Sweet Tricks
A Love Bites Novella
Maggie Dallen
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Love Times Two
About the Author
Prologue
Tabitha shifted from foot to foot on the sidewalk in front of her rundown Brooklyn apartment building. She could hear the music coming from the open window of her fourth floor walk-up apartment. Will had forgotten to turn off the music. Again.
But she could be mad at him, not now when he was leaving. Again.
Will came tumbling out of the front door of the building carrying the last of his belongings. It was an amp and more precious to him than anything else in the world, as far as she could tell. He was clutching it now like someone might run up and snag it from him in broad daylight.
She hurried over to open the back door of her old Volkswagen, which had seen better days. But when he got back with her car, she would give it a fresh coat of paint, and not long after that—hopefully—it would get a decal for her new, very own catering company. She chewed on her lower lip as she studied her car. The paint job alone would wipe out what little she’d squirreled away from her current catering gig.
“Almost done, babe,” Will called out from the back seat, where he was rearranging his belongings.
Then again, if Will could pay her his back rent for the last two months, she’d be in the clear. At least for a little while. She cleared her throat softly, preparing to bring up the topic that made her insides squirm with discomfort.
“About the rent,” she started.
He came over to her then and took hold of her arms. He was at least a foot taller than her so she had to crane her neck to look up at him.
“We’ll talk about it when I get back.”
“And that will be….?”
He grinned, his shaggy blond hair falling into his eyes in that way that had seemed so adorable the first time she’d seen him play at a club near her culinary school upstate. Now…not so much. “Day after tomorrow. I told you, I just need your car to take my equipment to the band’s next gig. After that I’ll drop your car off and catch a ride with one of the other guys for the tour.”
‘The tour’ was a rather impressive term for what equated to a long list of opening acts at second rate, unheard of venues—all within two hours of the city.
He planted a kiss on the top of her head. “We’ll talk soon,” he called back as he headed toward the driver’s side door.
We’ll talk soon. That seemed to be the catch phrase for their on-again, off-again, admittedly dysfunctional relationship. But really, they never did. Every time they seemed to be getting close to the sort of intimate relationship Tabitha craved, something came up. He’d go crash with a friend for a couple of weeks so they could work on their music. Family would call asking him for a visit. The drummer’s second cousin would set up a half-assed tour set.
It was always something.
A sick feeling swept through her as she watched her sorta-kinda boyfriend climb into her baby. He started the car and stuck his head out the car window. “See you soon, babe.”
She swallowed down the anxiety and forced a smile as she gave him a quick wave. “Have fun. Drive safe.”
Chapter One
Three weeks later…
Loose strands of long dark hair slid out of her makeshift topknot and clung to her neck as the fan whirred overhead at the bar. Her best friends, Elise and Katerina looked just as miserable. Elise’s normally perfect blonde curls were frizzed out and fighting the good fight against the elastic bands her friend had used to try to restrain them in a low ponytail. The typically poised and self-contained Katerina was slumped over the bar, clutching a glass of ice water as if she was dying of thirst in the desert.
“Seriously, how long do we have to stay here?” Elise asked, reaching for her cold beer. “Why don’t we find a place that has air-conditioning? And how long is summer going to last? I can’t take it anymore”
Katerina shifted to be closer to the fan’s breeze. “It’s October. This heat wave won’t last long.” Katerina was quiet, poised, and smart…but it was hard to take her seriously at the moment when her glasses were slipping down her nose, which was slippery with sweat.
“But that doesn’t answer the question of why we’re here now, today,” Elise said, her gaze apparently permanently stuck on the new bartender. “I mean, I’m not complaining about the scenery, but couldn’t we find a place with air conditioning?”
Tabitha gave her friend a warning look. The bartender was close enough to hear them, for God’s sakes. “They have air-conditioning, it just hasn’t really kicked in yet.” She glanced around the music venue, which she’d only ever seen in the dark of night, and stated the obvious. “They just opened.”
But Elise was no longer paying any attention to her. She was outright gawking at the new guy behind the bar—or at least he was new to Tabitha, and she was practically a regular since Will played here regularly.
Or did, before he took off on his tour.
Tabitha finally caved in to the urge to look. She’d been studiously avoiding looking directly at the hot new bartender like one would avoid looking directly into the sun. With bright blue eyes and black hair, he had a fallen angel look that was impossible to ignore—at least for Tabitha.
She pulled her gaze back to her friends. “We just have to stick around until the owner shows up. When I called yesterday they said he should be in today.” She looked over at her two best friends from forever. “And then we can go to The Rock.”
The Rock was the bar near Elise’s apartment where they’d been going for years. After they’d graduated high school in upstate New York, Katerina had gone to Columbia, Elise to NYU, and Tabitha had gone to a culinary school near their hometown. She’d come down to visit her friends in the city pretty much every weekend—there wasn’t much of a nightlife at her school—and The Rock had been the go-to spot. At first because it was the only place that didn’t card them and then because it was just the place they always went to.
