Ennis huffed as she drew her coat tighter around her body as she headed down the street, textbook and notebook tucked against her side. She had to get away from her apartment. She just couldn’t concentrate with all the lovey dovey shit that was going on in the living room. Yes, she was happy for Carrie, but she couldn’t stop the jealousy that stirred at the back of her brain and in the deep recesses of her heart. It had been a long time since she’d had anything of that nature and if she was honest she missed it from time to time. But at the moment her senior project was eating at her and all the kissy kissy was distracting so she decided the small dive bar on the corner of her street would be the place to go. It was always deserted on Thursday and it had free wifi.

But Ennis couldn’t fathom why she had decided to walk there in thirty degree weather. Her laziness usually didn’t allow such reckless behavior.

She walked into the small bar and was greeted by a few empty tables by the far window, a small bar with six stools, only one occupied, and a lone bartender cleaning glasses  with  a white rag. He looked up at her as she entered, green eyes ablaze with a curiosity she thought all bartenders lost in their first month, and gave her a small smile of acknowledgement. She looked around for a proper place to sit and decided that the farthest barstool next to the wall would be the best option. She wouldn’t have to get up to refill a drink if she sat there. Plus, it had the best view of the small television that hung over the bar. And it was playing Back to the Future. It was an automatic win on two fronts.

She drew her textbook and notebook from inside her jacket and set them on the bar before throwing her jacket over the back of the stool and sitting down. The bartender was watching her, a small smirk on his face as he continued to clean another glass.

"What’s your poison?" He asked her, his voice throaty and smokey.

"A coke please?"

"Really living it up, huh?"

"It’s twelve in the afternoon on a Thursday," Ennis replied quickly.

" it’s five o’clock somewhere, as they say."

"As drunkards say you mean."

"You’re the one that stumbled into a bar at twelve in the afternoon on a Thursday."

"I needed a place to do homework and my apartment is," Ennis paused for a moment as she thought of the right word to say. She couldn’t just say there was canoodling going on in her living room. "It’s been compromised."

His brow quirked at her answer, before he made a frown of acceptance nodding his head slightly a few time and flipped the clean glass over and filled it with ice and coke. He slid it over to her, the glass sliding to a stop right at her outstretched fingertips.

"Stay as long as you need," he said quickly before he went to the man at the other end of the bar, cracking open another PBR for him.

Ennis watched him for a moment, his black shirt tight across his chest accenting the muscle underneath with every move that he made. Across the back of his shirt were the words Chevy Baby in bold white lettering. It was the name of the bar and though she thought it was a strange name for a bar it seemed to fit the place. Plus she could just imagine the bartender bent over the engine of an old Chevy truck with grease up to his elbows and a smudge across his jaw. She didn’t even realize the small smile she had  playing on her lips.

"Are you okay?" Ennis heard him ask suddenly. She startled in the stool, sitting up straighter and clearing her throat as she threw open her mythology textbook to a random page.

"What? Yes! Yeah, fine here," she responded and added an awkward small salute before her eyes fell to the text, neck reddening with embarrassment.

A salute? What the hell? Sometimes she just wanted to punch herself.

She could see him eyeing her, or more feel it as her eyes stayed glued to the text. The text was going on about Icarus, a topic they had gone over weeks ago. Ennis could only imagine she was feeling as hot as he did right before he started crashing back to earth.

"So why not the library?" The bartender asked her suddenly, drawing her attention away from Icarus falling and to a pair of green eyes. They were impossibly green, unnatural in the beauty of them. She was caught in them for a moment, in their inescapable depths.

"Oh, uh too far. The nearest library is twenty minutes from here and my laziness just wouldn’t allow it. This seemed the most viable option. It’s close and you have free wifi."

"But your laziness allows you to walk here in the thirty degree weather?"

"It was only three minutes."

"This laziness of yours seems rather subjective."

Ennis laughed as she shook her head gently before scratching at her short pink hair in nervousness. "You seem to think you know something about me when you don’t even know my name."

He stopped cleaning the glass and outstretched a large hand in her direction, a charming smirk on his face. "Jamie at your service."

Almost as if her body had a mind of its own she reach out and took his hand, jaime enveloping her small one in his own. His handshake was firm, but not crushing. It was just strong enough to convey he did not see her as weak.

"Ennis," she answered. His smile widened.