Love After Layoffs novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Anchor

Drunk and fired, Janine ends up at a river bar with Brooks Hale, the client manager she has only emailed, kisses him, and is told to ask again sober before a stranger photographs them in a hotel lobby.

The Anchor is a narrow bar on the Allegheny River with a pressed tin ceiling and a bartender who never asks questions.

I took the last stool by the window and ordered a bourbon before my coat was off.

"Rough day?" the bartender asked.

"I lost my job and my husband in the same elevator."

He poured a double and left the bottle on the counter.

I drank the first one fast.

I drank the second one slower and watched the barges slide under the yellow bridge.

I was on the third when a man's voice said, "Janine Weller?"

I turned around on the stool.

He was tall, with wavy dark-blond hair that needed a trim, a short beard, and round tortoiseshell glasses fogged from the cold.

His jacket was wrinkled, and he held a paper cup of black coffee.

"Brooks Hale," he said. "Ketterman vendor desk."

"You're real," I said.

"Last I checked."

"I pictured someone shorter. And meaner."

"I can be meaner." He sat down on the next stool. "Give me a minute."

I laughed so hard I had to put the glass down.

Two years of emails, and he was exactly as dry in person as he was at six in the morning.

"I'm sorry," he said, and the joking left his face.

"I took your contract to three different meetings."

"I said your numbers were the best on the desk."

"Nobody wanted to hear it."

"Who signed the cut?"

His mouth tightened.

"Strategic Sourcing," he said. "I can't tell you more yet."

"You don't have to. It was my husband."

He went very still.

"Your husband works in the tower?"

"Justin Doyle."

"Director of Sourcing."

"He signed me out himself."

Brooks closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them, he ordered a club soda and pushed it in front of me.

"No," I said, and shoved it back. "I'm drinking."

"Then drink something, and eat something. Please."

He ordered fries and I ate six of them and kept drinking.

I told him about the ring, and his shoulders shook with a laugh he tried to hide.

"That's the best thing I've heard all year," he said.

"He told me I'd lose the house."

"Can he?"

"Half of it's my mother's money."

"Then he can't."

He said it so plainly that I believed him.

By ten o'clock I couldn't feel my hands, and the whole bar had gone soft at the edges.

I remember the pressed tin ceiling and the warm weight of his jacket over my shoulders.

I remember looking at his mouth while he explained a vendor scoring rubric, and not hearing a single word.

"You have a gap in your front teeth," I told him.

"I do."

"I've been picturing that gap for two years."

"Janine."

"Don't Janine me."

I took his glasses off his face and put them on the counter.

He had hazel eyes, and he looked at me.

I put my hand on the back of his neck, and I kissed him.

For a heartbeat he kissed me back.

His beard was soft, his mouth was warm, and his big hand came up under my jaw.

Then he pulled away, breathing hard.

"Not like this," he said.

"Why not?"

"Because you've had four bourbons and the worst day of your life."

"Five."

"Ask me again sober."

"I'm never sober again," I said. "I'm a divorced woman now."

"You're still married, and you're drunk." His voice cracked on the last word. "I'm going to get you home."

"I'm not going home."

"Janine."

"His shirts are in my closet. His toothbrush is in my bathroom. I'm not sleeping in that bed."

I couldn't say my street.

I tried, and the words came out in the wrong order, and the bartender watched us with great interest.

Brooks looked at me for a long moment.

"There's a hotel across the street," he said. "You take the bed. I'll take whatever's left. Nothing happens. You have my word."

"That's disappointing."

"I know."

He paid the tab and carried my purse.

He kept one hand flat on my back across the whole street, and I leaned into it without shame.

The Allegheny Hotel had a revolving door and a marble lobby with a front desk the size of a ship.

The night clerk looked up and said, "Good evening, Mr..."

Brooks held up one finger, and the clerk closed his mouth and handed over a key card.

I thought that was strange, and I was too drunk to think about it.

We stood together in the lobby waiting for the elevator, and I put my forehead against his shoulder.

That was when I saw a man across the lobby near the brass planters.

He wore a gray coat.

He had his phone raised in both hands, and he was taking our picture.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend