Kathleen O'Reilly - New York Nights

Lindy rolled one shoulder forward. “He’s only in my mind.”

Tessa, who was on a first name basis with the idea of fantasy lovers, nodded with approval. “Sometimes it’s better when they’re only in your mind.”

“As opposed to being only in your vagina?”

Tessa told herself she would not blush, she would not blush, she would not blush.

She blushed.

“Want to spill any secrets?” asked Lindy.

“Nope. Nope, nope, nope.”

“Glad somebody is getting something around here.” Lindy looked toward the front. “And speak of the devil.”

“Hey,” answered Gabe, smoothly walking in the door as if he owned the place. Which he did.

Tessa looked at Lindy wide-eyed, terrified and willing thoughts of Hudson Towers back into her feeble brain. “Don’t you dare.”

Lindy winked. “Not daring at all.” Then she waved at Gabe as if everything was right with the world. “Hey, boss.”

Gabe headed downstairs, and Lindy finished polishing the beer taps. A moment later she put her hands on her hips, took a long look around and then sighed happily. “I’m off.”

“You don’t have to leave on my account,” said Tessa, not sure she wanted to be alone with Gabe. Actually, she desperately wanted to be alone with Gabe, her weakened flesh already crying to be alone with Gabe. And with Lindy gone? She was toast. Weakened-flesh toast.

“Good night, Tess. And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Lindy added, waving and disappearing into the night.

Leaving Tessa alone. With Gabe.

Actually, she thought, looking around the empty bar. It wasn’t so bad. With Gabe downstairs, he was out of visual range, out of touching range, out of kissing range and out of tasting range.

Of course, he took that exact moment to appear. Tessa jumped.

“How did it go with the apartment today?” he asked, a completely casual, logical conversation starter.

“I didn’t take it.”

“Too small?” he asked, acting completely innocent, completely polite and completely casual.

Tessa stared at him suspiciously. “No, it was huge.”

“So what was the problem, Tess?” he prodded, not so innocent anymore, not so polite anymore and—aha—not so carefree anymore, either.

“He has a dog,” she answered truthfully.

“You don’t like dogs?” he asked.

“They’re messy and smelly.”

“Right, I didn’t know you felt that way. I like cats.”

Tessa nodded, picked up a rag and stared rescrubbing the bar sink. A sink could never get too clean. “Yes, yes, I do. Give me a cat any day. Much more suited to apartment living.”

“Oh.” He stood there, watching her work. “Tessa?” he started, and she could read the soul-searching curiosity in his eyes.

“How was poker night?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject because if there was any soul-searching to be done, it wasn’t about to be her soul under the microscope.

Gabe, never obtuse, took the hint. “Lost a bundle. Was doing good at the start, but then Cain came in for the win and started getting the hot hands.”

“Sorry.”

“Was the place busy tonight? The receipts look good.”

“Drenched a customer in vodka,” Tessa admitted, happy to be talking about work. Talking about work was good.

Gabe frowned. “He wasn’t getting too friendly, was he?”

“It was a she. And, no, it was only me being clumsy.”

“You’re never clumsy.”

Maybe she wasn’t clumsy with her hands, but sometimes Tessa was clumsy with her life. “There’s a first for everything. Her name was Marisa and she’s a Realtor,” she started, deciding that now was as good a time as any to fulfill her commitment to set up Marisa with Gabe.

“I bet you two had a lot to talk about. Actually, did you ever think about real estate, Tessa? I think you’d be good at it.”

She looked at him and was easily diverted from her match-making goal by the much more interesting idea of pursuing a career in real estate. But sales?

However, Gabe looked serious. As if he wasn’t joking. As if he thought she could do it. “I think I’d be really bad at it.”

“Is that a joke?” he asked.

“No. I can’t do sales.”

“But when you know what you’re doing, it’s not like selling, more like…I don’t know…finding people and matching them to what they want—and that you could do. Definitely.”

“I don’t know, Gabe,” she started, because she had already decided on a career path and, okay, a D on an accounting test wasn’t the most promising of signs, but if she kept changing her path, who knew where she’d end up? Probably a chain-smoker at forty-seven, still tending bar, with a tattoo on her arm that said Mother to match the D-E-N-N-Y that was still tattooed on her butt.

“What’s the safest apartment building in the city?” asked Gabe.

“The Lucerne,” she answered, ripping her mind off the creepy image of a Mother tattoo.

“I’m looking for a building. Pets, walk-up, in Battery Park, and I don’t want to pay too much. Where should I start?”

“Liberty Manor,” she said automatically, and Gabe gave her one of those annoying I-told-you-so looks.

Slowly it dawned on her that, yes, Gabe was correct. “You think I could do it? I wouldn’t, uh, scare people?” she asked, mentally comparing her wine-stained T-shirt to Marisa’s unwrinkled suit.

“Certainly you could do it. But don’t quit your night job. I’m not ready to lose my best bartender.”

Tessa tossed her rag in his direction. “You’re the best bartender here, Gabe.”

“I can’t put myself in the competition. Wouldn’t be fair.”

He smiled at her then, looking at Tessa as if she could do anything. And she wanted to believe that.

“Slacker,” she teased.

“Speaking of slacker, do you know if they delivered the wood next door?”

“Lindy didn’t say anything, but…”

He cocked his head toward the street. “Come on, we’ll check it out. You’re not in a hurry to get home, are you?”

Home . He said it so easily, and she bought into this whole I-can-live-there-forever fantasy so easily. Still, she shook her head, drifting along, not willing to correct him. “No, I had a cup of coffee at eleven.”

“Jeez, you’re never getting any sleep tonight.”

They walked outside and around the corner to the empty space next door. The early-summer wind was perfect and a soft rain was just starting to fall. Tessa lifted her face to the warm water, feeling herself come alive.

The old bodega had stood vacant for all of two weeks before Gabe had jumped all over it. The truth was, the crowds at Prime did usually bump over capacity, and buying the old space back had been a smart idea. Of course, Gabe was good that way. Making a plan, executing and then seeing it through to success. He didn’t wait for anything, or let anything get in his way.

While Tessa watched, he used his keys to lift the grate and then unlock the door.

“We’ll have power tomorrow if the gods at Con Ed are agreeable, but tonight darkness rules,” he said, as the glass door creaked open.

Tessa followed him through, curious to see the guts of the place now that it was empty. In the darkness there wasn’t a lot to see, but even so, she could sense his enthusiasm.

“S’all right,” she told him, picking her way around the spools of electrical cable and the mess of tools scattered throughout the place. She stumbled over a power cord, and he caught her arm.

“I’ve got it,” she said and quickly pulled her arm free.

“Sure,” he answered, his voice cooling a degree.

Then she noticed the presence of most of telltale cans of Dr Pepper. Gabe was the only person in New York she knew who drank Dr Pepper.