“You had curls?” Bellamy asked.
He’d only known me with close-cropped hair. “I used to have hair past my shoulders, but I got tired of it in college.”
Bellamy’s eyes widened. “I gotta see a photo of that.”
“Jason hasn’t busted the high school yearbooks out yet? Two words: Bieber hair.”
Bellamy gasped and mimed clutching his pearls. “The horror.”
Jason wrapped his arm around Bellamy’s neck and pulled him close, kissing the side of his head. “You’d still think I was hot.”
As Bellamy gagged, my heart seized. I wanted to find that type of connection, but I knew it wasn’t in the cards for me. Relationships and running Red’s didn’t mix. My parents had proven that years ago, and my getting dumped in each new relationship didn’t convince me otherwise.
“Want a drink? We still have part of a pitcher left.” Jason picked up the pitcher of Doctor Light from the local Hop Doctor Brewery.
“Yeah, thanks.”
While Jason filled my glass and finished the pitcher by topping off his and Bellamy’s, my attention drifted back to Garth.
“See someone you know?” Jason turned in the direction I looked.
“I don’t think I do. The guy in the Garth getup, blond mullet. You know him?”
Bellamy turned too. I hoped Garth didn’t feel our eyes on the back of his head.
“Don’t think so. You going to talk to him?”
I shook my head. “Just thought he looked vaguely familiar.” Which was sort of true, but it was hard not to feel that way about most people in town after living in Maplewood my entire life.
“Is that Brandon over there?”
My head snapped in the direction Jason gestured toward. Sure enough, my last boyfriend wore a baseball uniform that looked painted on while standing next to some annoyingly tall and handsome guy.
Wait a damn minute.
“That’s his coworker!”
I fucking knew it.
“The guy you were worried about?”
I ground my teeth. “Yes.” Turning away, I took several long chugs of my drink and appreciated Jason’s supportive squeeze of my shoulder.
That breakup had stung more than usual because I’d foolishly thought we might last longer than my other relationships, but I’d been wrong. Again.
At that moment—Brandon looked in our direction and caught me watching. The smug smile got under my skin.
Bellamy narrowed his eyes at Brandon. “You know, you could show him you don’t care.”
“How?” I asked.
“Find someone to hook up with. Or at least flirt with.”
Jason nodded. “Bellamy might be onto something.”
Once again, I looked over at Garth, who was still sitting alone at the bar, probably waiting for a date. It couldn’t hurt to swap a few sentences with him while ordering a new pitcher. I could smile and flirt a little, and if Brandon saw it, all the better.
TWO
