Page 20 of Beneath Your Beautiful

It was after midnight, and Killian had changed the music to psychedelic trip-hop, giving the bar a chilled-out vibe. A guy walked in the bar and called me over. He had a preppy rich boy look—classically good-looking with brown hair cut in short layers. His gray, tailored suit looked like it had cost more than my rent. I cleared the empty glasses in front of him and wiped down the bar. He ordered a Tecate and a tequila shot. “Start a tab,” he said, handing me his credit card. “Wanna do a shot with me?”

“No, thanks. I’m good.”

I started a tab and set the beer and tequila in front of him. He downed the shot, set the glass on the counter, and ordered another one. I brought over the bottle and poured.

By the time I served four gin and tonics to a group farther down the bar, he was ready for another round.

“Bad day?” I asked, setting the beer in front of him. He’d taken off his suit jacket and slung it over the back of his stool.

“Shitty day. I lost a lot of money. I’m a trader at a hedge fund.” I nodded like that made perfect sense, even though I didn’t know much about the financial world, and it had never especially interested me.

“Other than the days when you lose money, do you like your job?” I asked, because job satisfaction was a topic that interested me.

“I’m good at what I do. And I like the money. Anyone who says they don’t care about money is lying.” He cuffed the sleeves of his white shirt, revealing a Rolex on his left wrist. “The one with the most toys wins.”

“And I guess you want to be the biggest winner.”

“I have a lot of toys.” He flashed me a smile, confident in his ability to charm. I was sure a lot of girls would fall for it. But making money for the sake of it didn’t impress me. Neither did bragging about his toys.

I left him guzzling his beer and moved on to other customers, but he kept calling me back.

“What’s your name?”

“Eden.”

“If you offered me an apple, I’d succumb to temptation.”

“That was Eve.”

“But the apple came from your garden, Eden.”

“Don’t hold that against me.”

“I won’t. My name’s Adam, by the way.”

“For real?”

He laughed. “For real. Adam and Eden,” he said.

“It was Eve.”

“Eve. Eden.” He reached for my hand and pressed a kiss on it. It was a soft kiss, just a brush of his lips, but it felt strange, and not altogether welcome, so I yanked my hand away. Undeterred, Adam lifted his beer in the air, toasting me. “The beautiful Eve. I’ll drink to that.”

He kept powering through his shots and beers like he was on a mission to see how fast he could get shit-faced. Despite all his toys and money, he was in a bar, drinking alone.

“Eden,” Adam shouted, a little while later. “I need you.”

“Is that guy bothering you?” Killian asked as I rang up a drink order. I slid the tab under the credit card and looked over my shoulder at Adam. His eyes were glossy and unfocused. He had downed a lot of alcohol in a short amount of time, but now I was thinking he’d started long before he came in here.

“He’s harmless. I’ll cut him off though.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

I grabbed his arm to stop him. He looked down at my hand, and I dropped it to my side. “I can handle this.”

He frowned.

“Would you have stepped in if I were Zeke?”