by J. Sterling
Everyone knew Grant and Mariana had been inseparable since they’d met, but nobody ever said anything to their faces. Instead, we all commented on it and tried to figure out their situation behind their backs.
“Fine. Are you two dating? Together? What is it that old people do?”
He cast me a look I couldn’t quite read as he took a long swig of his beer. “I’ll only say this once, so listen up. My wife was the love of my life. The love of my life,” he repeated. “And I know that she wouldn’t want me to get remarried. She was a jealous old bat, and she’d turn over in her grave if I even thought about it. But she would have wanted me to be happy and have good company. That’s what I’ve found with Mariana, and I believe that’s what she’s found with me. It’s better than being alone, I’ll tell you that much.”
“How do you even get her to want to spend time with you? Are you actually nice to her?” I teased, knowing I was poking the bear.
Grant harrumphed. “I’m charming, and you know it. It’s why you look up to me. One day, maybe you’ll learn a thing or two from the master.”
I pretended to choke on my drink. “The master? The second you start teaching classes, I’ll be the first to sign up.”
“You’d be wise to,” he said as he walked away, a beer in each hand.
The old man was crazy, but he was right. I did sort of look up to him, and he knew it.
Elephant in the Room
Ryan
After I’d poured three beers and made five cocktails, the bar patrons seemed content.
Frank worked beside me, finishing making drinks for a couple of girls. He hadn’t spent more than five minutes in the office these past few weeks. He’d been on the floor, making drinks, closing tabs, and helping out like he did when we first took over the business.
Nick wiped his hands on a towel as he made his way to the end of the bar, away from customers and prying ears. Frank and I followed his lead, knowing we needed to talk about the elephant in the room.
Personally, I was glad that Frank’s wedding was over. It wasn’t that I wasn’t happy for my brother, but we needed to focus on the bar situation, and the wedding had been a distraction. A great distraction, of course, but a distraction nonetheless.
Frank twisted the wedding ring on his finger, and I wondered if I’d ever get used to seeing it there.
“Does it bug you?” I asked.
He glanced down at his left hand. “Nah, I’m just not used to anything on my finger. And it’s heavy.”
“I bet it wouldn’t be too heavy for Farnk.”
I grinned at him, unable to help myself. The mistake with his name was way too fucking golden to let go and never bring up again. So far, he hadn’t noticed the one welcome card that I’d tacked up on the wall of the office. Or maybe he had? I hadn’t been in there yet today.
“Joke’s old,” he said, trying to sound threatening, but I wasn’t biting.
“It just started,” I said. “It can’t be old already.”
“Are you two done?” Nick asked, and we both shot him a murderous glare. “We have shit to talk about.”
“You’re right,” I said, putting on my serious face.
Nick glanced at Frank. “I’m really glad you’re not on your honeymoon right now.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. I’d given Frank so much shit over it initially, telling him it was tradition to leave right away. But now, I thanked God that Claudia’s family decided to stay in town longer and extend their vacation, so Frank and Claudia had delayed their honeymoon.
“I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy myself, and Claudia would have killed me for ruining our honeymoon.” Frank ran a hand through his dark hair. “She still doesn’t know this is even going on.”
“Jess doesn’t either.”
I shook my head. “I haven’t said a word to Sofia.”
The door opened, and three women walked in wearing too-white smiles that widened when they caught sight of the three of us in the corner. They looked almost identical with their bleached-blond hair, unnatural tans, and matching outfits.
The triplets made their way toward us, despite my silent pleas begging them to stay away. My brothers and I still needed to talk, and unless we went into the office, we couldn’t have any privacy. And there was no way we were leaving the bar unattended.
The women sat down and grabbed three menus from the bar top, perusing them.
“I’ll be with you ladies in a minute.” I gave them a smile and they all nodded so fast, I thought their heads might fall off their shoulders.
I turned toward Frank and Nick again, tightening our huddle and keeping our voices low. “We need to figure out what the hell is going on with that deed. Still no word from the courthouse on any updated ownership?” I looked at Frank, and he shook his head.
“No, but our lawyer says that we can slow down the takeover with a bunch of legalities, considering we truly thought we were purchasing the land and we’ve been paying taxes on it. But that’s all it most likely would be. A stall to buy us more time.”
“More time would be good,” Nick said, his voice hopeful. “I don’t understand how we don’t have any rights if Sam thought he sold us the land, we had a land deed authorized, and we’ve been paying taxes on it. How do we not have a case?”
I nodded. “He makes a good point.”
“There’s a chance we could fight this, but it might ending up taking a really long time. We’d probably have to close the bar while we were in litigation, and winning isn’t a guarantee,” Frank said, sounding defeated.
“More time would be good,” I said. “But I guess not if the bar had to be closed.”
“And if we’re probably going to lose out in the end, what difference does more time make?” Frank held up a hand as both Nick and I opened our mouths to argue the point. “I’m just being realistic. It’s going to buy us more time to do what? If we have to leave Sam’s and open a new bar somewhere, we’re going to have to do that anyway. Why wait? Why waste any more time than we have to?”
