah said. He didn't sound sorry at all.
Reid's heart skipped in a quiet and unfamiliar manner and it was gone almost as fast as it came. He didn't like it at all.
He picked up his glass and kept quiet, Noah smiled to himself and said nothing either, yet none of them left the table.
- Writer
