Chapter 1

“One more shot, please,” I announce to the bartender behind the booth, shifting my wineglass close to him as he pours me a round of their best tequila shots.

“You’re on the sixth, you know,” I hear the bartender say as I take a sip of the liquor which has the taste of goodness. He’s watching me with those inquisitive eyes of his and I put down the glass to gaze properly at him.

I manage to nod. “I know,”

“Did you come with anyone?”

It takes me a while before I respond, “I came alone,” I tell him. And he just nods once before he moves away to attend to a new customer.

My eyes are blurry as I try to keep up with the happenings around me. I first take a look at the flat screen mounted atop the collection of drinks behind the booth. Showing on the flat screen was a game of football that totally uninterested me as I look away quickly to gaze around the bar.

I catch sight of couples sitting together — most of them I would call friends — and getting down with beers and other condiments to top on it. As they were mostly men, their interest was more on the TV than the drinks they came here to have.

Soft music was blazing out of a jukebox. Would have been enough to get me in the mood but the noise coming from the flat screen, coupled with the murmurs of some supposed analyzers overshadowed it.

It was a tiring attempt to keep up. And I had to stop because I was starting to feel dizzy. The liquor was taking its effect on me already.

Today wasn’t my day. I started it off with expectations and at the end of the day, I’m right here in a bar on a mission to waste myself.

I feel a presence close to him. And then I find myself turning my head to the side to see a man standing just next to me. Perhaps it's just the alcohol but I can feel myself being overwhelmed by the man’s presence.

I’m a bit tipsy to make out most of his features but I can tell how nice of a physique he has in that gray T-shirt of his that hugs tightly to his chest. And his face, I could probably say it was just about right with the nicely shaped beards running down his face.

“Do you mind if I sit?” his sultry voice gets to my hearing. And that was enough to tense me up in a good way. It’s the tequila. It surely is the tequila.

I try not to let that get into me. So I say to the stranger, “It’s a free world,”

I watch as he sits on the barstool next to mine. He then places his bulging arm on the counter which almost felt like an attempt to tease me.

I look up at his face to see him staring at me like he has something to say. Perhaps he does, but it didn’t change the fact that his gaze on me was intoxicating.

What is wrong with you, Hailey? I scold myself inwardly.

“I can see that you’ve had quite a lot to drink,” the stranger’s voice brings me back to reality. However, his statement does not sit too well with me.

What I do first is to pick up my wineglass, and while staring at the stranger, I down the whole content. “Is that a crime?” I ask him, my brows squinted at him.

He produces a slight smirk on his face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Talk about what?” I wonder, pushing the glass to the front as I signal for the bartender to get me another shot.

“About why you’ve had so much to drink,”

I give him a once-over and then shift my attention to the booth. The bartender has already arrived to pour me another round and just as he is about to leave, he is stopped by the stranger.

“Scotch for me,” the man tells the bartender.

“Coming right away,” and the bartender leaves to go take his order.

It wasn’t until the bartender arrived with his drink did the man decided to say something to me again. “I’m guessing you must have had a bad day,” he says. And it just about sums everything up for me.

“And how would you know that?” I ask, staring right at him with an observant gaze.

“Because I feel we both have that in common,”

My interest is piqued immediately. “You also had a bad day?” my voice is filled with supposed excitement. Maybe it was because I felt great that someone else might just understand how I feel tonight.

“I did, unfortunately,” his voice is a little sad when he speaks. “So it means you did too, right?”

“Yeah,” and I look away from him. I grip my wineglass, feeling hesitant to even take a sip from it.

“My guess was right then because I thought why else would a beautiful lady like you be in a bar if not because of a day gone wrong?”

I giggle sheepishly — blame the tequila. “Don’t flatter me. I’m not beautiful,”

“I like your modesty,” he says. “But it still doesn’t change how beautiful you are,”

“Thank you,”

“What about me? Don’t I get a compliment?”

I roll my eyes before looking at him with a twitch of nonchalance on my face. “You’re not bad either. Happy now?”

“Doesn’t feel too right but I’ll consider it,”

I smile and then shift my gaze back to my wineglass. Although I am not in the best of mood, this stranger has just managed to improve my mood. But I can’t seem to take the thought of today away from my head.

“I lost out on a potential deal,”

I thought I heard the stranger say something to me so I face him. “What?” I quiz.

He isn’t staring at me. But then he does, perhaps after realizing that my gaze is on him. “I lost out on a deal. That’s what ruined my day,”

“Oh,” I say, coming to a realization.

“That deal would have been enough to secure my position in the company I work for. But I lost it to a rival company. Talk about the sleepless nights I had to ensure I get the job done,”

The distress in his tone has me worried for him. Strangely, I can feel this much pity for a stranger. But the human part of me cannot take it to see a fellow human in such distress.

“Sorry,” I tell him when I see him close his eyes for a while.

He opens them and gives me a simple smile. “I’m fine,” he says. “So, are you going to tell me what ruined your day?”

“I was fired from my job.” I do not even attempt to sugar quote the words. I just said it as it is.

“Woah, what happened?”

I shrug. “Maybe I wasn’t good enough for the company,”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because why else would they let me off if it isn’t that they do not deem me fit?”

“Hmph,” the stranger hums and then reaches for his untouched drink which he immediately downs in one gulp. “Are you sure there isn’t more to it?”

“I wish there was. I could have used it against the company, at least to make me feel better.”

“I feel sorry that you have to go through such an ordeal. No one deserves to be treated that way.”

I close my eyes as I let his words go through me. It was a bit of comfort because they did complete the notion that I should be treated better than this. Especially for a company that I put my head in for the past two years.

I start to say, “I thought coming here would make me feel better. But I guess I was wrong,” And I couple that with a sip of my tequila.

“Alcohol never makes one better in my opinion. It just takes out whatever worry one has for one night. And by the next morning, you are back to that problem which you left unsolved,”

“Goal!!!!” the whole bar instantly erupts with such a loud noise and I look at the TV to realize the reason for the sudden eruption. Won’t lie, it startled me.

“Do you also like football?” I ask the man who I look in his direction to see his eyes fixated on the flat screen.

He looks at me. “I am among the five percent of men that like nothing about sports,”

“But you seemed so interested that I would have sworn that you loved football,” I admit what I thought about him initially. I do not leave it there, though. “You sure you do not like sports? Let’s talk about your physique for a minute. It looks like a body that belongs to a sportsman,”

The man smirks. “It’s natural,” he tells me. But I give him the look to tell him how bad of a liar he is. “Okay, I might have gone through some exercises here and there but it doesn’t make me a sportsman. I only need to keep fit,”

I nod. And just as I am about to take my eyes off him, I notice him use his tongue to stylishly lick his lower lip. And for a moment, it has me mesmerized that I cannot seem to take my eyes off the movement of his tongue.

Okay, I’m totally buzzed. I shouldn’t be doing what I just did. So I decided to take my eyes off his lips to stare right into his eyes. His orbs seem to glow like a crescent. I don’t know what I’m thinking but I know they looked unique. It could be the colors from the LED lights in the bar that were causing such reflection in his eyes.

“I’ve got an idea,” I hear him say. But I hope he is not thinking what I think he is thinking.

“What is it?” I ask, curiosity taking a hold of my intuition.

“A perfect idea to make the night better for both of us,”

“Okay?”

And instead of getting a response, what I get is the pressing of soft lips on mine... by a total stranger!