My annoyance dwindled immediately. Frank made a fair point. I had no idea what the right thing to do was. “What did the sale paperwork say exactly?”
“It says we own the bar and the back lot in part one of two sales. Part two was the land purchase. It states that the deed filed is not the original, even though it’s been notarized. It wasn’t uncommon for paperwork to go missing from that time period. We did everything by the book, but it doesn’t matter, not if there’s an original signed deed out there.”
“We’re going to actually read this thing, right? I mean, that guy wouldn’t even let me touch it. What if it’s not real?”
“Fuck yes, we’re reading it.” Frank gave me an exasperated look. “We’re not walking away from our business without solid proof.”
I raised my hands in the air in surrender. “Just making sure.”
“Come on, Ryan. We’re not just taking some asshole’s word for it and handing over the keys.”
“I’m just saying . . . I know we’ve all talked about stepping away from the bar more—”
Nick interrupted me. “We just said that we wanted to stop working every night shift, not lose the bar altogether.”
He was right. I was being emotional. The three of us had talked at length about our futures, what we wanted going forward, and what that meant realistically for the business. We all wanted our own families and lives outside of work, but we also wanted to keep the bar.
“And we’ve already started to do that,” Frank said. “We’re here in the days mostly now, and we hired Max to manage the night shifts. It’s been great.”
“Plus, there’s that second location we’ve always talked about opening,” I said, feeling that prickle of excitement whenever we talked about growing the business.
It was something we talked about all the time in the beginning, but our vision changed as our success grew and we met the girls. None of us wanted to have to physically be at each location we opened for
it to succeed. At this point, we figured that our name alone would make the business a success, but even that assumption came with risks.
“Let’s worry about this location first before we even contemplate another,” Frank said, bringing me back to reality.
“Excuse me.” The woman’s voice cut through our pow-wow, and we all turned at the same time. “We know what we want.” She placed the menus down and pushed them away.
I pasted on a smile and approached the smiling group. “Are you sisters?”
They giggled. “No, but we get that a lot.”
“You look a lot alike,” I said, somewhat fascinated by their almost identical features.
“We have the same plastic surgeon,” Triplet Number Two said, and I stopped myself from asking any more questions I truly didn’t care about the answers to.
“All right. Well, what can I get you ladies?”
“Can we get three Happy Endings?”
I couldn’t help but smile at their drink choice. It was my newest creation, and I knew they’d love it. Everyone who had tried it so far couldn’t stop at one.
Triplet Number Three spoke for the first time since they’d come in. “Is it really purple? I mean, it says purple gin on the menu, but is the gin purple or is that just the name?”
“It’s really purple. You’ll love it.” I gave them a wink and turned to grab the ingredients.
After mixing purple gin with fresh-squeezed lime juice and soda, I swirled each glass and then garnished it with a small flower. When I handed them their drinks, they all oohed and aahed at how pretty they were, and then pulled out their phones to take pictures to post on social media.
The cell phone shit used to annoy me, but Nick changed my way of thinking. Encouraging posts on social media that tagged our bar was good for business, helping to get the word out whenever we created something new. It was free publicity, easy and effortless.
I stood in front of the girls until they tried their drinks, wanting to see their reactions. After they sipped, their eyes met mine.
“Good?” I asked, even though I knew how good the cocktail was.
“It’s delicious.” Triplet Number Three hummed her appreciation and took another sip.
“So light and refreshing,” Triplet Number One added.
“I didn’t even know I liked gin,” Number Three said, and I laughed. I’d heard that more than a handful of times since I started making this particular drink.
“I’ll start a tab for you ladies.” I picked up the credit card one of them had placed on top of the bar and tucked it in a glass near the register.
Business picked up, which meant our ability to talk privately was pretty much over for the night. I noticed Frank still standing in the same place where I’d left him. I wandered over, about to give him shit for not doing something useful, when Nick joined us.
“So, I was thinking,” Nick said, then stopped short. His brow furrowed like he was deep in thought as Frank and I waited for him to continue. “If we’re going to lose this location, I kind of want to do something special for Jess here.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I want to propose.”
Nick’s smile took up his whole damn face, and I couldn’t even give him shit for it. He’d had Jess’s ring sitting in the bar safe for almost as long as he’d been working here.
“Here? In the bar?” Frank asked. We used to tease Nick about actually putting the damn thing on her finger, but neither of us ever contemplated that he’d choose the bar as his setting to do it.
“Hell yes, here. It’s where I brought her after formal. It’s where I came to talk to you guys when I almost lost her forever. It’s where we both came back to. This bar holds a lot of memories for us, and I’d like it to hold one more.”
Nick was adamant. He couldn’t be talked out of this idea, not that I planned on trying.
“Okay, when?” I asked.
“The day before the deadline.”
Frank coughed and slapped his chest. “That’s in five days. Seriously? Of all the days, you want to do it then?”
“What difference does it make? Plus, it’s Jess’s birthday.” Nick shrugged, and we had nothing to say back. Truthfully, it made no difference.
