Things We Never Saw Coming

Friday, 8pm

Stiles was late to work. Again. He bounced through the doors to The Onyx, bypassing Boyd with a frantic wave of his nametag. The club was packed for a Friday night, and Stiles found himself swept into the crowd of dancing, sweaty bodies as he tried to fight his way to the bar. Lydia was going to kill him for leaving her to run the bar alone—she was one of those people that never forgot a mistake. But Stiles was well prepared today. He clutched the iced coffee he’d picked up on his way over to his chest as he stumbled towards the bar.

“I’m sorry!” he exclaimed when he reached the bar, slamming the iced coffee onto the counter. “I know I’m late. My Jeep broke down by… umm…” He looked up slowly into the intense pale blue eyes of a man he’d never met. “Hi.”

The man’s thick eyebrows went up a little. “Hi.”

Stiles cleared his throat. “I’m styled—Stiles. I’m Stiles. I run the bar with Lydia… where is Lydia?”

The man shrugged his wide shoulders. Stiles squinted at the man’s nametag—Derek. Who the Hell was Derek? Was he new? “I think she’s in the storage room with Jackson again.”

Stiles made a gagging noise. “Never going in there again,” he grumbled before pointing behind the bar. “May I?”

Derek seemed baffled for a moment, but then the eyebrows went down and he moved aside so Stiles could sneak behind the bar. He ignored Stiles after that, though Stiles continued to stare at him.

“So did you just start here?” Stiles asked him after the silence between them had stretched over two minutes. The music was pumping through the club, but Stiles needed conversation.

“No.” Derek didn’t even look up from polishing the wine glasses to answer Stiles’ question. Well, that just wouldn’t do.

“Are you one of the weekday bartenders?”

“No.”

Stiles was miffed. There had to be something he could say that would make Derek look up from his meticulous polishing of the wine glasses. “Are you one of the strippers?”

Bingo. Derek’s eyes shot up to stare at Stiles, his mouth hanging open to reveal a slight overbite. How cute. “What?” He looked hastily down at himself, seemed to register his chiseled body for the first time, then looked back up at Stiles. After another moment of gaping, he repeated the process. “I’m not a stripper. I’m one of the bouncers during the week.”

“Kinky.”

Derek’s ears turned several shades of red. He glared at Stiles, who wasn’t even trying to conceal the huge grin on his face. “You know that’s not what I meant. I watch the door and let people in.” He turned back to polishing the wine glasses, but Stiles could see Derek’s jaw working furiously. He grinned.

“So what’s got you working the bar today?” he asked, pulling two beer bottles from under the counter for a customer.

Derek almost dropped the wine glass. This guy could not take a joke, could he? “Lydia needed someone to cover for her while she went on break,” he said quickly. “And you weren’t here yet, so…”

It would’ve been easy to tell Derek that he could go back to watching the door with Boyd, but Stiles was having too much fun with this. It had been a long time since he’d met someone so awkward. He was going to milk this for all it was worth. “So who’s the hotter stripper—Isaac or Danny?”

God, this guy was easy to startle. The wine glass slipped from Derek’s hand and plinked across the floor. Derek swiped it up and set it on the counter. “I’m not rating the strippers.”

“I think Isaac’s hotter,” Stiles said just to watch Derek squirm. “Danny’s hot, but he won’t tell me if I’m attractive to gay guys, so that kind of ruined his score. D’you think—“

“Whatcha’ guys talking about?” Lydia had appeared at the edge of the bar, one thin eyebrow arched up in curiosity.

Derek practically bolted over the counter to get out of the bar area, mumbling a hasty “Nothing” as he passed Lydia. She watched him powerhouse it back towards the door with a mixture of surprise and amusement. “What did you do to him?” she asked incredulously. “Derek’s one of the most abrasive, sulky people I know.”

Stiles shrugged, watching Derek disappear into the crowd. “I have no idea,” he said with a grin. “But it was fun.”

AUTHOUR'S NOTE: Should I keep going with this story, or just dump it here and do something else? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!