13.🍸 Whiskey Sour 1.0

**KEKE**

In the morning, I find Justice in the kitchen. He’s dressed in blue jeans tailored to fit every nook and cranny and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I come to learn this is his standard uniform. The only thing that will differ is the color of the shirt. Sometimes it’s a Henley and sometimes it’s a long-sleeved tie-dyed number, like today.
Not knowing what the day’s plans are, I dressed similarly in jeans and a peach cotton sweater… with the addition of my winter coat.
Apparently, Justice likes to sleep with the heat off at night.
This being the beginning of November, and with snow predicted for later this week, I was glad of the down comforter Lilli had on her bed.
It kept me from freezing.
“Do you drink a lot of coffee?” Justice asks, slightly turning to give me a great view of his profile. A nice and a very welcome sight so early in the morning.
“I can make enough to last throughout the day.”
I shift my eyes to the countertop to stop staring at the sight that outrivals the sun. “I’ll just have one cup now, and when I get to the bar, I’ll get another.” I pull my jacket tighter against the morning chill. “I don’t drink over two cups a day, anyway.”
He lifts the coffee tin from the cabinet. It is small in his large hand.
I thought about those hands last night… how much I want them on me.
They’re so strong, it’s like they’re molded from steel. Yet the times when he touched me—helping me from the car or placing his hand on my shoulder to say goodnight, I felt the tempered way in which he held his strength in check.
But I don’t want his hands reined in. I want them to roam and explore, discovering the secrets of my body one by one. I want them in my hair as he kisses me, his tongue in my mouth and his fingers in my—
“After the kids leave for school,” Justice says, startling me out of sex-dream, “I want to take you down to the bar. There, I’ll give you a tour, so you’ll know where everything is. Then, we can run through the daily routine. Is that okay?”
Last night, Justice and I worked out a schedule. I’ll open the bar at noon and Sam will come in a bit before the afternoon rush begins. We’ll work together until Justice arrives, taking over so I can leave. Later, when Blake, whom I’ve yet to meet, drops the boys off, Justice will come back to the apartment. We’ll eat dinner together before he and I go back to work until closing.
“Yes, that’s fine,” I say, snuggling deeper in my coat.
Justice notices my movement and his brows gather in concern. “Is it too cold in here, Keke? I forgot to tell you the guys and I like it that way. I can adjust the heat if you like.”
“No, no. That’s fine.” I take the cup he set on the counter and pour enough milk to make it light-brown. The thought he cares about my comfort, warms me enough to talk about a painful subject. “My parents keep the thermostat at sixty degrees in the winter. My dad always tells my brother Trey and I to don a sweater if we complain it’s too cold.”
Justice chuckles in between mimicking a rather good cockney accent. “Don a sweater? You are so quaint, m’dear.”
I stare at his dimples, feeling fuzzy inside.
His brow lifts when he busts me looking. Frowning, he turns away.
A hollow feeling grows in my belly at his lack of interest.
I know wanting him is wrong. Justice is the boys’ caretaker and to keep in touch with the kids after I leave, I must stay on his good side. Throwing myself at a man who isn’t interested is not only embarrassing, it could ruin everything.
I can’t have that. I owe Lilli that much.
My willpower, when I put my mind to it is unbeatable. I can resist.
At least I hope so.


I strengthen my resolve to keep things simple after I meet Justice’s friend Jenna and her fiancé, Bobby, a week into working.
The door opens just as I’m busy tucking in my slightly-used neon green t-shirt with Clancy’s on the front. I watch the couple come through with their hands linked, smiling like they own the world.
I always melt when I see people holding hands. For me, the simple gesture proclaims their love for everyone to see.
Forget rings and matching tattoos, holding hands is it.
They greet Sam, then Justice who waves me over for introductions. “Jenna, Bobby, I want you to meet Keke. She’s helping me out with the kids.”
Bobby shakes my hand and so does Jenna. For someone so petite, her grip is strong.
Jenna tosses her head towards Justice, a dismissive look on her face. “So, Keke… when did you begin working for this clown?”
“Who you callin’ clown, pint-size?” Justice glowers at the small blonde.
I’m taken aback by the exchange, thinking they’re going at it, when I see Bobby roll his eyes and I make out Justice’s faux glare.
“You, Mr. Man.” After throwing Justice a side-out many black girls would envy, Jenna then turns to me. “If he gives you any trouble, let me know,” she says with promise. “I’ll tear him a new one.”
Justice bites his nails like he’s afraid.
I let out a belly full of laughter.
His gaze turns in my direction, making my breath hitch.
After observing our exchange, Jenna eyes me up and down. A knowing grin lifts her lips.
*Does she see something between us I’m missing?*
Justice speaks, taking her attention off me. “Keke, little Jenna here is the only person I’m afraid of. I heard she took down a man twice her size right in this very bar and not one, not two, but three guys had to pull her away. Too bad I wasn’t there; I always regret not being front and center when it went down.”
Jenna gives him a sly smile. “You should have wrapped up your, uh… date quicker.”
Justice shrugs his shoulders, filling up the space behind the bar. “You can’t rush perfection.”
Jenna rolls her blue eyes. “Ugh! Give me a break. Like you have some skill or something.”
Smirking, he lifts a brow, “Ah, but I do.”
“Not from what I hear,” Jenna says, fluffing up her short, curly bob.
It looks good on her.
Justice pours a beer, stopping just as the foam reaches the top. “You’ve been talking to the wrong people then.”
Jenna lets out a scoffing sound and looks pointedly at his crotch. “It is a wonder nothing has fallen off yet.”
He hands the beer to a regular. “No worries, Dr. Jenna. I’m safe and secure with the paperwork to back it up.”
They continue to bicker back and forth while I stay glued to every word.
It seems Justice uses the room next to his office for a rendezvous point of sorts.
*Well, at least Mr. Manwhore gets himself tested.*
The flippancy in my mind does little to help with the empty feeling I’ve carried around since I’ve met him. His talking so casually about his many conquests just proves that if he takes me, I’ll just be one more notch on his bedpost.
*Like he’d be on mine.*
*That’s what you said in Dubai.*
*Yeah. Dubai.*
That desert city with several oases—illusions I believed in.
I carry my thoughts to the other end of the bar, intent on escaping his proximity by filling the peanut tins. With my mind on my past, I stay brooding until Jenna and Bobby come to say goodbye, leaving less than thirty minutes after they arrived.
“We’re headed out to meet friends for dinner at the restaurant down the street,” Jenna says brightly. “Maybe next time we come in we can talk more?”
There’s no time to give her more than a nod, a smile, and a hasty wave goodbye as a group of women come in with a ton of shopping bags. They line up at the bar, talking loudly and eyeing Justice like the last steak at a barbecue.
All I can do is sigh and get to work.
Like I’m paid to do.