Caught in the rain... {Juciy x female reader}

5. ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀ ʜᴏᴜʀꜱ

        The bar was usually busy, but tonight it was drink order after drink order. I was exhausted. The only upside to working right now was Ashley was right there with me. It was about 11 o clock, and everybody needed a drink. Some were partying, and celebrating, and others were drinking to relax, and drinking to forget. There are a couple guys in here who we have to cut off after their next one. Policy.
       "Hey y/n," Ashely called to me, walking over. "Can you take over those couple guys over there? They're bothering me a bit." I looked over and the guys she pointed out. They were goofing around, slamming down draft beer like there was no tomorrow.
      "Yeah no problem, what did they want?"
      "More draft Guinness"
      "On it, don't worry about them anymore I'll cover it."
      "Thank you," she smiled at me. There was no doubt in my mind that Ashley was hung over horribly right now. The least I could do is make things easier for her. I grab two mugs from underneath the countertop and fill them both with Guinness, setting them down in front of the two guys.
     "Hey where's the pretty red head one?!" One of the men asked me.
     "Sick of your shit." I responded, trying to walk away to tend to the other customers.
     "Hey now wait a minute, you ladies arnt allowed to cuss at us," he sneered. Technically we're given more leeway when customers are harassing staff.
    "Yes we are. Another thing she's allowed to do, is reject you without you having to harass her. Keep this up and I'm afraid you're going to have to leave." I sneered back, maintaining eye contact to intimidate them, setting my hands on the bar. I didn't realize that doing so would be a mistake, when one tried to trace my fingers seductively. I took their drinks away from them, poured them out, and set the mugs in the sink.
      "Leave." I demanded.
      "Bitch! I already paid for that drink!"
       I didn't say anything back to him. I pointed towards the door, and thankfully all he did was put his hands up in the air defensively, and started to walk away with his friend following shortly behind him. I watched them leave out the front doors. As they were leaving, at the same time as them someone else stepped through the doors, with his eyebrows furrowed as if he was confused as to why they were walking out. I noticed the man right away.
      "You're not going to kick me out like those two back there right?" He called to me, walking up to the bar.
      "Gaege? What are you doing here?" My stern look softened at the sight of him. He walked up and took a seat in the empty stool in front of me.
      "Y/n we can't keep meeting like this." I loved the way he said my name.
      "Meeting like what?" I smiled, wiping down the spilled beer on the counter in front of him.
      "Coincidentally."
      I let out a little breathy laugh.
      "Yeah, okay. Are you sure this time is just a coincidence?" I questioned him.
      "Yeah totally, one hundred percent." He flashed me a warm smile. I decided to play along.
      "Well is there anything I can get for you stranger?"
      "I'll take a sea breeze, seeing as though you like it so much." He was referring to the club. "I've gotta try it again." I smiled at his endearment.
       "One sea breeze coming up." I walked away and went to go mix him his drink. I felt his eyes watch me do so. "So why did you coincidentally decide to show up here?" I asked him.
      "I'm actually meeting my friend Josh here for some drinks. He's from Australia, and he wants to go out as much as possible before he has to leave to go back home next month. So I told him I knew a place."
      "And that place being my place of work?" I asked him, pouring out his drink into the glass, mesmerized by the drink flowing over the ice.
      "You being here is just a bonus." He smiled at me and I set his drink in front of him. He took a sip of it, and gave me a look of approval.
     "That's really good, thank you" he started pulling out his wallet to pay. I had to stop him.
     "It's on the house. Don't worry about it."
     "Are you sure?" He asked, giving me a look of gratitude.
      "Yes of course, you've covered me one too many times, so I gotta repay your kindness." I smiled, continuing to mix drinks for others at the bar.
      I kept conversation with him as much as I possibly could while working. The busy place seemed to die down a little, so I wasn't constantly tending to orders. About 10 minutes later his friend Josh walks in and takes a seat next to him. They were engaged in conversation with eachother for awhile, then Ashley came up to me.
     "Only two more hours left." She mentioned as if she couldn't wait to get off of work. I looked at the clock to clarify.
     "Hey do you wanna stop at my place for a couple hours after work?" I asked her.
     "Yeah of course!" She lit up.
     "Okay, cool. Hey, can you bring this to Gaege's friend down there? I gotta help these women over here," I pointed down to Gaege, handing Ashley Josh's drink.
      "Who the cute one?" I sighed.
      "I mean I guess, blue eyes, Australian."
      "So the cute one," Ashley couldn't take her eyes off of him.
      "Sure, just go." She was on her way to Josh with his drink. I watched her to make sure she was giving it to the right guy and she was. Gaege looked over at me and gave me a pleasantly surprised look, and mouthed the words "they're flirting" to me. I let my mouth drop, which make him laugh to himself.
       

