He's The One (Blake Griffin Fan-Fiction)

Chapter 39 - Not So Complicated After All

When I get off the plane, I head straight for my hotel. After I check I in, I go to room 408. I wasn’t in the mood to unpack so I don’t. Instead I change into a striped brown and black sweater and black jeans because London was much colder than California. I decide to the hotel restaurant, which had a bar. I sit at the counter as a man approaches me. He had dark brow eyes and light brown hair. He was tall and wore all black.

“Can I get you anything?” He said from the other side of the bar counter. I read his name tag that read Eric.

“Ummm.” I look up behind him at the drinks menu.

“I’ll take this one.” Another bartender said talking about me. He had very defining facial hair, grayish greenish eyes and dark black hair. He gave me a warm welcoming smile as he made his way over to me. “You don’t drink often, do you?”

“How can you tell?” I say sighing.

“You actually looked at the menu.”

“So, it’s that obvious?”

He nods and flashes me another adorable smile. “Yeah.”

“Well, what do you recommend?”

“It depends on why you’re drinking.”

“Well, I’ve just had a real shitty couple of weeks and what better way to forget than with alcohol?”

“I have the perfect thing for that.” He reaches down under the counter and pulls out a small shot glass and a bottle. “What kind of problems are you having anyway?” he says pulling the drink.

I take it. “Personal ones.”

“Do these problems include you having a boyfriend?”

“It’s complicated.” I drink quickly. Squeezing my eyes shut and puckering my lips in the process, because of the burning sensation in my chest and awful taste in my mouth.

He laughs.

“Yeah. That’s enough for me.” I let out a slight chuckle too.

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For the next hour or so, we talked and laughed with one another. I check the time on my phone. It was late and I needed to be up early in the morning.

“That’s the third time you’ve checked your phone.” He says as I put my phone down and look up. “How long do I have you for?”

“I actually have to go. But, I'm staying here so…I’ll see you around?”

“I hope so.” While getting up, I put a ten on the counter. “I’d rather have your number.”

I sigh with a slight grin. I take a napkin and he hands me a pen. When I write down my number I had it to him. Just as I’m about to leave, he calls after me. “I still don’t know you’re name.”

I turn back. “Melanie.”

“Derek.” He looks down at my number in his hand and as I stand there, this time I call to him.

“By the way,” He looks up when he hears me. “No.”

“No?”

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

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The next day I wear white and black jeans with a long sleeve black shirt and high heel black boots and a leather jacket. My first day was pretty basic. Trying to learn everyone’s name, getting a tour around the building and a general feel of how everything works. When I finish work, I walk outside to see Derek sitting at the bottom out two long flight of stairs, on a bench. When I walk over to him, he stands up.

“Hi.” Derek says.

“What are you doing here?”

“I just wanted to say hi.”

“How did you know what time I’d be out?”

“Perrone always sets up his interns at his hotel. I figured you got out the same everyone else did.”

“I don’t know whether this is totally flattering or extremely creepy.”

“Probably both.” We both laugh. We walked along side each other as we talked. We ended up in a near by Starbucks, where we got coffee and a table.

“So, tell me.”

“What?”

“You’re in London. But no accent. What's your story? Or have you just always loved bartending in a foreign country?"

"Well, my parents were suffocating me. Anywhere in the US would have not been far enough. I came here on vacation and just kinda stayed. I started bartending and I figured here was better than anywhere around them."

"Oh, so you're a bad boy?"

"Something like that." He says, flashing another smile my way.