“Why do we still go there?” Katerina said, her tone taking that analytical quality that meant she was about to overanalyze.
Elise answered first. “Because we’re creatures of habit.”
She and Katerina made murmuring sounds of agreement. There was no use in denying it. A full year had passed since they’d graduated college but they were still going to the same downtown dive on a weekly basis to bitch and moan about the same problems.
“We’re in a rut,” Tabitha said.
She was met with silent nods of agreement as Elise continued to gawk at the hottie and Katerina shoved her glasses up her nose for the millionth time.
“Ben asked me out yesterday,” Elise said suddenly, her gaze still fixed on the bartender but her eyes were unfocused like she wasn’t really seeing him.
Tabitha and Katerina exchanged a quick look of surprise. Ben was Elise’s co-worker at the ad agency where she worked as an assistant since she graduated nearly a year before—he was also the love of her life. He just didn’t seem to be aware of that fact. Their friend had spent the past year agonizing over him, flirting with him, and vacillating between hope and despair over her work-husband’s frustratingly cryptic behavior.
“He asked you out?” Katerina repeated with more than a hint of shock. And no one could blame her. This was news. Big, big news.
“To a happy hour event,” Elise continued.
Tabitha could see the ending coming before Elise said it but her heart still ached for her friend all the
same.
“Then he invited everyone else in the office.” Elise’s nose scrunched up in self-disgust. “Seems it’s a group thing. Not so much a date, really.”
Tabitha looked to Katerina and saw the same empathetic wince mirrored on her brainy friend’s face. They had watched Elise’s hopes rise and fall so many times it was almost too painful to witness.
Elise sat back in her seat, her lips set in a firm line and her stray curls bouncing in the slight breeze. Shaking her head, she looked to Tabitha and then to Katerina. “I am so over this.”
Mild-mannered and sweet as a kitten, Elise’s hard tone was a shock to the system.
A flicker of hope stirred in Tabitha as she exchanged a quick look of surprise with Katerina. Was it possible that their lovestruck, tormented friend was finally moving on?
“We are in a rut,” Elise said, her voice rising a bit, calling the attention of the bartender and the three other patrons who were braving the sweltering heat of the non-air conditioned bar. “It’s time for a change.”
“Hear, hear,” Katerina said, raising her beer bottle in the air.
“I need to find a way to get over Ben.” Elise was staring into the distance and Tabitha caught Katerina’s eye in the mirror and widened her eyes with surprised excitement. Halle-freakin-llujah! Katerina grinned back. She knew they were thinking the same thing. It was about effing time.
As quickly as it came, some of the newfound energy seemed to dissipate and Elise slumped back in her seat. “I have no idea how I’m going to do that though.”
Katerina leaned in and put a hand on her shoulder. “Tabby and I will help you.”
Tabitha nodded quickly. “Of course.” Her own ridiculous situation mocked her, and she felt compelled to add, “I’ll join you.”
Elise looked over to her with one brow raised. “You need to get over Ben too?”
Tabitha laughed. “No. But, I need to get out of my own self-destructive rut.”
Her friends were watching her expectantly. She took a deep breath. “I am officially swearing off bad boys.”
Katerina slouched down against the back of her barstool with a loud groan. “Thank God Almighty.”
“Seriously,” Elise echoed. “It’s about time.”
Tabitha rolled her eyes as she sipped her beer. Katerina sat up straight and looked over with narrow eyes. “But wait, what about Will? I thought things were going well with you guys.”
She focused on sipping her beer, feigning an interest in the cocktail napkin she’d been using as a coaster. “Yeah….not so much.”
Elise groaned beside her. “Uh oh. What happened now?”
Tabitha took a deep breath and let it out slowly, keenly aware that the new hot bartender was close. Too close. Possibly within hearing distance. It was almost too embarrassing to admit to her friends, let alone a complete stranger.
She spoke quietly. “He, uh….he hasn’t come back.”
Her attempt to avoid attention was spoiled by Elise’s shriek of horror. “Wait, what?!”
“You mean that dickwad took your car and never gave it back?” Katerina kept her cool and her voice was low, but it was also filled with such disgust, Tabitha found herself wiggling in her seat with shame. At their stares, she was forced to nod.
“So, he stole your car,” Elise spelled out loudly. Just in case anyone at the bar had missed the moral of this particularly humiliating story.
Tabitha’s cheeks burned. She could feel the bartender’s eyes on her and her heartrate picked up its pace. He was probably pitying her—not exactly the kind of attention that should get one’s heart racing. But he was so cute.
And the quintessential bad boy, she reminded herself. Shifting in her seat so her back was to the bartender, she turned toward her friends. “I don’t really want to get into it right now. Needless to say, I’ve learned my lesson—finally. Only good guys for me from here on out.”
Elise clapped her hands and gave a squeal of excitement as she wiggled in her seat. “Oh, I’m so excited for us. We are totally breaking out of the rut. All of us.”
