“Yeah, sure, but we don’t have to talk about just your work,” she said as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Jeez, alright. We won’t talk about my work then,” he mumbled as he rolled his eyes.
“You know what? I’m actually not interested in even continuing this date,” Jenna snapped as she stood. She reached down to grab her bag and just walked away from their table, and out of the restaurant.
Jack sat there for a moment in complete shock. How could she have acted that way after only a few minutes on a date with him? He was a wealthy and handsome bachelor, how could Jenna just dismiss him like that? He was deeply annoyed by how the date had gone. It was nothing like he had expected, and he was frustrated that, on his very first date, nothing went well. Jack started to doubt that settling down was worth going through any more dates like that. His appetite now gone, he got up and left the restaurant, feeling completely annoyed and down.
He made his way to his favorite bar, needing a stiff drink to get him through the night, before he headed home. Jack had been hoping that dating would be easy. After all, he’d known dozens upon dozens of women, but, as handsome and experienced as he was, he had completely failed on his first attempt. He sat alone at the bar, taking small sips of his drink as he thought about how things had gone so wrong. He shook his head. It looked like he had a lot to learn about the serious dating scene.
“So tell me, why are you sitting here alone?” a woman asked from the other side of the bar.
Jack raised his eyebrows at the woman, unfazed by a beautiful stranger's attention. This bartender looked like an Irish beauty with red hair and green eyes that sparkled at him. “Do you really want to know?”
“Definitely. Entertain me. It’s a rather quiet night,” she purred.
“Alright, you asked for it though,” Jack began, lifting his palms in surrender. “I guess it started when my brother met the love of his life. I just so happened to be deeply attracted to her as well.”
“Now that can’t be easy,” she said softly.
“It wasn’t at first, but I’m fine with it now. They’re very happy, which makes me happy. It just made me realize that I want that too. I want that sort of happiness.” Jack looked down at his glass, gazing into the empty container. It looked remarkably like his life to him.
“So you want to be happy? That can’t be too hard to do,” the woman insisted with a small shrug.
“I am happy, or so I thought. As it turns out though, I want more than that. I want someone that I can call mine, someone I can share special moments with, you know?” Jack looked up and met her eyes, wondering if she understood what he was trying to say.
She was looking at him intensely, as if she was taking mental notes of what he looked like. Jack found that he couldn’t look away from her either.
“So you want a partner?” she asked.
“Yeah. A partner. Someone to love. But apparently I suck at dating,” he replied with a small shake of his head, remembering the non-date with Jenna. She was a good looking woman so he would’ve been interested in seeing where they could’ve gone.
“Well, everything takes time. You just have to keep trying,” she encouraged.
“I guess you’re right.” Jack studied the woman carefully. He wasn’t sure if she found him attractive, but something inside of him pushed him to take a leap. “Maybe you’d like to go out on a date with me?” Jake thought, since he had just been on the worst date imaginable, surely going out with this attractive bartender wouldn’t be nearly as bad. That was, if she agreed to go out with him.
“You don’t even know me, so why would you want to go out on a date with me?” she challenged with a smile on her face.
“That's what a date is for, right? Why not just hang out? If nothing happens, we could just be friends.” He watched as she thought about it, her eyes shifting from his face and down to her hands before moving back to his face.
“Alright, let’s go for it,” she replied after a moment. “What’s the worst that could happen? And besides, I bet you'll change your mind. You seem like the party type.”
Jack laughed automatically. “What a positive outlook. We could have a good time together and go from there,” he suggested with a smile that animated his whole face.
“I’m Danielle, by the way,” she said.
“I’m Jack. Pleasure to meet you,” he replied. He was rather excited to have a date with Danielle. Not only was she an attractive woman, but they already had a connection. This should be much better than a blind date. There was more hope for this one.
“It sounds like a plan to me. Let me give you my number,” she said as she held out her hand for his phone.
He gladly gave it to her and watched as she punched in her digits, smiling to himself.
“Here you go, and, by the way, don’t bother with the waiting three days to call bullshit. If you wait that long I won’t answer” she said playfully but with a serious undertone as she handed his phone back to him.
This is a woman who knows what she wants, Jack thought. Out loud he said, “Great. Well, I’ve finished my drink, which means it’s time to go. I promise I’ll call before your deadline.” He flashed her a winning smile, placed some cash on the bar, and stood to leave.
“I guess we’ll see,” Danielle replied, giving Jack a cheeky look as she cleared away his empty glass.
Jack left the bar feeling happier than he had when he had entered. After his disastrous date, he hadn’t been sure if he would ever have what Caroline and Jake had. Or if he deserved it. Now, he felt his excitement building again. He made his way home with a smile plastered to his face, a slight buzz taking over his body as he walked, and he knew it wasn’t from the single drink he had ordered.
