The Secret Lives of Fireflies

A Bar to Call Home

We all know Dev's story, and she's got the whole badass falls in love for the first time and things are great and she's bat shit terrified and she's got problems and all of those other Devon Raines things, but my story isn't like that.

At all.

In fact, my story is boring compared to hers.

Then again, what's so wrong with a boring story?

You don't always need the best story to get the girl, you just need the story that works for you. And that's what I've got. The story that got me the girl in the longest, most horrendous, terribly boring way possible.

If you've got the option, choose Devon's, do the scary things and fall in love and ask women out and do all of that stuff that scares the shit out of you, because it's worth it. No story works without that, even this story has a little bit, but not as much.

The best part is, you don't need much to change your life.

This is how I, Janice Linton, fell in love with a girl named Lucy Calberand.

I moved to Seattle with Devon right after high school, we'd always talked about moving out there together, every since we were kids. BFF's I guess, which if you know anything about Devon and I, that is not a phrase we typically use. Bros, that's what we are. Pool buddies.

Even best men.

But that's Devon's story, this one is mine, and Devon is in it of course, she's been my best friend through thick and thin, but let's focus on me now. Devon always gets all that attention, and she damn well deserves it, but you already know her story, so I won't waste time telling you again.

We moved here and got signed up for schools and started jobs and fell into the natural order of things in Seattle, Washington. Devon and I are like most young adults just under the drinking age, we enjoy a couple drinks every now and again, which is why we got the fake IDs to begin with, but we didn't care so much about the drinking as the pool.

Pool was everything to Dev and I, it was how we spent almost every afternoon together. Well, the afternoons that I wasn't making her do crazy things with me. Crazy things was how we became friends, pool was how we learned about each other, because it wasn't about pool, it was about talking. And just hanging out, like friends do.

So we bar hopped for a while, a long while actually, looking for a place that was perfect for us. Devon had stopped believing in love a few months before and was really starting to enact the whole sleeping with women a lot thing that went along with that. I was doing it too, but I still believed in love, I just hadn't met the right girl yet was all. So I passed the time with other women until I would finally meet her, I expected it to be a few years or something, but it wasn't. I was so wrong about that.

In fact, on one of our bar hopping nights, Dev told me about this new bar she had heard of, and so we went. We wanted a place to call home, and so I had no objections in seeing if this place could be that for us.

We walked in and Dev went to set up the table, getting the pool sticks and everything out for us while she sent me to get a few beers. We had already shown our IDs at the door, so I wasn't too worried about going up to the bar and asking.

I walked up and rested my forearms against the bar, leaning forward to get a better look at the alcohol on the wall to see what they had while I wanted.

"What'll you have?"

I didn't look towards the voice at first, instead I answered her question. "Do you have Saint Florian IPA here?" I asked, looking at the wall of alcohol for it.

"'Course. We support our firefighters pretty well in this bar, they mean a lot to me and my family. How many do you want?" The voice asked.

Saint Florian IPA was a local beer that was named after the patron saint of firefighters, I didn't care so much about that, but the fact that it was a great beer and part of the proceeds went to the Washington State Council of Firefighters benevolent fund. It was a good cause, and I was happy to support it and get that great taste.

I looked over to answer this time and that was my first mistake.

Dirty blonde hair was pulled up into a loose ponytail with a few strands of hair that had freed themselves from the hair tie and hung next to her face. She had light brown eyes with little flecks of gold and pink lips that were curled into a smile at me. A tight, white tank top and the straps of a teal bra showing on her shoulders with a pair of light blue skinny jeans that hugged her hips in the best way.

God she was gorgeous.

Have you ever looked at someone and felt your stomach drop and your throat close? That's the person she was. The one so mind numbingly hot that you forget how to talk. Dev didn't think that, but Devon can be wrong too. Or maybe it's just that there's one person out there that everyone feels like that about, I don't really know, all I know is that this woman, this bartender, was a goddess who lowered themselves to the mortal world. A modern day Aphrodite.

I had completely forgotten the question by now, and so I just managed a choked, "Yes."

Her smile grew, "That's not what I asked."

"Oh." I whispered. "What was the question?" I was probably beet red by now.

"How many?"

"Two." I muttered.

"I'll get you those then." She said and I watched her turn and walk away, her ass swaying as she moved. I may have drooled a little at the sight, but I recovered by the time she came back and set the bottle on the counter for me.

"Not for a girlfriend, I'm single. I'm here to play pool with a friend. It's a thing we do. We're new here and we're looking for a good place to go to a lot." I was babbling, but this girl didn't care, instead she smiled a little bit wider and her eyes watched me intently.

"Hope to see you again then. I'm Lucy, but you can call be Luce, everyone does. I own this place and I bartend most nights too."

"Janice, but don't call me that. I like Jan. I think we'll come to this place more." I looked over my shoulder where Devon was inspecting the table closely. "She's a snob about pool tables, but once she's done with her inspection you won't have to worry about her doing it any more. She's a good person, but if you get a lot of heartbroken women around here, don't be surprised. She has an addiction for women, but not in the best ways."

"I don't have to worry about you?" She asked, and eyebrow raised artfully, and trust me, it was art.

I looked her over again and bit my lip without even realizing it and shook my head. "Nope." I whispered. "I'm not that type really."

She smiled and looked over her shoulder to where another customer was waiting, then looked back to me. "Enjoy your drinks and your pool. I'll see you soon, right?"

"Definitely." I whispered and watched her walk away.

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Some of you have been asking, and I've thinking about it a lot, and I think that it would be nice to have this story.

Anyways, this will be shorter than most of my books I think, it won't be super long, but it will be long enough to see more of these two characters that I like and think are cute, but that don't make a huge apperance in Cravings.

Also, if you haven't read Cravings, do it, that is Devon's story, the best friend, and it's pretty great if I say so myself. Also the bunches of people who read it. Cravings has been number 107 on the What's Hot Romance list before and up in the 100's and 200's a lot, so if you haven't read it, it's at least a little bit worth reading. (I'm not sure if it's really that super great a book but getting to 107 was crazy exciting, and the book is not bad, so read it. Please?)