Page 6 of Sunflower Persona (Classic City Romance #2)

Gage

S aturday nights always bring in the largest crowds, and tonight is the rowdiest it’s been since the semester started last week.

Rowdy is good—it means there are customers.

With any luck, the tips will be enough to cover what I spent on a tow truck this afternoon, with enough left over to stock the fridge.

As long as no other unforeseen expenses pop up, I should be on track to make rent next month.

Especially with the new job.

I’ll have to make some concessions on sleep, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

My body acts on autopilot as I serve drink after drink to the never-ending line. In my head, I’m tallying each tip as it gets added to the jar. The take is good, but nowhere close to what I need.

“Fuck, man, the chick I told you about yesterday is back.”

The shaker bottle nearly slips through my fingers as Nathan’s voice yanks me out of my head.

“What chick?” Karis’s spine stiffens to attention as she scans the room with a predatory smile.

Just great. The last thing I need is these two competing for who is the biggest idiot tonight. Where is Morgan when I need him? At least one of my friends has some sense when he isn’t too busy getting his dick wet.

“Her. The one in yellow.”

That one word has my head snapping toward the door.

What the fuck is she doing here again? And what the fuck are my friends doing checking her out?

The muscles in my jaw clench as I resist the urge to knock them both upside the head for the way they’re leering at her. Nathan takes a step in her direction, but that’s as far as he gets before I catch him by the collar and pull him back to the bar.

“Leave her alone.” The harsh growl in my voice is a shock even to me.

“All right, spill. Who is she?” Karis asks.

Goddamnit. She’s never going to let this go.

“She’s no one.”

“If she’s no one, then you’ll have no issues with me going over to talk with her?” From his smirk, I think Nathan is enjoying this a little too much.

My fingers tighten in the rough fabric as my jaw clenches again.

I couldn’t explain the reaction if I tried.

This woman is no one to me—that wasn’t a lie—but she sure as hell isn’t going to be someone to him either.

She deserves better than that. My friend wouldn’t care that she’s clearly out of her element and desperate for connection.

He would treat her like any other woman in here, not thinking twice about how his actions might hurt her.

I would hate to see her bubbly optimism fade.

“I don’t know her well. We’ve only talked a few times. What I do know is she is too good for your sorry ass. So you are going to leave her alone.”

“But I have a chance, right?” Karis asks.

“No. We are all going to leave her alone.”

The last thing she needs is our bullshit in her life.

“Fine. Are we supposed to ignore her if she tries to talk to us?” His smirk only grows wider.

“No,” I say with a frustrated growl.

“So what can we do?” Karis asks. “I need answers now because she is heading this way.”

As if it burned me, I release my grip on my friend’s collar and try to smooth away the nonexistent wrinkles on my shirt.

Dark patches of spilled liquor stain the fabric, but I can’t do anything to fix that.

At least the black cloth hides the worst of it.

Karis snickers, but I ignore her. My attention is fixed on the woman making her way toward me with as much bravado as a fawn crossing a street.

It’s so different from the confident way she approached me this morning. God, I was such an ass to her. I don’t blame her for being hesitant. She didn’t deserve one ounce of my attitude earlier.

“Hi, Gage.” She mumbles the words at the ground while twisting a long braid between her fingers in front of her chest.

What’s her name again? Fuck, she’s told me it at least twice now, but it didn’t stick. It starts with a K…I think. Krista? Kari, maybe? Fuck. I’m an even bigger piece of shit than I thought. My apology won’t mean shit if I screw up her name while making it.

“Hey…Yellow.” I cringe as soon as the words pass my lips.

The snort of laughter from my friends confirms it sounded just as bad outside of my head.

“How’s the job hunt going?” Her eyes never leave her worrying hands.

“Pretty good, actually. I’m starting at the Bean Bar in the morning.”

That drags her attention from the floor.

As her gaze meets mine, she smiles, and a sharp pang flashes through my chest. For a moment, I’m captivated.

Dark ridges add depth to those russet pools, making it look as though her eyes are made up of miniature mountains.

The spell breaks as she blinks and diverts her focus to something over my shoulder.

“That’s great news. I’m glad everything worked out for you.” She bites on her lip and resumes her fidgeting.

It takes everything in me not to grab those nervous fingers and still them with my own. She shouldn’t be scared of me—she wasn’t before. No, I fucked that one up by treating her like shit.

“I’m sorry I was short with you earlier.”

An apology won’t fix things. Hell, I don’t deserve her forgiveness.

“Don’t worry about it. You were busy, and I came up and started bothering you out of nowhere. Kind of like I’m doing now…” Her face twists into a grimace as she bites on her lip again. “I’m sorry. I’ll just go.”

“Wait.” I grab her hand, stopping her before she can flee.

Electric currents dance along my palm where our skin meets, and I yank my hand away in shock. With a quiet gasp, she turns back around, and her chest heaves. The classic rock and din of chatter fade into a buzz in the background. All that exists is me and her.

I really need to learn her name .

