𝐒𝐮𝐠𝐚𝐫 ✓ [𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐎𝐍𝐄]

✎chapter twenty five × just a friend

brooklyn, new york
castillo's
ten fourty three pm
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SIX MONTHS LATER
[warning: this ones gonna hurt]

"Martini over here!"

"Got it!" I call.

  I get to hunting out the vermouth and gin, making a note of the gradually increasing crowd. It's busy for this time of day, even for a weekend. Not to mention the snow outside.

  But I don't bother to complain, I'm glad for the business. I look over across the bar, where my dad is training one of our newest.

  I don't really know what convinced me to come back to New York. Half a year later and I still can't quite come up with an answer, but I don't regret it. There's a certain homesickness that sets in that I tried to deny for a while, but eventually I succumbed to it.

  I hand the martini over to the woman who requested it and clear off some other people's drinks.

  The dense crowd sends me into a bit of a panic, but it's a pressurized frenzy that I've actually come to miss. It's slower paced here and in some ways I'm grateful for that. But there was a certain rush about serving 60 patrons in a night. But eventually, things start to wind down. People have their drinks and their food and eventually start to file out one by one.

  "Manhattan over here." I hear being shouted from across the bar.

  "Nia, cover that one for me!" My coworker calls it.

"Yup." I call back, topping of a beer on tap and sliding it to a customer before working on the Manhattan.

  I finish it and walk it over to the man who ordered it, clad in a cap that covers his eyes.

  Setting the drink down, I voice a quick 'enjoy' before turning.

  I barely walk a few steps before the man says something.

"It's not as good as last time."

I stop in my tracks. I recognize that voice.

  Turning, I immediately take the mans cap from his head. My fingers clutch it to my chest when his face illuminates in the light.

  "Angelo?"

"Did you miss me, Sugar?"

  Looking around, I lean in closer to him and drop my voice to a whisper.