This last part was clearly directed toward Katerina. “I’m not in a rut,” she said, but her pink cheeks were a dead giveaway that she was lying and she knew it.
“Oh please,” Tabitha said. “When’s the last time you went out on a date?”
Their friend shrugged. “I don’t like to date.”
“No, you’re scared of dating,” Elise said gently, giving Katerina’s knee a little pat of support to soften the words. “There’s a difference.”
Katerina was quiet for a moment, which wasn’t unusual. Unlike Tabitha and Elise, Katerina had this strange tendency to think before she spoke. “I’ll think about it,” she said finally.
Tabitha let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She and Elise worried about Katerina—too much, probably. But for such an amazing, intelligent, funny woman, Katerina’s crippling shyness around men—particularly single, attractive men—was painful to watch. They both knew she wanted a husband and a family one day but there was a definite fear that she would become Kat the Cat Lady if something didn’t change.
Tabitha leaned back in her seat and grinned at her friends. “This is good. This is exactly what we all need—a fresh start.”
“To no more bad boys,” Elise said, way too loudly, as she raised her glass in Tabitha’s direction.
Katerina pushed her bottle toward Elise. “To no more Ben.”
Tabitha held hers up and caught Katerina’s eye. “To dating.”
Their bottles and glass clinked against one another noisily before they drained them.
“So wait,” Katerina said, her eyes narrowing on Tabitha through her glasses. “Why do you need to see the owner exactly? Is this for work or something?”
Tabitha toyed with the idea of saying yes to avoid any further humiliation. It wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of possibility that she would be here on behalf of the catering company that she worked for. While her end goal was to be one of their lead chefs—and eventually own her own catering company—for now she was a junior level chef….who also did some serving and sales work when required. And now was the company’s slow season so it would absolutely make sense that she’d be scoping out venues for a client.
But she wasn’t, and she couldn’t bring herself to lie to her best friends.
“I, uh….I need to talk to him about picking up Will’s pay for his band’s last gig.”
“Do you know what he looks like?” Katerina asked, eyeing the room as if someone other than the bartender and the barflies at the end of the bar might be lurking behind a barstool.
She shook her head. “Never met him. Will says he’s a trust fund asshole. Made big money doing—I don’t know, something with computers—now he owns a bunch of local clubs for fun.”
“Must be nice,” Katerina said.
“Right?” All three of them were drowning in student debt and so did not have a trust fund to fall back on.
Elise cocked her head to the side. “Did he ask you to do that? Are you seriously doing favors for this guy now?”
Tabitha straightened in her seat. But before she could say that, no, this was not for Will, a voice interrupted.
“More drinks?” The bartender’s voice behind her made Tabitha jump in her seat. Jesus, how long had he been standing there?
Her eyes met his for a second but it was a second too long. His blue eyes were intense. Too intense. She looked away quickly, letting Elise answer for all of them that they were ready for another round. She glanced up at her friends who had moved on to discussing how, exactly, Elise was going to set her new plan in motion.
How were they not dazzled dumb by the bartender? But apparently she was the only one whose brain was frazzled by his mere presence. Of course it was. He was the living definition of the kind of guy she’d just sworn off.
Tattoos? Check. Disheveled hair and a five o’clock shadow? Check and check. Faded T-shirt with a band n
ame across the front? Of course. This was a bad boy. Look away from temptation. Look away, Tabitha. Seriously. Right now.
But she didn’t. Her eyes had gotten stuck, unable to tear themselves away from the droolworthy sight before her.
Until he turned around and caught her staring.
Shit. She looked away so quickly her eyes hurt, but not before she saw his lopsided, sexy-as-hell smile that revealed an adorable dimple.
She nearly groaned aloud at the unfairness of it all. Why did the universe have to tempt her this way?
Fixing her eyes on Elise, she forced herself to pay attention to the topic at hand—“Operation Move On” was apparently what they’d named it.
A low voice on the other side of the bar sent a shiver down her spine. “Did you report it stolen?”
She half turned to see the bartender resting his elbows on the bar as he leaned toward her. His eyes—those gorgeous, all-seeing eyes—were fixed on her with an intensity that was unnerving. And hot.
She squirmed in her seat at being the object of that focused attention. “Excuse me?”
“Your car,” he explained, his voice slow and lethargic, like he had all the time in the world to stand there and listen to her problems. “Did you ever report it stolen?”
She blinked at him stupidly. Her car. How did he know her car was gone?
There was that sexy grin again. And there was that damn dimple. No bad boy should have a dimple. It wasn’t fair. It totally threw off one’s brain. Brain adds up all the sexy roguishness and says, “Bad boy, stay away. We have learned our lesson where this breed is concerned.” But then that dimple rears its cute, harmless head and screams ‘innocent,’ ‘harmless,’ ‘trust me,’ sending bolts of confusion through the brain’s logical thinking and short-circuiting the whole system.
Or at least, that’s how it felt to Tabitha. But maybe that was just her.
“Sorry,” he continued in that lethargic drawl. “I overheard you and your friends talking and was curious.”
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