Chương 6: Chapter 6: Three Bourbons, a Bartender, and a Witch
‘What an unexpected encounter,’ Cade thought as he exited the secret entrance of the underground. He stepped out to the surprisingly sunny streets and looked up at the sky. He liked Fiona, there was no doubt about that...
While he’d played it cool, though, he was surprised and jealous to find out that she had a fiance.
Cade took a bit of gratification in hearing Fiona say she didn’t want to marry that Jackson guy, but... what did that mean for Cade? He shoved his hands in his pockets and began to wander around the streets.
After a while, he stopped at a street vendor and got a hot dog and he sat down in a grassy, shaded area to eat it. Devon called shortly after he sat down, but Cade didn’t want to answer just yet.
He was mulling everything over— his purpose for going to New York and his wonderfully intense night with Fiona. He’d certainly not expected to hear that she was engaged and it made him wonder if he should be seeing her at all.
A long jaunt around the city only made Cade’s thoughts worse. All of his questions were tangled up with theories and those theories were tangled up with dramatic desires and complicated feelings of jealousy and offense.
He needed to get some of his questions out in the open. He wanted to see Fiona and get some clarity.
Cade glanced at his phone to see that the time was already past 4:00. By the time he walked back to the bar, it would be 4:30. Fiona had told him to meet her, so he hurried his way there.
When Cade finally arrived he was thankful for the slight chill in the air, otherwise, he might have been slick with sweat from his twenty-three-minute power-walk to the Half Moon Bar.
Unfortunately, Fiona was nowhere to be found when he arrived. The door was open and the bar was already alive with a few customers, but she wasn’t there.
Cade settled into one of the barstools at the corner of the bar. After a moment the bartender came over.
“Hey. You’re the good-looking dude that kept Fiona so busy last night, aren’t you?” he said.
Cade laughed awkwardly. How was he supposed to answer that when he’d just found out earlier that afternoon that she was engaged to be married to that lanky-dank Jackson?
“It’s okay,” the bartender said with a wink. “We all know it was you. You don’t have to be shy.”
“Uh, actually, I was hoping to see Fiona. She told me to meet her here again tonight. I have some questions for her...” Cade said.
The bartender’s face went serious for a moment. “Right, right. I see.” He looked around like he was trying to find someone but then his friendly gaze returned to his face and he looked back at Cade. “I’m not sure when she’ll be back. Last I knew she was dealing with some family stuff. But I can get you a drink while you wait?”
Cade nodded. “A bourbon would be nice.”
The bartender poured the glass, filling it more than he would have if he were serving it to a normal customer. “My name’s Javier, by the way,” he greeted. “I’m pretty much Fiona’s best friend.”
There was a small scoff behind him. “I thought I was her best friend,” a small, feminine voice mumbled. “Why else would she entrust me with the keys to the place?”
Javier pressed his hands into the bar and shrugged with one shoulder. He didn’t turn around to look at the small lady behind him, but he responded to her mutterings with a cocky smirk on his face.
“Just because she doesn’t trust me to run the place in her absence doesn’t mean she doesn’t think of me as her best friend.” Ah, nothing like some friendly competition.
The girl glanced over her shoulder, the look was neither sad nor aggressive, then she walked away with a bubbling blue concoction in her hand.
“This is the first time Fiona’s asked a guy to meet her at the bar. You should feel special,” Javier said.
Cade sipped his bourbon and set it on the table. “I don’t know, man,” he sighed. “I mean, shouldn’t her fiance be the special one?” Uh, oh, he rattled off a bit too much.
He stared down sadly into his drink. What was it about a cold alcoholic beverage and the ears of a bartender that made everyone want to divulge their deepest, most well-kept secrets and emotions?
“Ah, so you know about Jackson already,” Javier said as he rolled his eyes. He wiped his hands on the black towel hanging from his shoulder. “You really shouldn’t worry about him. She doesn’t want to marry him. It’s a forced thing she’s been trying to get out of for a couple of months now.”
