The Man Cave Collection: Manservant, Man Flu, Man Handler, and Man Buns

by Ryan, Shari J.

  Sterling returns with his hands folded behind his back in true waiter fashion. “So, what can I get for you two lovely ladies?” The smile returns and it makes my chest tighten. No. Just no.

  One look into Sterling’s turquoise eyes, and I seem to have forgotten what I was going to order. I lift the menu back up and drag my finger down the center of the list until I remember I wanted the coconut shrimp. How could I forget that? “I’ll have—“

  “Great choice,” he says before I have a chance to finish my sentence. I am pointing at the menu item and he is looking directly at me. “It’s all fresh catch around here, so it’ll be the best coconut shrimp you’ve ever had. I can guarantee you.”

  I see Jade out of my peripheral, looking between Sterling and me like a teenage girl watching Jacob take off his shirt in New Moon. I want to tell her to relax, but I should probably take my own advice first. “I’m sure you’re right,” I tell him. “Especially since I’ve never had coconut shrimp before.”

  “You’re in for a treat,” he tells me.

  “Yeah, she is,” Jade mutters. I elbow her, but miss and accidentally get her in the boob, and of course, she yelps while grabbing her boob as if it were a tiny baby. Jesus, Jade.

  Sterling looks at Jade like she’s crazy. He’s made that accurate assumption very quickly considering he’s now known Jade for a full two minutes.

  After Jade calms down and peels her focus away from her precious boob, she looks up at Sterling with a giddy look in her eyes. “I’ll have what she’s having.” I can’t help but nod at her indirect, not-so-subtle hint to the Harry Met Sally diner scene.

  As if I hadn’t already been charmed enough by Sterling, he replies with, “My twin brother works down the street, if that’ll do.” He’s totally teasing her but she’s eating it up and blushing like a school girl.

  “Twins? Like . . . there’s two of you,” she giggles.

  Sterling looks at me with a raised brow . . . no smile, but his dimples, oh those are ever so present. “So, you see . . . when a woman has two eggs in her uterus—” he begins.

  “I know what twins are,” Jade snaps out of her delirium. “What’s his name?”

  “Cleary,” he says, looking over his shoulder at a shouting request for his services.

  “Well, I’d love to get a clearer look at him, ” Jade jests, nudging me in the shoulder to make sure I picked up on her lame joke.

  “Jade—” I counter.

  “Can I get you two anything else?” Sterling interrupts. The voice calling for a waiter grows louder and angrier.

  “I think we’re good,” I tell him, peering over at the angry man flailing his arm in the air as if he were on fire.

  Sterling walks away, leaving a spell-bound Jade in his dust. “Earth to you,” I tell her. “What is wrong?”

  “He’s fucking hot as hell. Holy shit. This is going to be a good summer.” Thinking back over the past few hours on my self-loathing pity-party for one, Jade obviously has a different idea about how this summer is going to go. I suppose if I were to spend a little more time with Sterling, my summer might be salvaged, but it all depends on Liam’s behavior, and the child I haven’t met yet. The way everyone seems to be tip-toeing around the topic has me more than a little nervous about tomorrow. “Okay, you get him, and I get his twin. Then, we’ll get married, and we’ll live happily ever after, and you know what happens then?”

  “I know, Jade, we’ll finally be sisters, right?”

  “Yes,” she squeals. “All of our dreams will come true!”

  I twist around in my seat to face her profile. Taking her arm off the bar, I force her to turn toward me. “Jade.”

  She wriggles from my grip and places her hands on my cheeks. “Jules. No.”

  “Jade,” I repeat.

  She whines and drops her hands. “Whatttt?”

  The bartender interrupts what I was about to lecture her about. “Can I get you ladies something to drink?”

  “Two dirty beaches,” Jade says without looking away from me.

  “Um, what is that? Because it sounds disgusting.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, you’ll like it. It’s like a dark Russian but with Irish Crème. It just looks like a dirty beach,” she laughs.

