in the middle of a nearly empty small town, a tiny restaurant and bar sat on the corner of a street. on the outside, it was brick, and the sign was worn out and weathered from so many years of being hung up. the doors were wooden and the windows were darkened, but as the girl drew closer and closer, she could hear the sounds of chatter and glasses clacking together coming from within the room. when she pulled open the door, those sounds became louder and enveloped her senses.
people sat at tables and played games of poker while others sat at the bar and ordered drinks. the air smelled of alcohol, maybe partly due to the fact that there seemed to be a few puddles of it on the floor beside broken glasses. the place was a madhouse, but something about it was also intriguing. it magnetically pulled her in, kept pulling her until she had sat down on one of the barstools herself.
a young man emerged from somewhere behind the counter, the sleeves of his white button up shirt rolled up to his biceps and his dark brown hair feathering over his forehead. he wore a flirtatious smile as he rested his arms on the bar top, leaning forward ever so slightly.
"you must be new here," he said, his eyes looking her up and down as he studied her "i haven't seen you around before."
"i just moved here," she told him, offering a small smile.
"well, then hopefully that means that you'll come by more often," he stated. "now, is there anything that i can get you?"
"i'll take a champagne," she replied.
"sure," he said, turning around to grab a bottle. he quickly poured some into a glass cup without spilling even a drop. it was obvious that he spent a lot of his time doing this.
"is that all?" he asked as she pulled some cash out of her pocket. after finding enough to pay for the drink, and to leave him a tip, she placed the money on the counter and looked up at him.
"yeah, that's everything," she said, offering him a polite smile. "thank you."
"no problem," he replied. he stared at her for a few seconds, which frightened her just a bit. something about his eyes was so breathtaking, she found that it was quite difficult to return his gaze. they seemed to pick her apart, to dig into her.
"i'm tyler, by the way. let me know if you need anything else," he finally spoke, turning away to tend to another customer.
"wait, tyler!" she called. "your money!" she looked down at the countertop, only to see that the money was gone and that he had somehow taken it without her noticing. she glanced at him with furrowed eyebrows, totally perplexed as to how he had done that so sneakily. all he did was send her a wink, and then he was off to the other side of the bar, speaking with some girls who had just sat down.
although she couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, she could tell that he interacted with these girls the same way that he had with her. that flirty smile, the leaning in over the counter. it made her stomach sink the slightest bit. she had only just met him, but some part of her hoped that maybe she stood out to him. that he would only act that way towards her. of course, she shouldn't have expected it. that was probably just his business tactic. if he flirted with so many girls and gave them the illusion that they were special, then they'd be more likely to come in and buy a drink.
it truly was stupid of her to believe that she had felt something there, especially when she didn't know a single thing about this man. for all she knew, she couldn't trust him. the way he had brought no attention to himself when he had taken the money, she knew that trick. she used it herself plenty of times when deceiving others. it was a necessary skill to have when you lived in a town like this and needed all the money that you could get. she was just shocked that he had been able to do it to her, when she had done it so many times before. she must've really been distracted by him to allow that to happen. she just couldn't let it happen again because she could've easily gotten robbed.