Once he was home he wanted to message Danielle immediately, but he decided to wait until the next morning. He didn’t want to come off as desperate. Instead, he got ready for bed and fell asleep dreaming of green eyes and red hair.
Chapter Six, A Pleasant Surprise
Danielle had seen Jack around a number of times. He had been a regular at the bar for almost a year, and she knew his reputation and saw how he behaved. But, as she had spoken to him, she could see that there was something sincere underneath that playboy facade. She still wasn’t sure how serious he was about having a serious relationship, and although she had given him her number, she knew better than to get her hopes up that something could happen between them.
“I’d be careful with him if I were you,” a voice said, while Danielle cleaned the surface of the bar.
It had been a few hours since she had seen Jack and last call had just been announced in the bar. As she looked up she noticed David, one of Jack’s drinking buddies, who had paused by the door on his way out. Most everyone had already left.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
Of course, Danielle knew David. He spent quite a bit of time at the bar and they’d spoken a number of times.
“Jack,” he further explained. “I’d be careful if I were you. He’s not a serious guy, never has been. So just make sure you keep your guard up when you’re around him.” And with that, he turned and left.
Of course, Danielle had already considered everything David said before he said it. She had seen Jack, countless times, leaving the bar with random women. What she hadn’t seen was him spending time with the same woman for more than a week. But after talking to him, she really thought that he was seeing things in another light. There was no way for her to be completely sure until she actually went on the date with him, so she knew she would at least give him the benefit of the doubt. She hadn’t heard from Jack since he had left, but it was late so she’d give him at least a day to contact her before giving up on him.
Once the last few patrons stumbled out of the bar, Danielle locked up and started wiping down the surfaces. “Luke, how are you doing over there?” she called.
Danielle owned the bar and Luke, as well as a few others, were the bartenders she had hired to work f
or her. She took pride in her business. It had taken years for her to get to where she was. She had worked hard, saving up for a long time before she had been able to afford the space that she had transformed into an exciting sports bar. Her dream hadn’t been to own a sports bar necessarily, but when she had found the space, she had known it was meant to be. All her effort had paid off, and now the bar was thriving.
“Everything is good over here. We did really well tonight,” he replied from the other side of the room where he was wiping down tables.
“We do well every night, what else are the lonely men of Madison Heights going to do with their time? ” Danielle joked as she started to take inventory of the contents behind the bar.
Luke scoffed. He had finished his cleaning and had walked over to Danielle. “What does that mean for you, Dani?” He teased. “You spend more time here than any of them!”
“You watch your mouth or I’ll show you the door!” Danielle retorted. Luke had a point though. It had been a long time since her last serious relationship. Her thoughts turned to Jack, she hoped he was worth taking a chance on, that she wasn’t wasting her time.
The rest of the team joined her and Luke after they had finished their closing duties, and Danielle poured everyone a drink, enjoying the nightly ritual. Together they drank and gossiped about which customers had gotten the most embarrassingly drunk that night. It was a good way to end a shift, and even once their glasses were empty, they continued to talk for a while longer before everyone started to leave.
Making her way home, she thought again about Jack. She was actually excited about going on a date with him. He was attractive enough, and she was pretty sure he made good money. He was also easy to talk to, he had the kind of personality that just dew people in. She wanted to pretend what David had said didn’t bother her, but he had been right about Jack’s reputation.
Danielle arrived home after the short walk from the bar. Because her whole life revolved around the bar, she had chosen a place as close as possible. She was always the first one there and the last to leave, not just because she was the owner, but because she loved being there.
Her apartment was dark as she opened her door and reached in to switch the lights on. She was greeted by the soft hum of the lights coming to life and a gentle meow “Hi, baby,” she said as her cat Tilly came to greet her as she closed the door.
Her cat worked her way around her ankles, meowing and purring as Danielle leaned down and stroked Tilly’s back.
“Did you miss me or do you just want food?” Danielle questioned as she moved toward her kitchen. Tilly followed close behind her and sat at her food bowl, answering Danielle’s question as if she had understood her.
With a laugh, Danielle fed her cat before she dug through her refrigerator for something she could snack on before she showered and climbed into bed. This was a very common routine for her, but she took pride in working out every day to make sure that her late-night snacking didn’t catch up to her.
She found a Chinese takeaway box that had half a serving of chicken chow mein, which she happily ate while standing at her kitchen counter. Danielle wasn’t a messy person, her apartment was always clean and tidy. She was not much of a cook though. She didn’t see the point of cooking a whole meal just for herself. Plus, she spent so much time at the bar that she didn’t really have time for cooking, and any produce she bought would just end up going bad and stinking up the fridge.
