The Other Guy: A Textdoor Neighbor Romance

by Van Wyk, Jennifer

  “Yeah?”

  “Oh, yeah. Remember, I went to culinary school so this is kind of my thing. If I didn’t own the gym, I’d definitely have opened my own restaurant by now.”

  The corner of his mouth twitches but otherwise he doesn’t give me any indication that he heard me.

  I take another look at his menu and stand up to walk around the quiet bar. It’s only four in the afternoon but it’s a Friday and I figure it’ll start to fill up soon. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you have to change anything up here. It’s bar food and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want, I can have my dad come and take a look at things with you. This is what he used to do for a living.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Well, your case is a little more unique because the bar’s not in financial trouble, but he’d go into run-down restaurants and re-work them so they were functioning again.”

  “No shit?”

  “No shit. He helped rebuild a lot of places in Michigan.”

  “I think you have some of that same talent.”

  I don’t tell him that it was before I even met my dad, but he has taught me a thing or two over the years and I know what works and what doesn’t. What Kyle’s had going on seems to work, but that doesn’t mean that a change can’t help give the business a little push.

  He clamps a hand on my shoulder. “You’re a good man, Jack. Thank you for your help. It’s not that my customers seem unhappy, but I’d like to offer something a little more than what I am now. Shake it up a little.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you sure you want to do that now?”

  “You mean because I’m an old man?”

  I raise my hands in the air in surrender. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

  Chuckling, he explains, “I’m in good health. I don’t have plans to retire soon, but now Sierra’s here and I’m sure you’ve figured out that she’s the sole beneficiary in my will. Anything I have goes to her when I pass on. I’d like her to have something she would be proud to run, if she chooses to keep it. If she decides she wants to sell it, I want that to be easy for her to do. Updating makes sense.”

  “Wow. I didn’t realize that.”

  “Not sure she even knows. I need to probably tell her.”

  “Are you sure she wants The Landing?”

  “No clue. That’s why I said if she wants to sell, she can. I just want her happy. That’s all.”

  “She’s got great parents, Kyle. But you? You’re pretty incredible. I’m glad she’s had you all these years.”

  He seems to get a little choked up at that and excuses himself to go do some inventory. I decide to eat some of that “boring bar food” he’s been talking about and order myself a beer to wash down the loaded nachos and buffalo chicken tenders.

  I watch part of a game on the TV hanging in the corner and shoot off a text to Sierra.

  Me: I’m still at Kyle’s. Just ordered some food and a beer. You want to come join me?

  Sierra: How can a girl resist that offer?

  Me: That was my hope.

  Sierra: Be there in ten. I’m anxious to hear how today went.

  Me: Drive safe.

  Sierra: I’ll take all the chances I can.

  “Here ya go, Jack. I’ll be out with the food shortly.” The waitress, I think her name is April, places the ice cold beer on the coaster in front of me.

  “Thanks. Sierra’s on her way. Can I add some of the fried mushrooms, too?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Appreciate it. She loves them. April, right?”

  She smiles big. “That’s right. Good memory.”

  “I try. You’ve come into my gym before, haven’t you?” I take a long drink of my beer. It’s a little citrusy and the hops flavor is perfect.

  “I have. I loved it. I took one of your self-defense classes. Figured it’d be good to know a little since I close up here sometimes.”

  “You don’t walk to your car at night by yourself, do you?”

  Her eyes widen and her dark blonde hair swooshes around her face when she shakes her head. “Oh, heck no. Kyle would fire me if I tried that. But, doesn’t mean it’s not good to be prepared.”

  “It’s definitely good.”

  “And my boyfriend, he comes and picks me up most nights.”

  “Protective?”

  Someone calls her name from the back corner and she gives a little irritated huff. “Aren’t most boyfriends?”

  I smile at that.

  The same person calls out, “Hey! I’m waiting here!”

  She rolls her eyes and whispers, “This guy… he’s been in here before and is super obnoxious.”

  I go on alert. “Do I need to step in?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle. He just thinks he’s God’s gift.”

  I look over to the direction she nodded her chin to and look to see if I recognize him. I didn’t even see him come in today and I’ve been here for a few hours working with Kyle.

  “When did he get here?”

  “Just like thirty minutes ago,” she says with a shrug. “He’s annoying but nothing more. I’ll go put in your order for mushrooms and see what he needs. Be back with your food in a bit.”

  “You holler if you need me.”

  “You got it, Jack. Thanks.”

  “No worries.”