  “Here’s a fun fact,” the bartender says. “A Dirty Beach isn’t the real name of the drink. You made that up about three weeks ago when you were here with your friends.” The bartender seems entertained by Jade. Most people are entertained by her flamboyantly ditzy ways. Funny enough, Jade is highly intelligent, definitely smarter than I am in most subjects. She enjoys the attention, though, so this is who she pretends to be. It almost always lands us in a fit of laughter, so I just chalk it up to her personality.

  “Oh,” Jade responds. “Well, you’re welcome. It should be a new drink special here, don’t you think?” She winks at the guy, but he’s already making the drink and not paying much attention to her flirtatious attempts.

  “Yeah, I don’t know,” he says, placing one glass down on a coaster. “I don’t think the sound of a dirty beach will appeal to too many people in this town. Other than yourself, of course.”

  Jade rolls her eyes. “You just don’t know what you’re talking about.” She takes the glass, pinches the straw between her fingers, and takes a long sip through her smiling lips.

  The bartender hands me mine and I follow in suit, trying out this dirty beach drink. It really does sound horrific. However, it is delicious at the same time. “It’s great, thank you,” I tell the bartender.

  “I’ll add it to your bill with Sterling,” he says, while moving down the bar to help the next person.

  “See?” Jade continues. “It’s amazing, right?”

  “Jade,” I pick up where left off before we ordered drinks.

  “No.”

  “Do you think you should be moving on so quickly after everything that happened with Chip. You do know you have to go home at the end of the summer, right?” I place my hand on her forearm, trying to show her I’m being serious. She was madly in love with him and I just . . . I understand everything she admitted to me earlier and it’s completely logical, but how can you shut your heart off like that? Jade has a way of working things up in her head to be a lot worse than they actually are and part of me wonders if she’s psyched herself up about Chip more than she needed to.

  “Yes,” she answers truthfully, “but, it’s either drinking, or distracting myself . . . both are the same, I suppose, but flirting with men is healthier than drinking. Usually.”

  “I just don’t want you to get more hurt than you are, and from what I’ve seen since I arrived, you have also been distracting yourself by drinking. I know you aren’t okay. How could you be?” I look at her hand holding the drink, remembering she remove her ring, making this end sort of more official than I can imagine. “How’s Chip doing?” I wonder if she’s still talking to him.

  She shrugs. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked in a couple of weeks. He was completely understanding when I broke things off, more so than I deserve, but I felt like a coward after that and it has been hard to hear his voice.”

  “Well, hello, party animals,” a voice shouts over the growing chatter in the restaurant.

  “Cale!” Jade flies out of her seat and throws her arms around his neck. As he did last night, Jared looks less than disinterested to be here, but maybe that’s just how he looks all of the time. We exchanged less than a dozen words last night.

  The stool beside me, which is the very last one at the end of the bar squeals against the ground, forcing me to whip my head around. I forgot there was an empty seat there, but it’s right in front of the tap, and I didn’t want to be sitting in front of that all night. It’s Liam, straight faced and miserable looking, which seems to be normal for him. “Long time no see,” I tell him.

  “Mmhm,” he grunts, shooting his hand up, looking for our waiter—Sterling. Liam’s head is bobbing around as he peers over the heads of everyone surrounding us. />
  “I’m sure the waiter will be back in a minute. We ordered about fifteen minutes ago.”

  Liam drops his arm onto the bar and scratches at the back of his head with his other hand. “Okay.”

  “Cheer up,” I tell him. “You’re out of work and at a bar. Don’t look so miserable. You’ll never find a girl that way.” I don’t know why I said that. It’s rude, especially since I don’t know what his dating situation is. I don’t know anything about him at all, actually.

  “Dude!” I look over to where the ‘dude’ is coming from and Sterling’s hand shoots past me to shake Liam’s. No. No. Why? How small is this freaking area? “How’s it going?”

  “Can’t complain,” Liam lies. Right. Who needs to complain when you have misery written all over your face. “Catch any good ones this morning?”

  “Yeah, man, I think we hit a couple of five-footers. It was high-tide and pretty decent.”

