Stay With Me

1. Watching

Defenders Bar. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. July 2018. (Two months after The Snap.)

Juliette pushes her blonde hair behind her shoulder, letting the golden strands fall down her back. She smiles at a patron sitting across the bar from her. The polished wood gleams under the neon lights splashing across the surface.

"We'll have four Captain America's!" The college kid cheers.

"Celebrating?"

"Yeah, not being snapped." He laughs and slaps his friends chest with the back of his hand. He eyes her and nods with a smirk.

Juliette forces a smile. Why she ever agreed to have shots named after each of the Avengers she has yet to understand. Everyone wants some Captain America. Few know, she did. For years. Now she wishes she never opened an Avengers themed bar. Fuck Louie for this ridiculous idea, even though she makes bank off of it.

It seems like a great idea at the time. Two years ago, when Steve's sudden disappearance was as fresh as a new wound. Gone with no warning, no phone call, no text. Like he never existed and the four years they were together never happened. Like she imagined it all. Until she remembers the diamond sitting in her underwear drawer and all the pain from the day she realized Steven Grant Rogers — Captain America — was never coming back.

Juliette spins around, grabbing the bottle of Blue Curacao and the bottle of Grenadine. Patrons always love watching her make the floating American flag themed shot. She hates it.

Since The Snap happened two months ago, her bar has been packed every night with people. Those mourning The Vanished, those grateful to be alive and those celebrating loved ones not lost.

"Make yourself one." The kid nods towards her, flirting with he hope of getting lucky in some fashion with the hot blonde bartender.

"I don't drink this crap." Juliette flirts back. She isn't lying, she refuses to drink her ex-fiancé's themed shot. Instead she mixes herself a gin and lime. She winks at the kid who doesn't stand a damn chance and downs her drink on his tab before he realizes what happened.

At 1:30 on the dot, 30 minutes before last call a man slinks into the bar and finds an unoccupied booth in the back. The low lights help keep his identity hidden as he watches the blonde behind the bar.

She smiles at someone, a genuine smile. One that makes her eyes sparkle, like the diamond at her nose and the one shining at her naval. Not the one missing from her finger however. Regardless his heart races.

A waitress walks up to the booth he sat himself at. Forcing him to look away from Juliette.

"What can I get ya hon?"

"Whatever's on tap" His deep sultry voice makes the waitress gulp.

"This is a bar, we have everything on tap."

"Guinness then."

She smiles and nods. He can't help but feel grateful the waitress is gone. He's looked for Jules for almost two years. And when he finally finds her, Thanos showed up and made 3.5 billion people disappear.

To say he was relieved to learn his fiancé survived The Snap was beyond an understatement. But who is he to walk back into her life after two years of silence.

Before she pours his beer, another man steps up to bar. He calls for Juliette. She spins and grins, standing on her tip toes to reach over the bar and kisses the man. Steve pushes the jealousy down watching her kiss someone else. Of course she would move on. He gave her no indication he was coming back.

He never called, never wrote. Just left to protect Bucky. Part of him simply assumed she would always be there, waiting for him to come back. But that was never the type of woman Juliette was. She made him work for her, God did he work.