Chapter 49

49. VVIP Music thrums from within the bar as well. It’s not as loud as the beats coming from the nightclub, but racy enough for many of the patrons to gyrate against one another in the small dancing space. The bar is nearly filled up with people, mostly young ones ranging from twenty-one to maybe forty, sitting on stools. and sipping various colored drinks. The bar is long, and there are about three bartenders manning at portion of it. Their moments are quick and efficient. One of them performs an elaborate routine with at cocktail shaker, spinning it in the air, shaking it according to a rhythm, occasionally opening it, and adding ingredients. The other slashes a charming grin to a gaggle of ladies at one end of the bar. This bartender is model handsome, and the pearly teethed smile makes the ladies swoon. On the other end of the bar, there is a group of frat boys taking shots, and the bartender fills small shot glasses with an amber-colored liquid.

The bartenders are all dressed entirely in black. They all look about my age.

Coraline grins at the whole display, and tugs on my arm, “come on, let’s find a seat”

We manage to squeeze onto a couple of seats in front of the bartender handy with the tumbler acrobatics.

“Oh, it has been too long,” Coraline smiles.

“Do you go to bars often?” I ask her after realizing that I don’t know much about her after-work activities when she was not spending time with me.

Coraline inclines her head in contemplation, “Well, I won’t say often. But once in a while when I want to let loose, I do. But after the shooting, I’ve been afraid you know. The last thing I wanted was to die because I had a few and couldn’t run away fast enough.”

I feel a pang of sadness for her situation and feel guilty for protesting coming here too much.

“If you want to go out back home,” I tell her against my better judgment, “you can give me a call. I can have your back, and dunno, take you home afterward. I’m not too into drinking, so I will be the designated. driver. Besides, I’ve got a sweet Maybach at my beck and call.”

Coraline shakes her head fondly, her expression grateful although she says, “you have an unhealthy obsession with that vehicle.” 1 “Hey, it’s a pretty cool car. Love at first sight and all that jazz.” She sighs exasperatedly, but I could say that she was pleased. It had been a while since she was like this, and I want to savor the moment for posterity.

The bartender slides in front of us after serving his previous clients with a thousand-megawatt grin. His hair is dyed an alarming shade of red, and his eyes are amber-colored from what I assume to be contract lenses, although they look hauntingly natural.

When he grins, it’s all teeth.

“Hello, folks, welcome to the Lowdown Bar. Haven’t seen you guys around here, so you must be new. My name’s Lemon and I will be your bartender for the evening.”

‘Lemon’. What an unusual name to have, I wonder if it’s his actual name. And then mentally slap myself because obviously, it’s not. Nicknames exist for a reason, although the bartender’s name-tag has the word ‘Lemon’ on it.

“That’s a pretty name,” Caroline, much less reserved than I am when confronted with curiosity, comments with a smile to match him.

“With a very long story.” Lemon provides, leaning across the bar, “and obviously not my real name, but I like the intrigue it causes in people. So, tell me, what’s a place like this, doing with a girl like you?”

Coraline giggles and I watch the two with a touch of amusement and something else that makes me want to bolt away with Coraline in tow. It’s a strangely mixed reaction.

“We’re here for a conference,” I reply, feeling like I should provide something for the conversation.

The bartender’s eyebrows raise “For the Forum thing down the road at the fancy hotel?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, damn.” Lemon comments, contorting his body so he faces me, “I didn’t know they let interns attend such places.”

“Oh, Jace here is not an intern,” Coraline chirps before I can say ‘yeah, but my boss was feeling lenient,” he’s a COO.”

Lemon’s eyebrows hike further up his forehead, “Well, double damn. You must be really something to get a position like that at your age.”

I shrug, feeling uncomfortable with the praise, “A good deal of nepotism was involved,” I reply, not wanting to take the credit for working hard.

Lemon chuckles at that. “You’re honest, I like you. And hey, who wouldn’t like a bit of nepotism here and there? So, tell me, what can I get you, folks?”

Coraline orders some sort of cocktail with the word ‘virgin’ in the name, and I settle for a soda.

“Not a drinker?” Lemon asks.

“Nope.”

“You’re getting more and more interesting.” He comments before sliding away to mix drinks.

Coraline chats about nothing and everything while we wait for our drinks, laughing and looking as free as a bird. Against everything I predicted, I end up actually enjoying my time there with her. I have to admit. that I see the appeal of going to a bar once in a while, without even having the drinking factor. I don’t feel. as stressed as I was before, or even jittery. Coraline and I can pretend to be a couple of college kids, without any sort of responsibilities other than getting on with life and getting good grades. We can pretend to have no life-threatening shooting happening in our home city, and that he did not meet the father of a man who might be having it out for the both of us. No, here, where we’re being served with a flirty waiter who seemed to have no qualms about gender whatsoever, we could pretend to be just Jace and Coraline.

That is until Lemon scoots closer to say, “you know, there’s a pretty sweet VVIP area in this place, and it serves the best drinks available. Plus, it’s calmer and quieter. Wanna hit it up there?”

Not thinking much about it, I shrug, “yeah, sure.”

“Great, just go to the dude at the entrance and pay for a temporary membership, and you will be good to go!”