For some reason that didn’t make Cade feel any better. The ice in his bourbon was melting a bit and causing the color of the drink to lighten. Cade wiped at the condensation on the side of the glass.
“Maybe it’s for the best that she’s supposed to marry someone else,” Cade declared aloud, surprising himself.
Javier topped off the drink and stood in front of Cade. “C’mon, dude,” he said. “I know you all just met last night and you just found out that she’s technically engaged, but anyone could tell that you two were super into each other from the get-go. I’ve been working here for four years and I’ve never seen another couple of people hit it off the way you two did. What’s got you so low?”
Cade brought himself to look into Javier’s eyes. They were friendly and a kind of gray-green color. It was the first time that Cade actually looked closely at him.
He had nicely styled hair that swooped at the top and was buzzed at the side. He wore small hoop earrings and his fingers were adorned with silver rings.
“Let’s just say I have some baggage I haven’t told her about yet.”
“We’ve all got baggage,” the quiet lady from earlier said, suddenly appearing beside Javier. She had the classic witchy appearance to her: pale skin and silky dark black hair.
“It’s different,” Cade confessed with a sigh.
He wasn’t sure why, but Cade found it easy to talk to Javier and the quiet girl whose name was Wendy.
They talked a bit about Fiona’s family, and though Fiona had told Cade most of it the night before, he learned more about the planned engagement and her father’s plan to continue grooming Jackson to be Alpha in a couple more years.
After learning more about Fiona, Cade opened up a bit about his own baggage. He didn’t want to spill all of the beans at once because it could be overwhelming, but he trusted Javier and Wendy. Cade told them that there was a curse on his family that had afflicted his father and was slowly driving his father mad.
Cade told them that he’d gone to New York in search of answers for a cure and had been pleasantly surprised to find Fiona so suddenly.
He could tell by the way Javier talked about Fiona that he really cared for her, and even Wendy, who was pretty quiet and a bit awkward, spoke sweetly about her. Cade loved seeing that Fiona had good friends and it made his heart swell to hear that she was a good, strong, fun person.
And it was also nice to finally talk to someone outside of his family about the curse. It didn’t have to be a secret, but it wasn’t something he felt like he wanted to parade around, so it felt good to finally get off of his shoulders.
However... there was something else, something tense and unresolved still lurking up in his chest.
“Lucky for you, I’m a pretty talented witch,” Wendy said, picking at her fingernails. “I know a lot about all kinds of curses. I might be able to help you out.”
That was the first moment in a long time that Cade had actually felt a bit of hope. Especially since he didn’t get to talk to Alpha Francois, he felt like he was back to square one after leaving the underground, but Wendy’s words cheered him up a bit.
Three more drinks in, Cade was starting to feel light and a bit loopy, but he had the sense to deny a fourth refill when Javier offered it.
He was having a good time chatting with Javier and Wendy, in between them delivering drinks and taking orders. They began to ask him personal questions about himself which he surprisingly felt comfortable answering. Undoubtedly, the alcohol made him ease up a bit.
He told them about his brother and his buddy back home. He was surprised when he mentioned Devon Delaney that Wendy seemed familiar with him.
It was nearly dark by the time Fiona arrived at the bar. She wore a tired, apologetic expression when she walked through the door and spotted Cade sitting at the bar. When he saw her he waved at her naturally, a smile plastered across his face.
Then suddenly, something about the way his heart seemed to beat in slow motion as he watched her made Cade feel a bit uneasy. It hit him like a gust of wind. How could he have been so mindless?
This feeling in his chest was precisely what his father had warned him of. It was terrifying to realize that Fiona could affect him in such a way.
She smiled at him and walked confidently towards him, her hips delectably swaying with each stride, as if they’d been together for months. He was thrilled by her, but a heaviness settled in the deep, dark corner of his chest.
If he let himself get too close to her, he could very well fall for her. That wasn’t a good thing for someone whose curse was activated by love.
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