Just One Night (ONC 2023)

Chapter Three

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The bar Brad had chosen is a sports bar, somehow I'm not surprised. The energy is crazy with people watching the multitude of games on multiple screens throughout the bar. How anyone kept up with what was going on, with their choice of game I had no idea. The bar is loud, there is a mix of people cheering and booing at the screens. I'm lucky though that most of the men in the bar seemed to all decide to wear some type of sports jersey, or t-shirt that proclaims their most beloved team. To be honest I barely had any idea of what was going on on those screens.

It's easy to find Brad in this crowd. He seems to be the only one wearing a polo shirt in the bar. At first glance, I could agree that he's good looking. Broad shouldered with short clipped brown hair, skin with a slight tan. When I move to the table he picked, he sees me and does a double-take.

"Brad?" I ask.

A large smile splits his face as he stands. Before I can react, he pulls me into a tight hug. It's a little awkward, so I pat his back. When he pulls away, it doesn't seem like he noticed the awkwardness of it.

"Maggie is it?" He asks, when I give him a nod, he beams at me. "I hope you don't mind but I already ordered apps and some beers."

"That's fine," I tell him as I take my seat, even though it irked me to have someone order for me. I liked to spend time over a menu, I am a huge foodie and love to pick specific things out.

"They have the best nachos out of everywhere I've been," Brad states, well, nachos I could go with.

Jokingly I take a look around. "Is that why there's a ton of people here?"

He gives me a confused look. "No, once a month the bar re-plays the best matches from the previous season."

Okay, so some jokes may go over his head. At least now I knew why the bar was so packed.

"Do you watch any sports? Got a favorite one?"

I shake my head at his question, I could see the disappointment cross his face before he tries to hide it. I decided to go into a little more detail, to keep the conversation going. "I've only half watched a few football games in college because Becky dragged me to go cheer on Kent."

"Oh, you might have seen me play with him then," Brad said. A waitress in some teeny shorts walks to our table, carrying large mugs of beer. My body almost jerks away at sight of the tray of beers, I have to force myself not to move. I really didn't want to be soaked in beer again.

After she drops off our beers and one of the biggest plates of nachos I've ever seen I ask Brad. "Do you still play?"

"Nah." He said, grabbing one of the chips piled high with cheese and toppings. "I got hit too hard, couldn't play for a while without risking a brain thing. Now I could play, but I've been out of it for so long."

Brad shoves the large chip into his mouth, I pick at the nachos. Meat, bright yellow gooey cheese, jalapenos, green onion, and what I think are bacon bits. I don't hate the fake yellow cheese, it just wasn't my go to when I thought of 'the best nachos ever'. I pop a chip into my mouth, the taste of the cheese hits me first, then the meat. Spicy and well cooked. Well damn.

"I told you so." Brad has a satisfied smirk on his face.

I give him a small smile and nod. "You were right, they are pretty good."

We dig into the chips, and Brad's eyes fix on a screen that's over my shoulder. The waitress after a few moments drops off the menus, which I take happily. It gives me something to look at other than the screen or the crowd around us. How the crowd was this rowdy at 7 pm I don't understand.

After browsing the menu for a minute or two, I put it down. There weren't many options so staring at it would just be me trying to avoid small talk. For as many dates as I've been on I'm still terrible at small talk. I grab my mug of beer and ask. "So you played with Kent, so you went to the same college as us?"

Brad's eyes snap to me. "Yeah, but when I was injured I had to drop out. Kent and I stayed in touch though."

"Oh, I'm sorry it was that bad."

He gives me a shake of his head. "Nah, I wasn't doing great in my classes anyway. I got a decent job when I recovered enough."

"And that is?" I prod.

"I work at my father's business, an office job." That makes me raise a brow, Brad as an office worker? He shrugs his shoulders. "It's boring, I've been thinking of signing up for the police academy."

Oh, red flag.

"Why a cop, not a firefighter or something?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"Lots of cops and military in the family." He said, then added, "I don't want to sign up for the military and be committed for years of service."

So commitment issues?

I have to mentally shake myself, it doesn't matter. There wouldn't be anything long term between us anyway.

Brad goes back to looking over my shoulder until the waitress comes back to take our order. The smile and flirty tone doesn't go unnoticed by me, I keep having to remind myself that I'm looking for temporary. When the waitress leaves, Brad goes right back to looking over my shoulder. My eye's narrow on him, without him even noticing. He is cute, with a clean shaven face, a dimple in his chin, and brown eyes framed in thick lashes.

"Do you have any hobbies outside of work and sports related things?" I ask, and get a shrug of his shoulders.

"Nah, I hang with friends but that's mostly when we watch a game." Brad's eyes never strayed from the TV as he spoke to me.

I wait a few heartbeats to see if he asks me anything. When he doesn't I have to hold back my eyeroll. Instead, I stand and tell him, "I'm going to go find the restroom."

He points over to his shoulder to where I'm guessing is the bathroom area. When I step past him I shake my head. So many red flags. I know I have a habit of being rude, I might even be considered a bitch, so I was trying. I had to be as polite as I could be. Kent did set me up with him, it wouldn't just be rude to Brad, but also to Kent. So unless Brad does something really fucking stupid, I was going to stick it out.

Walking towards the hallway where I can now see signs for the bathroom, I have to dodge past some of the crowd. Getting to the hallway I sigh a breath of relief, it wasn't nearly as crowded as I would expect. The lighting isn't as great as the rest of the bar, it's much dimmer, and somehow the noise doesn't carry as much.

Going down the hall I notice an open door, it's on the way to the door to the women's room and I can't help my curiosity. My head turns towards the door and the light coming from it. I immediately register that it's an office, much like the one at the place I work, with a heavy wood desk, and computer monitor from the early 2000's sitting on it. I see there are multiple people in the office, and I don't mean to stop and stare like a weirdo. It's just, one of the men makes me do a double take.

He looked so out of place in a sports bar, he looked like he needed to be in a dive bar, one on the edge of town the local motorcycle club uses. Dirty blond hair that's long on the top, cut shorter on the sides. The straight hair flops to the side, and he uses a heavily tattooed hand to push it back out of his eyes. That hand then goes to run over his large beard in thought, his arm from wrist to elbow is covered in a blacked out tattoo. A thick lined rose on the back of his hand. His leather vest is covering a white t-shirt that looks to be a size too small the way it clings to him. Or maybe he just likes that it clings to him, I could tell he was fit from out in the hallway.

One second he's in thought over what was being said, the next he turns his head. Baby blue eyes meet mine, and I can feel my face start to turn red at being caught staring. I turn myself towards the bathroom and begin to power walk out of there, because running would have drawn more attention.