Once she had finished off the Chinese food, she ran herself a bath. It was almost 1 am, and although she knew she should just have a quick shower and get into bed, her body was aching from spending hours on her feet. She just wanted to relax a little. She slowly sank into the water, which felt even better than she had expected.
She closed her eyes, enjoying her bath as her thoughts drifted back to Jack yet again. She was sure she wouldn’t have much time for a relationship; the bar kept her pretty busy. Even if she tried to make time, there was no guarantee things would work out between them, and there was always Jack’s reputation to consider. Still, she was interested in seeing what could happen with him. There was something about him that she found intriguing.
********
The next day, Danielle woke up to the chime of an incoming message on her phone. After she stretched, she checked the screen.
The text, from an unknown number, read, “Hi, Danielle, it’s Jack. It’s been less than three days. You still up for that date?”
Danielle couldn’t help but smile as she saved his number. She climbed out of bed and, in reply, she typed, “Morning Jack, nice to hear from you. I work nights so let's get lunch sometime this week.”
Danielle wasn’t the type of woman who slept with men on the first date so she was interested to see if having lunch instead of dinner would make him change his mind. She wanted to know if he really was interested in getting to know her.
Jack’s response read, “Lunch is perfect. You free tomorrow?”
He'd passed her test, this was off to a good start. She typed out another message with one hand and brushed her teeth with the other, “Sure, 1pm. I want pancakes, but you can pick the place.” Danielle’s favorite food was breakfast, and she’d been craving pancakes all week, but it was only fair to give Jack at least some choice in the matter. If the man didn’t like breakfast, well, was he really worth her time? She dropped her phone on the bed, pulled on her gym tights and a sports bra, and set out to start her day with more energy than she’d had in a while. As she was locking the door, her phone chimed again.
“I’ll pick you up at 1, I know the perfect place, but I want it to be a surprise.”
Danielle read the message and smirked. She typed, “What if I don’t like surprises?” She wanted to see what Jack would do when thrown off guard. His response didn’t disappoint.
“Trust me, red, you’re going to like this one.”
Walking down the street, Danielle grinned. She hadn’t flirted like this in a long time, and Jack certainly knew what he was doing. She began to think that, even if things didn’t work out between them, they would at least have some fun together. She found herself hoping though, that things would work out.
Knowing she would be seeing Jack the next day motivated her to work out even harder than usual. She was in high spirits, feeling, for the first time in ages, like the rest of the day could only get better.
The bar opened at 3 pm, which gave her plenty of time to clean her apartment. Unlike a lot of people, she loved cleaning; she found the activity calming and therapeutic. She could let her mind wander or just zone out completely. Today, her mind kept traveling to Jack, and even when she consciously tried not to think of him, it just made her think about him more. Danielle wasn’t the type to get hooked on a guy so quickly, but it had been so easy to talk to him, so easy to like him, that she couldn’t help herself. She was very curious about where he was planning to take her for lunch.
As the day went on, she found herself getting uncharacteristically nervous about their date. It occurred to her that she hadn’t been on a date in at least a year. Normally, she just wore jeans and t-shirts, but would Jack be expecting something different? She wondered if she should ask one of her friends for advice. She was sure Alice would have a lot to say. She'd been on Danielle’s case a lot recently about her dating life, so Danielle knew she would be happy to hear she was finally going on a date.
Biting the bullet, Danielle decided to message her friend on her way to the bar that afternoon. She always went in early so she could make sure everything was set up before she opened for the day. She wrote, "Help! Got a date tomorrow and have no idea what to wear!” Her phone chimed less than a minute later.
The text from Alice read, “What? I need more details! I’ll come to the bar later to bug you. I’ll only lend you clothes if you tell me everything”.
Danielle wasn’t surprised by her friend's response. She had seen it coming before even sending the message, Alice was her best friend after all. Rolling her eyes, she sh
ot off a response, “Alright, alright. I’ll give you all the gory details,” and then got to work.
Chapter Seven, Everything Happens for A Reason
“You look extremely chipper today,” Jake observed when he got into the office and saw Jack sitting happily at his desk.
Jake still couldn’t get used to having his brother at the office, especially considering he had managed to arrive before Jake almost every day. It was so strange to see his brother, sitting quietly behind his computer with his eyes glued to the screen.
“What can I say, it’s a great day to be alive,” Jack said, grinning.
“And what makes you say that?” Jake asked. He noticed that his brother’s mood seemed lighter than it had been the day before. His smile actually reached his eyes.
“I’ve met someone. We’ve got a date set for tomorrow and I have a really good feeling about it,” Jack said as he reached for the company branded coffee mug on his desk.
Passion For Change (Jamyson Brothers Madison Heights Book 2) Page 4