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T he Serpent Pit was bustling with chatter and music as Jagger Wilder deftly poured drinks and slid them down the polished wood of the bar to a rowdy group of men. They laughed and jostled each other, sloshing their beers as they snatched up the frosty mugs. Jagger grinned, his eyes glinting under the neon lights advertising various liquors and brews.

This was his domain now.

What was once the trashy biker bar where illegal activity ran rampant, had quickly grown to be one of the most popular watering holes in Jersey.

As the men toasted and downed their drinks, Jagger scanned the room, finally coming to rest on Sadie Sweetwater perched atop a barstool near the end of the bar. A stack of papers sat in front of her and she chewed on the end of a pen, brow furrowed in concentration. Jagger smiled softly, taking in her honey blonde hair that she kept tossing back over her shoulder when she leaned forward to write. She was stunning even in her focused state. "Hey boss, another round over here!" one of the men called out, breaking Jagger from his thoughts. He cleared his throat and moved down the bar to top off their drinks. As he worked, he kept glancing back at Sadie. His mind wandered to memories of their complicated past.

They'd met in their Sophomore year of college during an English Literature class that was a test of their mutual patience. The professor had been lacking in the department of anything that pertained to their class on the best of days, and they found themselves griping over assignments they'd already been through in High School.

It started off with them meeting for coffee on Tuesdays and Thursdays before class to stimulate their own brains, do creative writing exercises, or discuss the reading assignments since their professor barely went over anything. Instead, Mrs. Tinney seemed content to water her plastic plants, put on a movie adaptation of a book, and call it a day most of the time.

Jagger mentioned that one day, he saw a flask on her desk when he shuffled in early to ask about an upcoming paper. She hid it in her desk as he made his way over to her, though, and ignored the situation entirely.

"How is she still allowed to work here?" Sadie muttered one day as they walked down the pathway to the next building, where their other classes resided. She looked over at Jagger, who had amusement dancing in his eyes, and they both blurted out, "Tenure," before dissolving in a fit of laughter.

It was a fast friendship, and they got along better than most. They challenged each other where school was concerned and in their everyday lives. They held each other accountable and moved through the semesters at NYU with grace and determination. They dated a few people while at college, but nothing serious. They chalked up the good and bad experiences to life lessons and kept their private lives relatively separate from whatever they had.

When Jagger's dad decided to run off to Arizona at the end of his senior year to pursue his new female obsession with his younger brother, he'd asked his son to run his bar for the time-being. It wasn't the worst idea, and Jagger was thankful he could take the apartment upstairs and say farewell to living on campus. The only problem was that he'd have to move back to New Jersey and that he would be short-staffed with his dad and brother gone. Only a few people felt comfortable working at the Serpent Pit and dealing with the fights and gangs it brought in, so most of the staff included locals or members of the Renegade Rebels, which Jagger was a part of, or the children of them.

When Jagger told Sadie about his situation, she immediately offered her help.

It was an easy decision. Sadie's mother lived in New Jersey and ran the local paper there. She'd told Jagger about it being a good opportunity for her to hone her editing skills working for her family before stepping out into the big bad world in a year or two. It was another thing they learned they had in common - growing up in the same town. It never bothered them that she was born on the right side of the tracks and he was from the wrong side. Sadie blew into the Serpent Pit and cleaned the place up, literally and figuratively. Having a pretty blonde from the suburbs of North Ward in Newark brought in a mixed crowd and more business. She mostly bartended with Jagger during the evenings after helping out her mom at The Upside Scoop, but on occasion, she would audition dancers for the weekend shifts, helping them learn some basic pole dance moves and how to handle themselves around the men who may have had a few too many.

"Jagger, you got a minute?" Sadie's voice cut through the noise and in turn, his memories. She waved him over, tapping her pen on the papers.

"What's up?" He leaned on the bar across from her, trying not to get distracted by a loose strand of blonde hair that curled against her cheek.

Sadie pointed out a few items on the schedule, clarifying when certain deliveries were expected and asking if he could get Gremlin to cover a shift later that week. Jagger nodded along, the familiar cadence of her voice washing over him. But he found himself zoning out, enraptured by the way her green eyes sparkled when she laughed, and the curve of her lips as she spoke.

"Jagger? Did you hear me?" Sadie asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure thing," Jagger mumbled, shaking himself out of his daze.

Sadie gave him a confused smile and went back to her paperwork, mumbling that they needed to hire more dancers soon.

“What was that?” He asked, the music of Fall Out Boy too loud to hear what she said.

“We need to post auditions again. I only have a few girls on the schedule this week and we should have a dozen in rotation.”

Jagger sighed and glanced at the papers in front of her. “We could just… not have dancers. Put in another pool table or something.”

Jagger had wanted to do without the dancers and take the pole down since he got the keys to the place. He wanted to avoid the headache of needing to keep bouncers in the club at all times, but Sadie kept having to remind him it would be a wrong business move.

"The girls keep the men calm, Jag," she explained, gesturing with her hand towards a group of men who were playing pool together and hooting at one of the regular dancers.

The young brunette girl was distracting a burly man from the fact that he'd just scratched on the 8-ball. His curses were caught in his throat as she shimmied in his direction, flashing him a pretty smile and a wink.

Jagger pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes for a second. He knew she was right. "Fine, but you have to handle the auditions on your own this time. I'll pay you extra for it, it's just that I don't feel comfortable sizing these girls up. Makes me feel like a creep," he shrugged as Sadie laughed.

"You don't have to pay me extra, Jag. I'm happy to help. Just let me use the pole sometimes after work. I don't get much time to run to the gym, so I'd like to do some dancing when we close."

"Just some extra time here?"

Sadie nodded as she sorted through the papers on the bar top, organizing them in a neat little pile.

Jagger tried not to think of Sadie, scantily clad, playing around on the pole after the bar was cleared out. "Why do I think you've already been doing that, Sadie?" He smirked at her, and she looked up from her reading to give him a mischievous grin.

"What the boss doesn't know, won't kill him," she said and felt intense satisfaction at the groan he made when she held the papers up between them as a makeshift barrier. She loved to tease him and had years of practice to know how to get under his skin. When she flashed him a flirty wink over them he snatched the paperwork from her hands and started making his way towards the office in the back.

"Not true, Sweets!" Jagger yelled over his shoulder as he unlocked the door to the office.

"That mental image is definitely going to kill me," he whispered to himself as he rushed in, closing the door behind him quickly before she could tell by the shape of his pants how much his body was responding to his thoughts. Fuck. You'd think he'd be over this little infatuation after all these years, but here he was. A fucking embarrassment, adjusting himself like he had just heard about porn for the first time.

Jagger tossed the schedule onto his desk and rubbed a hand over his face tiredly before sitting in his oversized leather desk chair and propping his feet on the ledge. The material was warm when he reached into his black leather jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of Camel Menthols. He lit one and inhaled deeply as he leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. Jagger wasn't sure when he developed feelings for his female counterpart, although part of him felt like they'd always been there. He simply assumed that part of him knew better than to act on them and ruin anything and just kept hoping that part would continue to make the right call.

Sadie was also in a steady relationship right now, the first one since he'd met her.

When they returned home to New Jersey, her mom had set her up on a blind date with a nice guy named Travis Colm. He coached the Central High Fox's football team and was great at it. He was an excellent cook. Full of charm and charisma, Travis had a tall, athletic build that filled out his tanned frame and accentuated his short blonde hair and hazel eyes. He always helped out at school events. It seemed Travis was more than capable at everything.

Except for pleasing Sadie, Jagger would come to find out.