Page 146 of Stay With Me

Her glass was empty. Convenient.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

She hesitated before answering. “Sure. Cape Cod, double tall.”

Sammie had that on our first date.

He remained outwardly unfazed and placed the order.

Leah sipped the drink and stirred it, sitting perched on a stool while Nick leaned against the bar wearing the most pleasant and attentive expression he could muster.

“So, Nick. What do you do?”

“I uh…” He cleared his throat and adjusted his jacket. “I own a restaurant.”

“Oh yeah? Which one?”

“Chapman’s. It’s on three-sixty overlooking the bridge.”

Leah narrowed her eyes, giving him a funny look. “Oh yeah. Yeah, I know that place.”

“Oh really? Have you been in before?”

Leah seemed to take a long sip. “Yeah, I’ve been in before. Over the summer.”

She paused as she continued to give him an odd look.

“So you own the place, huh?” she asked him. “Do you ever wait tables?”

His gaze shifted. “Yes, actually I have. In the past.”

She pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes again. “I’m pretty sure you waited on me.”

He managed to keep a neutral expression on his face. “I did?”

“Yeah. I was trying to place where I’d seen you before, but that’s definitely it.” She paused to laugh. “It’s all right if you don’t remember.”

“No, I do,” he said quickly. He did remember, now that he thought about it. Thin girl; late twenties; long, stick-straight blonde hair. She was the last one before Sammie.

What a fucking coincidence. It’s like the stars aligned perfectly to throw in his face what a piece of shit he’d been his whole adult life and remind him of exactly what he’d lost as a result.

“Well, this is a little awkward,” Leah went on with a small chuckle. “Just so you know, I’d never done anything like that before.”

Of course you didn’t.

She lifted her eyebrows. “Had you?”

“Uhh.” He drew in his breath deeply, deciding he wasn’t going to lie to her or anyone. After all, he was different. And he’d continue to be different, even though it wouldn’t necessarily give him what he wanted so badly.

“Yeah,” he finally said. “Yeah, I’d done that before. And I did it after that, too. I wasn’t a good person so if that, um … experience hurt you in any way, I’m really sorry. I was kind of a piece of shit.”

She laughed and patted his hand. “Don’t worry, Nick. It didn’t. I’m a big girl and I know it takes two to, you know, tango.”

He gave her a genuine smile, and she shot back another funny glance.

“For the record,” she inserted. “Just because that happened once, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tonight.”

“Oh no, I wasn’t,” he sputtered, flustered all of a sudden. He gestured at the drink. “That’s not what I’m, like, trying to do. I just, you know … your glass was empty so—”