She was not prepared for what she walked into. She was not ready for his beautiful smile, or his brother's incredible blue eyes. She wasn't ready for the confusion and the heartache and the torture of working so closely to them. She wasn't ready to...
"We'll have two bourbons, one neat, the other with soda water." I'd seen her attempting to drink hard alcohol by itself and it certainly wasn't easy for her, so bourbon and soda would have to do.
"Where do you see yourself a few years from now?"
"Drinking bourbon, right here at this bar." She smiled, but rolled her eyes.
"I'm serious, Damien."
"I don't know, truthfully. I haven't known for a long time."
"Do you want to be here in this city?"
"I guess that depends."
"Depends on what?"
"Well, aren't you just little miss nosy today."
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"I'm just curious!" She giggled and sipped down her drink, it seemed to go down easier, but she still winced a little.
"Alright, alright...in five years...I hope I'm happily in a relationship. So, wherever she wanted to be, I'd want to be there with her. Whether it's here in New York, or down south, or out west...I'm thirty years old and I should be settled down by then. I hope I will be." Her thin fingers were cool as they squeezed my hand.
"You will. You're Damien Pilsner, I'm sure ladies throw themselves at you constantly." I gulped down a large sip and smirked.
"Mm...you'd be surprised." She wasn't wrong. Not at all...I had a contact list full of women that I could call whenever I wanted, but lately, I'd chosen to be alone. I just wasn't interested anymore.
"I think that may be the most modest sentence that has ever left your mouth."
"What about you, Rice? Where do you want to be?"
"New Orleans, maybe even sooner than five years." She said it without an ounce of hesitation.
"You're so sure."
"It's my home, Damien. Of course I'm sure."
"Does Julien know that?" I couldn't imagine my brother leaving his recently appointed position as CEO in less than five years.
"We've touched on it, I mean...we're apart now. I don't think me being in New Orleans instead of here will change anything."
"As your friend, I don't get too much of a say, do I?"
"Aside from Julien and my family...Damien, you're by far the most important person in my life. You have so much of a say."
"You've become such a constant...sometimes I feel like...well, all the time I feel like I can't live without you." I knew how over the line that was, but I needed her to hear it.