  “I was thinking with how windy it was, the swells must have been pretty decent. I’m glad to hear that,” Liam says.

  “You haven’t been in the water all week. What’s up with that?” Sterling asks him. Does Liam surf too?

  “Work has been crazy this week. We have a new grunt and you know how that goes.” No way. He better not be talking about me.

  “Ech,” Sterling groans. “Sorry to hear that. Hopefully this one isn’t as bitchy and stuck up as the last one.” I feel my face heating up as anger rages through me, but I can’t give him what he wants right now. He knows exactly what buttons he’s pressing. I take my drink and slug a few big gulps. Ass. Ass. Ass.

  “I should be there in the morning, though. Will you be there around seven? It’ll give me a good hour at least,” Liam asks.

  “Yeah, seven works.” Sterling gives Liam another handshake and looks down at me. “Your food will be right up.” He winks at me as he turns to leave, and goddammit, my stupid heart needs to stop dropping into the pit of my stomach and flopping around like a fish out of water.

  Liam laughs. “Oh God. You’ve met Sterling, huh?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Watch yourself,” he says. Like I should be taking advice from Liam of all people. Okay, I’ll ‘watch’ myself.

  It only takes a nano second to ponder the real reason he’d be telling me to beware, though.

  The quiet dinner I had in mind didn’t exactly pan out the way I expected. Instead, our night is slowly becoming overcrowded. I had hoped there would be a decent night life here, but it’s Monday, and it’s so busy it looks like it should be the weekend.

  I’m not sure where the drinks keep coming from but every time I turn around, there’s either a shot or a mixed drink sitting on the coaster in front of my stool. I haven’t indulged since the endless graduation parties. I was left with a week-long hangover that forced me to give my liver a hearty break for the past month. Plus, Jade left and everyone else in our little group of friends slowly disappeared into the real world—something we all promised each other we wouldn’t do. It’s like a dark hole everyone falls when they’re forced to face adulthood.

  Being here now, I realize I’m not just moving on from my old life, I’m starting over. Even when I go back home, things won’t be the same, and I’ll have to start over again.

  “I’ve got to say, I’m pretty impressed with how well you handle your liquor,” Liam mutters against his tall glass of beer. He hasn’t moved from his seat since he arrived, nor said even a word to Cale or Jared. Why bother coming out if you’re going to be miserable and slump over a bar for hours while everyone else has fun?

  “Why are you impressed?” As if I’m showing off, I down the shot of amber liquid that has been staring at me for the last few minutes, only mildly regretting it afterward. Ick. This shot was a lot stronger than the others I’ve taken in the past two hours. Plus, it tastes like cinnamon, which I hate, and it’s burning all the way down my throat. Anddd . . . I think that’s enough of that for the night.

  Liam seems to be amused by my struggle to get the shot down because he’s smirking, but while looking through the foam of his beer. He’s so odd. “When most girls drink as much as you’ve drank tonight, they’d be acting sloppy.” While listening to his observant statement, I notice Jade out of the corner of my eye. He’s probably talking about her. She’s created a dance floor in between a few tables, trying her hardest to get Jared to dance. I don’t think Jared dances.

  “Last call!” A voice shouts across the bar. I think it’s Sterling, but I can’t see. Not that I should care or be looking around for him, especially since I’ve purposely forgotten Liam’s warning about Sterling. None of it matters anyway. I’m here for the summer to earn some money and enjoy the beaches views. Those views can include the good-looking men around here, but it stops there since I will be back home in fourteen weeks, with my heart still intact. Not sure I can say the same for Jade, but we’ll see how that all plays out.

  Sterling makes his way down to the end of the bar and hands me our bill. “I comped your meal,” he says with a wink and a cute crooked smirk.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I tell him, concerned he might get in trouble.

  “I know, but I wanted to. Do you need one last drink before the bar closes?”

  “Yeah, I was just going to order a last round,” I tell him. Um, no, I wasn’t. I just told myself I was done, so I should be done rather than looking for any excuse to keep Sterling over here.

  “I’ll get it for you. What’s it going to be?”