“Don’t leave us hanging. Why is she waiting?” Karis’s snark-filled words shatter the moment.

As Nathan chuckles beside her, Yellow stiffens.

Her face falls as she looks between my friends with wide-eyed panic.

There’s no salvaging this—at least not tonight.

Goddamn, they are awful sometimes. She takes a step back, ready to flee, so I blurt out the only thing I can think of to make her stay.

“Let me make you a drink. On the house.”

“No, thanks. I’m going to go now,” she says with about as much conviction as a field mouse.

Shit .

This time I don’t stop her as she beelines out of the bar. All that would do is make her more uncomfortable. Another pang shoots through my chest. When I saw her before, her awkward aura was still cheerful and bubbly—like a sunflower—but today, her bright charm has all but wilted away.

I did that, and now I need to find a way to make it right.

“Yellow?” Nathan questions as soon as the woman is out of earshot.

Unfortunately, he was on his best behavior when she was here. He doubles over as his whole body shakes with laughter.

“You don’t know her name, do you?” Karis asks with a shit-eating grin.

“No,” I admit with a defeated sigh.

“But you like her?”

“No.” The lie comes out far too quickly to be believable.

“Sure. You take the time to talk to all the lost little ducks that waddle their way up to the counter. That’s definitely something I’ve seen you do before.”

“Gage? Friendly?” Nathan gasps out before falling into another fit of laughter.

“I don’t not like her”—I hold my hand up to stop whatever comment my friend is about to make—“but I’m not into her. She’s practically a kid. It would be beyond weird if I saw her like that. I don’t want to see her get hurt, that’s all.”

Calling her a kid puts a sour taste in my mouth.

It’s clear that woman isn’t a child, but she’s still only twenty-one.

A thirteen-year age gap is practically the same thing.

I’m already the creepy old guy who hangs out with college students.

It’s not hard to imagine what people would say if I got involved with one.

“Keep telling yourself that. So what are you going to do about her?” she asks.

“Nothing.”

There is nothing to be done. If I see her again, I’ll apologize for my friends’ shitty behavior and move on with my life. I don’t have time to take in another stray. My crew keeps me in enough trouble as it is.

Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to her. At one point or another, all of my friends were outsiders who were struggling to find their place.

Yellow reminds me of them. If everything wasn’t so fucked right now, I might have been more willing to invite her into the fold.

I think she might just fit. But things are fucked, so that won’t be happening anytime soon.

“Nothing?” Karis asks, raising a brow.

“Yup. I have too much going on to worry about a lost girl.”

“Fair enough. Speaking of, do you need me to give you a ride home tonight?”

“Nah, I’ll get a rideshare. Can’t keep asking you to cart me around.”

“Sure you can. You know I don’t mind.”

I wave off her concern with a grunt. The last thing I want is her charity. Plus, it’s not like I intend to go home tonight, anyway.

Our conversation ends there. The next wave of demanding students crashes against the bar, and it doesn’t stop coming until it’s time to lock up. At some point, Nathan leaves with a random woman, and Karis dips out not too long after.

Herding the last drunken customer out into the streets takes longer than it should. The air is buzzing with more chaotic energy than normal—likely the result of the city coming to life for the first time after lying dormant for several months. No one is ready to go home yet.

As soon as I turn the lock, I spring into my end-of-shift routine with more haste than normal. Every second wasted is sleep I’m losing. My urgent energy is enough to keep the gloom at bay for now, but I can feel its icy tendrils creeping into the corners of my mind.

The only task I take my time on is tallying tips. Each dollar counted is a chip off the mountain on my shoulders.

It’s enough.

Not a lot, but enough that I’m able to breathe a little easier.

In an instant, all the adrenaline drains from my bloodstream, replaced with overwhelming fatigue. My energy plummets like a kite without a breeze. It takes more effort than I’d like to admit to finish closing down. At least my head is too foggy to focus on the gloom.

With cement feet, I drag myself out of the bar. Things have calmed down. The air is quiet enough that I’ll likely be able to get a few hours of sleep.

I was lying when I told Karis I would get a rideshare.

Money or not, I don’t see the point in trying to get home, only to have to be back in less than three hours to open at the Bean Bar.

There are more than enough places to crash around campus in a pinch.

I should go to the learning center and find a couch there, but the walk is farther than my dead feet can carry me.

The empty fields on the edge of North Campus are as far as I get.

Karis would kick my ass if she knew I was doing this, but what she doesn’t know won’t kill her. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to rough it on the streets. Hell, one night is nothing compared to some stints I’ve done before.

To my tired body, the grass is as comforting as any bed would be, and within minutes, I start to drift to sleep. My focus should be on my surroundings—there’s always the risk someone tries something, regardless of what I look like—but my every thought drifts back to Yellow.

I bet if she saw me like this, she would pretend she never met me. I’m so far below her level, she shouldn’t even be talking to me. She is the brightest of blooms, and I’m nothing but dirt beneath her roots. My bullshit is already tainting her bright aura; if I let her in, I might ruin it for good.