༺♱༻

     My shift ended at 1am, and Gaege and Josh were still here, finishing up a game of pool. I finished cleaning up the glasses, and Ashley was finishing up wiping down the counters. The bar was almost completely empty. I heard the click of the cue balls together and Josh call out in triumph. It seems like Gaege had lost. He put the stick back and came up to me.
      "Heading out?"
      "Yeah, me and Ashley were gonna go back to my place for a little while. I think she's going to spend the night again."
      "That sounds fun, me and Josh are just gonna go back to my place and he's probably going to pass out the moment he hits his mattress." I laughed to my self.
      "Hey do you and Josh wanna stop by? Stay however long you'd like you know," I immediately scolded myself. I sound desperate, weird even. What if he says no? What then?
      "Yeah, that sounds great, I'm pretty sure I still have your address in my phone."
      "Yeah that's right," I smiled, and he smiled back.
      "So I'm gonna close up, and head out, see you soon?" I asked. Gaege put his hands in his pocket.
      "Yeah, see you soon." His smile made me feel all warm inside. I hated walking away from him, but I had to.
       Me and Ashley had made it out to my car, and before I got into the drivers seat, I watched Gaege and Josh get into theirs first. I climbed into mine, started the engine, and headed out of the parking lot back to my place.

       After I had parked, killed the engine, and gotten out of the car, I saw Gaege pull up beside me. I quickly escaped to the sidewalk to give him room. I had gotten a head start to the apartment door. I was shuffling for me keys, opened the door and headed up the stairs. The three behind me were chatting it up.
      I opened the door to my apartment, setting my keys down on a nearby table and allowing everyone in before shutting the door. Ashley set down her bag near the couch and took a seat.
      "You guys can have a seat if you'd like," I motioned to my living room. Gaege kept his hands in his pockets, while Josh went to sit by Ashley. Gaege started up conversation with me.
     "So you said you're an artist?" He asked me. I nodded in agreement.
     "Yeah, I try."
     "I'm not really seeing any like... artsy stuff out here." He looked around the main room.
     "Well let me show you," I gestured him to come follow me, and he did. I walked down the hall and to my studio door. I opened it and allowed him inside. He looked amazed. I flipped on the switch revealing the rest of the room, with my unfinished painting still on the easel in the middle of the room. He went to go look at that first, as I closed the door behind me.
      "You did this?" He asked, pointing at my unfinished painting.
      "Yeah, but it's not done." I was fidgeting with my fingers again.
      "Still looks really good so far, and you did all of these?" He asked me, looking around at the walls that held my paintings. From forests, to mountains, to cities, to my window at the front of the room. He looked as if he adored them all, and that made me feel lighthearted.
      "This is amazing..." he said out loud, but almost as a whisper. "It's like your life's work is all in this one room." He moved to the window.
      "Here lemme show you this," I moved back to the light switch to flip it down, turning off the light. His face instantly lit up as he looked out the window. The town lights shone through. I walked over to it to look out with him. Florida at 1am didn't look that bad. I shifted my body to face Gaege, and he took his eyes off of the window and onto me. Looking up at him, most of his face was dark because of the lack of light, but the right side of his face with lit up with some light from the moon, and the town. The air grew tense. Intimate.
     "So um... that's my studio." I sounded like I was concluding a tour.
     "It looks very nice.." he said in almost a whisper. I wasn't even sure if he was talking about my studio anymore. I couldn't say anything. Hell I couldn't even breathe. The silence was so loud, and deafening, I had no idea what to do. But he figured it out for me. He cleared his throat, took a step back and spoke.
     "I think I better take Josh home before he falls for your friend." I laughed to himself.
     "Wouldn't be the worst thing, Ashley's had a rough love life." Gaege thought for a minute. 
     "I could see it happening."
     "See what?" I couldn't tell if he was talking about Ashley not having a great love life or Josh falling for her.
     "I could see Josh with Ashley." He started walking and talking with me, heading for the door.
     "We could totally make it happen," I joked with him, opening the door, allowing him through.
     "It's possible."
     We headed out into the living room to see Ashley and Josh laughing, and actually getting along nicely. It made me smile.
     "Josh we're gonna head out, it's getting late." Gaege broke it to Josh.
     "Oh, alright. I'll see you around Ashley." Josh got up off of the couch and headed for the door towards Gaege. Ashley waved goodbye to him. Gaege flashed a quick warm smile to me before opening the front door and shutting it behind him. I could finally breathe. I took a deep breath and sighed.
     "You really like him don't you?" Ashley asked me. I didn't know how to answer her. But maybe I do.