  “I think you’ve had enough,” Liam interjects. My back is toward him at the moment but it doesn’t stop the record scratch in my head as his words sink in. Did he just cut me off?

  I turn around, glaring at him with a snarl. “Uh, what?”

  “You have work in the morning,” he continues.

  “Last time I checked, I was a big girl, and I’m capable of making my own decisions.” I accent my remark with a condescending tap on his shoulder.

  “Come on dude, she’s just having a good time. It’s all good,” Sterling tells Liam.

  With a scowl on his face, Liam lifts his hands in defense. “Whatever. I don’t care what she does. See you back at Buckingham.” He’s so snide. Everything he says comes with an attitude, and I’ve definitely had about enough of that tonight.

  “I’m sure I’ll be right behind you after I finish this drink . . . but don’t wait up,” I joke while turning back to face Sterling. “As for you, I’ll have another Dirty Beach, please.”

  “A what?” he laughs.

  “Oh, right, Jade made up the drink. Um, just a Dark Russian, please.” Oh, Jade.

  “Ah,” he laughs. “Coming right up.” Sterling leaves with a slight squeeze to my shoulder.

  As Sterling pushes through the crowd with a cocktail tray held high above everyone's heads, the sound of metal scraping against the floor startles me into spinning around. Liam has pushed his stool away from the bar, and he’s throwing cash down as if it were lit with flames. “Have a good night,” he mumbles before heading over to Jared and Cale.

  I can’t hear much of their conversation but Jade playfully punches Liam in the chest and looks over to me at the same time. I have no interest in knowing what they’re saying. Damn all good-looking men. Liam just solidified my distaste for his kind, and I’m sure Sterling is one of the same, but at least he hasn’t purposely tried to piss me off yet.

  Jade dances over to me and plops down in Liam’s seat, breathless and laughing. “I love this place.”

  “You’re a crazy lady.” I love her energy but sometimes it exhausts me. I’m not a big dancer. I’m more of a talker and I like to learn people—figure out the inner thoughts of anyone who crosses my path. Maybe it’s from growing up in a small area where everyone knows everyone’s business.

  “Looks like Liam had fun tonight,” she says with a raised brow.

  I can’t help but laugh. “So, was it the way he snarled at his burger when he found onions inside, or was it the way h
e rolled his eyes just slowly enough for everyone around him to notice when I asked for my last drink?”

  Jade slaps my leg. “Oh, Jules, you’ll see. With Liam, those are sentiments of affection.”

  “What world are you living in?” I ask her.

  With nothing more than a smile for a response, Sterling comes between us, handing over our final round of drinks for the evening. “Ladies,” he says, placing two new cocktail napkins down and handing us our final round of drinks for the evening.

  “So, about your brother . . .” Jade pipes up as if it were her greatest idea of the night.

  “What about him, eh?” Sterling gives her a quick nod as he drops his hands into his back pockets. There’s a smugness to his sultry grin and it’s totally getting a rise out of Jade.

  “When are we going to set up this double date?” Jade! I don’t need to yell at her out loud. She knows exactly what she’s doing and what she’s done. It was purposeful and . . . I’m not completely upset by it, but hot men are always trouble. I keep telling her this, but she’d rather tell me I’m insane.

  “We do both have tomorrow night off. What did you have in mind?” Sterling bites the bait she was reeling in, and before she knew it, she had a good catch on him.

  “How about the Beach Fire?” Jade asks.

  “Ya, that’ll be a good time. Does seven work?” Sterling asks me, rather than Jade. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want there to be any confusion as to who will be whose date tomorrow night.

  “Sure,” I say while plunging the straw from my drink between my pursed lips. Taking a few pausing sips, I remove the straw and clear my throat. “Should I have any concerns about you?” Nothing like a little liquid honesty to keep me safe.

  Sterling leans in, bringing his lips close to my ear. “Concerns? If I can hold myself steady on a board while riding the choppy east coast waves, I don’t think you have anything to be concerned about.”

  Riding.

  Waves.

  Riding.