“We’re in.” Frank gave our youngest brother a small grin, and I slapped him on the back in congratulations.
“Excuse me?” the triplets sang out in unison. “Can we get three more Happy Endings?”
I turned toward them, surprised they’d polished off their first round so quickly. A few more of those at that rate, and the girls would need to be carried out.
I went to work making the drink that I’d created with my brothers and me in mind. It was supposed to represent the love that we’d found and the happiness we had in our lives. But I was starting to worry that maybe I’d inadvertently made a drink that represented the end of our bar and our life as we knew it.
A Happy Ending indeed. Maybe I should have named it Happy Days instead.
One Last Surprise
Ryan
I taped the laser-printed sign to the front door of Sam’s that said we were closed for a private event and would reopen to the public at eight p.m. Hoping it wouldn’t blow away with the ocean breeze, I slapped on one more piece of adhesive, just to be sure.
In less than twenty-four hours, we would potentially lose the bar and everything we’d worked so hard to create. I knew the three of us were thinking the exact same thing, but we did our best to hide it.
Today was a celebration, and Nick had been right. If we were going to walk away from this place, we might as well have one last amazing memory made inside these walls.
Nick had invited all of our families and a handful of our friends here for Jess’s birthday celebration. He left out the majority of her coworkers, telling us that there was a difference between Jess’s friends in the office and her real-life ones. It made perfect sense to me, but as usual, Frank complained. I think he just wanted something to take his frustrations out on because his argument had been less than logical.
“Door locked?” Frank asked a few moments later as he joined me behind the bar.
“Yep.” I looked over and watched as Nick wrapped an arm around Jess and pulled her in for a kiss.
I’d never seen them fight, which was saying a lot because of their age. Younger couples tended to argue over stupid shit, petty jealousy and whatnot, but not those two. It seemed like what they went through in their past was enough for both of them to stay appreciative and respectful of one another. They were so completely comfortable in each other’s presence, it put everyone else at ease. That’s how solid they were.
“We have a lot of family now,” Frank said, giving me a meaningful look.
I surveyed the room again, this time paying more attention. It was filled with mostly extended family . . . from Sofia and Claudia’s parents to Grant and Mariana. Our small Fisher clan had grown exponentially once we added the girls to it. It felt good. Right.
“I like it.”
“Me too.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder.
I searched for Sofia, spotting her off to the side in a yellow sundress that hugged her perfect curves, holding Hope. Matson, as usual, was practically glued to Jess’s side. You had to hand it to the kid; he was loyal. He had drawn Jess a birthday picture earlier that he was excited to give her. I couldn’t wait to see Nick’s face when he realized that the prince in the picture was Matson, and the dragon had Nick’s features. I laughed softly just thinking about it.
“Why do you have to ruin every moment by turning into such a girl?” Frank groaned. “What are you even laughing at, anyway?”
I rolled my eyes, which I knew would only irritate him more. “You’ll see later. Go annoy your wife, and let me make everyone some drinks.”
When he begrudgingly left me alone, I went to work making a tray full of Happy Endings and a few No Bad Days. Slipping out from behind the bar, I made my way through the crowd to distribute the drinks
.
Claudia’s best friend, Britney, stopped me first. “What’s the purple one?”
“It’s gin, soda, and lime. You’ll like it.”
“What’s it called?” She grinned at me as she reached for a glass.
“Happy Ending.”
“Well, isn’t that just fitting,” she teased.
I played dumb. “How do you mean?”
“I never thought you’d top Adios Pantalones, but then you go and name your next creation Happy Ending? You little perv.”
“It’s not my fault your mind’s always in the gutter, Brit.”
“I bet I’m not the only one.” She smirked and took a sip. “Crap. This is good.”
Grinning, I moved through our family and friends, tapping them on the shoulder to offer up drinks. I reached Rachel, Jess’s best friend, with only one cocktail left on my tray.
“I wanted one of the purple ones,” she said with a whine.
“I’ll go make you one,” I said, and her face instantly broke out into a huge smile.
“Thank you. But in the meantime, I’ll take this while I’m waiting.”
Britney reached for the last No Bad Days and took a giant gulp like it was filled with juice instead of premium vodka. I started to warn her to slow down, or maybe not to mix liquors, but stopped myself.
“It’s adorable the way Matson loves Jess.” She motioned toward him, and my gaze followed. He was still glued to Jess’s side, and she had her arm wrapped around his shoulders.
“He’s been obsessed with her since the minute he first saw her.”
“Must run in the family.” Britney nudged my body with her hip, and my heart swelled at her words. I often forgot that Matson wasn’t my flesh and blood. It was nice hearing that someone else did too.
“I’ll be back with your drink, slave driver,” I teased, then headed toward my beautiful angel.
“Hi, baby,” Sofia said as I bent down to give her a long-overdue kiss.
“How are my two angels doing?” I placed a gentle kiss on top of Hope’s head.
I’d been concerned at first that Hope barely had any hair, and but Sofia acted like it was totally normal. It took a few days, but she finally convinced me that the baby’s hair would eventually grow in and she wouldn’t be bald forever.