Behind Closed Curtains (Desires of the Forbidden)

Chapter 8

"Someone looks like they could use a drink," a voice said suddenly from the bar, forcing me to rise my throbbing head back up to answer them.

"It's not for m-"

Every thought and word was stolen from my mind, my words trailing off as I set eyes on the man behind the bar.

His expression was just as stunned as mine. Both of our faces resembled that of a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Peaches?"

My eyes dropped to his full lips as he spoke the name he had donned on me since our first meeting. Images of the last time I saw him and his lips intertwining with that woman's flashed through my mind and I suddenly felt very strange; engulfed in the brutal reality of who the man before me really was.

"Hi," I finally spoke, acknowledging him with a nod.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?"

We both voiced the question at the same time, earning a lopsided smile and chuckle from Kaleb as I tried to fight off my own small smile.

"I'm a bartender," Kaleb answered first, leaning his elbows onto the bar as his eyes bored into mine gleefully. "I work at a bar close to the theater whenever I'm not there. That's why I have to leave at seven every day, so I can make it there on time. I also get hired out for private gigs, hence why I'm here."

I nodded, taking in his revelations as I let my eyes wander over the swirls ingrained in the wood of the bar, wanting to keep all eye contact between us to a minimal.

"Your turn."

"Uh, just here with my boyfriend."

A moment of silence passed between us.

"Boyfriend? I didn't know you were taken," Kaleb said, his voice somewhat hardened.

"Yup. Three years."

"Wow, long time," he mumbled out. His gaze was off; it's normal confident gleam nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah. Can I get a Miller lite, please?" I asked, bringing Kaleb's attention back to his actual job as he snapped back into action.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Here you go," Kaleb said as he sat the bottle down.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Kaleb nodded at me, resting his hands against the bar, still keeping his eyes trained on mine. The moment was quickly becoming all-consuming and I decided that it was time to leave before I exploded on the spot from the amount of sudden tension surrounding him and I.

"See you at rehearsal," I stated in a polite tone as I took the beer off of the counter and walked away, not feeling the need to wait for his response.

After a few minutes of searching, I found Zach again in the crowd and took my rightful place next to him.

The conversations from earlier were still the topic of discussion but as the men droned on about numbers and figures; I was finding it increasingly more and more difficult to keep up. My thoughts kept drifting to the man at the bar.

What are the chances that the very man I had been avoiding these past two weeks, is the very same man I'm now forced to be in the same room with on a completely theater unrelated event?

I think Kaleb had picked up on my desires to stay away from him and talk to him as little out of character as possible. He had been trying even harder lately to make conversation, flirt with me, and even tried to touch me a few times again like he had at the one rehearsal.