In Demand || Jensoo

Chapter 1

Chapter 1
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"Did it hurt?" a male voice behind her asked.

Oh, you have got to be shitting me. He's not seriously going to go there?

"Pardon me?" Jisoo asked as if she hadn't heard his woeful line.

"I said," he gave her a shit-eating grin that said he thought he was Tom Cruise in Top Gun, even though he looked more like a sandy-haired, freckle-faced version of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, "did it hurt? You know, when you fell out of heaven?"

He went there. Sweet God in Galveston, he actually went there.

The man, who was a good ten years older than her and had one of those 'Hello, my name is' stickers on his jacket lapel, sat down on the stool next to her and placed his drink on the bar.

"A scotch-rocks for me and whatever the lady's having," he said to the bartender.

The young man in the dazzling white shirt and plaid vest standing behind the counter picked up a glass and started filling it with ice while he waited expectantly for her order.

"Nothing for me, thanks," she informed him politely. The bartender nodded and gave her what she thought was a supportive and pitying smile and went back to fixing the scotch on the rocks.

"Aw, come on. What do you have there?"

She half-turned towards him and looked at his name badge. Phill, it said, with two Ls. No doubt he thought the extra L made him more colourful.

"Club soda. I don't drink." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She didn't want to be impolite, but she really wasn't interested in him or in having company. She had picked the bar because it was the quietest one she could find in the resort.

"Everyone drinks," he chuckled.

"I don't." She tried to keep her voice flat, not rude, but not encouraging, either. She wanted her tone to convey 'Nothing personal - I just don't want company'.

"Driving somewhere?" He didn't seem to be taking the hint.

"That'll be six dollars, sir," the bartender announced, putting his drink down.

Phill did a double take, for un-hilarious non-comedy effect. "How much?"

"Six dollars, sir." The tone was still polite but the fake smile and the slightly narrowed eyes said that he thought Phill was a tool. It made Jisoo smirk into her club soda.

Phill pulled a ten from his wallet and placed it on the bar - not in the bartender's hand, but on the bar. That sort of casual lack of respect and manners infuriated Jisoo. The fact that he took the full four dollars in change and didn't even give the bartender a dollar's tip was even more reprehensible to her. She'd done that job as a student. Rude people who didn't tip had been her pet peeve. Actually, they'd probably been the second-worst. Anyone who snapped their fingers to get her attention had been top of her black list. She never served customers out of turn and hated when people thought she would respond to dismissive hand gestures. She gave the barman an eye-roll. He grinned slyly back and shrugged.

"So, driving?" Phill repeated.

"No." If he wasn't going to take the hint, then she was at least going to make him work hard for it.

"Are you here for the conference?" he plowed on, obliviously cheerful.

"No. Just a stopover." That was a lie. She was there for her best friend's wedding, but telling him that might encourage him into asking further questions.