And exactly one minute later, which was at least five minutes too quickly to get here from his penthouse apartment, he slid into the stool beside mine at the bar.
“Bad night?” he asked.
I just stared at him. “How did you know I was here?”
He shrugged. “Just a feeling.”
“You had a feeling I was at this bar and got here in exactly one minute?”
“One minute? Nonsense. Pretty sure it took me a while to get here. It’s late. You must be sleep deprived or something. That can really mess with your head.”
I didn’t think that was it. Did he have my phone tracked or something? Honestly it didn’t even matter. I downed my second glass of scotch. “I had a crazy night.”
“Do tell.”
“Remember how I told you Penny had a surprise for me tonight? Well, the surprise was that she thought I was gay.”
Tanner laughed. And then he must have seen the serious look on my face. “Oh, wait. You’re serious? She’s friends with Justin, right? Like she’s met a gay man in real life?”
“That’s who my surprise blind date was with.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.” I took another sip of my drink. “She saw you mouth kiss me at that restaurant and for some reason assumed that I was in love with you. And that you didn’t love me back. I have no idea why that was her assumption though, becauseyouclearly kissedme.
Tanner laughed. “What is with people mistaking celebration kisses as something homosexual? This era just doesn’t understand proper affection between male friends.”
This era?
“But Penny was right about one thing. I’m way out of your league,” he said with a laugh. He waved down the bartender for a drink.
“I think you have it backward,” I said.
“Nah.” He lifted up his glass that the bartender just dropped off. “I don’t think so.”
“It really doesn’t matter in this fake scenario who had unrequited love for who.”
“If you say so. Since yours was unrequited. Even Penny agreed and she knows you very well.”
“I’m done with this conversation,” I said.
“Fair. Since I won. On a related note, are you going to tell her you aren’t gay?”
“I didn’t have to. I kind of yelled it to the whole restaurant. And she showed up. And I may have been talking about Brooklyn too and it all just kind of came out.”
He raised his eyebrows. “No more secrets.”
I nodded. “I told her everything. I even showed her the paintings of Brooklyn.”
“You took her to your serial killer room?”
“It’s not a serial killer room.”
Tanner gave me a weird look. “It’s a little like a serial killer room. Or at least a stalker’s lair.”
Honestly, he had a good point. “Penny may have mentioned that it wasn’t healthy to spend time in there.”
“Agreed.”
