Following Me(3)

“Just a restaurant. Nothing fancy, but my friend Brennan works there as a bartender. It’s the place right now if you know what I mean,” she said.

Hadley turned down an alleyway and then immediately walked into a restaurant. Devon hadn’t even seen the door. She read the sign, Jenn’s Restaurant, over the door and went inside.

Hadley was right about the restaurant. It wasn’t anything fancy, but the place was slammed. It was on the smaller side, and all the tables and booths were full of young professionals still in their suits after leaving work. Although some had stripped down to their button-up shirts, Devon felt woefully underdressed even if the atmosphere was welcoming.

As Hadley veered through the crowd, people on all sides called out hellos to her. She elbowed a couple out of the way and took the last two remaining seats in front of the bar.

“You’re popular,” Devon muttered, plopping down in the seat next to her.

Hadley had always been popular though. She radiated energy, and people seemed to gravitate toward her spontaneous personality. Hadley always seemed to be going, going, going and waiting for life to catch up with her. Devon had missed Hadley’s fast-paced mindset.

Hadley just shrugged with a confident smile on her face. “Ay! Walker!” she called, leaning over the edge of the bar. When he didn’t immediately respond she called out again, “Brennan!”

The bartender turned in their direction and shot Hadley an exasperated expression. He was good-looking in the she-shouldn’t-go-anywhere-near-that kind of way. He had devious eyes and a knowing smile that made Devon wonder what secrets he had tucked up his sleeves. He wore a barback uniform of black slacks and a white button-up rolled up to his elbows with a towel slung over his shoulder. His brown hair was styled in a way that made it appear he hadn’t spent any time on it.

“Gimme me a minute, Hadley. I’m with a customer,” Brennan called.

“What do I look like?” she asked with a sassy smile.

“An annoyance,” he said loud enough for everyone to hear.

While the other customers snickered like this interaction was commonplace, Devon was having a hard time peeling her eyes off of the bartender.

He definitely has bad news written all over his pretty face, she thought

Hadley huffed but slumped back into her seat with a roll of her eyes. “He’s always like this. You can’t get his attention even when it’s not this busy.”

Devon nodded, feeling completely out of her depth in the big city.

A couple minutes later, Brennan walked over to them and rested his forearms on the front of the bar. He cocked a smile like he owned the place. “The usual?”

“Yeah.” As Brennan began pouring her drink, Hadley continued, “This is my friend Devon. She’s here visiting on her summer break.”

“Hey,” he said, tipping his head at her while he mixed the drinks. “I’m Brennan.”

“Hey,” Devon murmured back, meeting his gaze.

“Where ya from?” He slid Hadley’s drink toward her and began making another.

“Well, I go to Wash U in St. Louis, but my parents live in Nashville,” she told him.

He slid a mostly clear drink across the bar to her. Devon cautiously picked it up.

“You don’t seem much like a Southern belle to me,” he observed.

“You’d be surprised,” Hadley butted in. “Her parents work in the country music industry. She’s a Southern belle through and through.”

“Huh,” he said as if contemplating this information.

Then, he just shrugged his shoulders like he had come to a conclusion. Devon wondered what it was.

“Well, you two having dinner?”

“Yeah,” Hadley told him. “I’ll have the chicken, and she’s going to want the shrimp.”

Devon glanced over at her in frustration. They hadn’t even looked at a menu.

“I promise you’ll like it, Dev. Don’t worry!”

Brennan nodded and then left to go put in their orders. Devon noticed he wasn’t bad to look at from the backside either.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Hadley cried, throwing her arms around Devon. “I have so much to show you. How long can I keep you?”

“Oh,” Devon began, not yet figuring out how to have this conversation, “only for a week or so probably.”

“Well, when is your return ticket?” Hadley asked.

“I didn’t get one,” Devon said.

It was totally something Devon would have never done. She always came with a plan, but this hadn’t been planned. She had decided she was leaving, and then she had left. She had needed to get away and leave the life that was haunting her, destroying her. It hadn’t been an easy decision.

But she couldn’t tell Hadley any of that. Devon was so happy to see her friend, and maybe all she needed was a week or so for things to get better. She couldn’t run away from her life forever even if she wanted to.

“Whoa!” Hadley cried, putting her hand on Devon’s forehead. “You’re turning into me. How is Reid taking all of this?”

“Oh, Reid’s fine,” Devon told her. “He’s, you know, perfect.”

Hadley gagged. “If that boy could get any more perfect, I’d fall dead.”