  I watch the door for Sierra to arrive at the same time paying attention to the back corner to make sure the guy who clearly makes April a little uncomfortable isn’t being a dick. Maybe I’m overreacting, but it’s the nature of my job.

  A few minutes later she returns with the chicken strips, plates for our appetizers, and two glasses of water, one with an orange wedge for Sierra and one with lemon for me. “Thanks, April.”

  “You bet.”

  I decide to wait to start eating until Sierra gets here and sit back, keeping my eye on the person who continues to call April over to his table.

  Sierra’s coconut scent washes over me and I turn to see her slipping into the chair next to me. She leans over and plants a kiss on my lips. “Hey, babe.”

  “Hey, you. I’m sorry. I didn’t even see you come in.”

  “It’s okay. I just got here.” She looks pretty as usual, dressed in a pair of jeans with holes and a red hoodie with white strings and a pair of white canvas shoes. Her dark hair is up in a high ponytail. Cute. Sweet. Fun. All Sierra.

  I give her another kiss, because I can and have a really hard time keeping my lips to myself, and April brings over our nachos. “Hi, Sierra. What can I get you to drink?”

  “I’m really in the mood for a Bloody Caesar.”

  “Comin’ right up. And Jack ordered some mushrooms, too. Anything else?”

  “Onion rings?”

  “You got it. I’ll go put that order in and be back with your drink as soon as I deal with,” she throws a thumb over her shoulder and rolls her eyes, “that one.”

  “He messing with you?”

  “Just needy,” she says with a shake of her head. “He ordered an Old Fashioned. Fine. No big deal, right? Well, of course we made it wrong. Twice. Which it wasn’t… he just had a very specific order and didn’t think to tell us.”

  I chuckle. “Which was?”

  “The dumbass is ordering a Manhattan but calling it an Old Fashioned. Like, he yelled at us saying we were supposed to use Vermouth… which is in a Manhattan, not an Old Fashioned. Demanded a cherry instead of the orange peel. Again… wrong drink, dumbass.” She sighs. “This is one of those times where I really wish the customer wasn’t always right. I’ll be right back with your Bloody Caesar which I’m sure you know is made with Clamato juice,” she jokes to Sierra. But she’s gone ghostly white and stock still.

  April doesn’t notice but I’ve learned Sierra’s cues. And this one right here tells me something’s very, very wrong.

  “What?”

  “That’s Jeff.”

  “Who’s Jeff?”

  “The guy
she’s talking about. That’s him. I know it even without seeing who she’s talking about. He does that. He confuses drinks then yells at the bartender or wait staff for getting it wrong because he’s too much of an idiot to know what he’s trying to order.”

  “Jeff as in…”

  “My ex-boyfriend, Jeff.”

  “The guy who used my number with his string of girls?”

  “Yes.”

  I stand up, ready to introduce myself. I figure it’s only right. But Sierra grips my hand and pulls me back down to my chair.

  “You can’t go over there.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I have Toby. He’ll demand him back. In fact, that’s probably why he’s here in the first place.”

  “To take back the dog you stole from him? Come on, Sierra. There’s no way.”

  “Oh, yeah. And he’s probably thinking he’ll somehow sweet talk me into going back to him as well. I posted that one picture of the two of us, and I didn’t even think about blocking him from my social media and he liked it. I wondered if he’d show up here. Mad that I’m with someone new.”

  I lean back in my chair and try not to look pissed the fuck off. But I am. I feel the heat rising through my body, the veins in my neck beginning to swell. “You’re making a lot of assumptions for someone who hasn’t seen or spoken to the guy in over a month. And that’s not me accusing you of having contact with him. That’s me wondering why you didn’t mention that you were afraid he’d be back.”

  “I wasn’t really afraid of it, just am not surprised. I did take his dog, after all. I lived with him for a year-and-a-half so I got to know a little about him. He’s a proud guy. I injured his ego when I broke up with him. It made him mad that I took the dog, even though he knows Toby always liked me more than him. He knows Kyle owns this bar so I’m not surprised he showed up here eventually.”

  She says it all so matter-of-fact. When she first realized he was here she was scared out of her mind. Now she’s kicking back in her seat eating nachos. I don’t understand the quick change in attitude so I call her out, ask her why.

  “I don’t know. When April was talking, it was like I was back there living with him again. I was suddenly this person who was afraid of standing up for myself or at the very least being confident in my own decisions. He was pretty good with me letting him run the show.”

  I feel the anger swell and I ask in a low voice, “What do you mean?”

  She’s quick to explain, “Not in an abusive or controlling way. I promise. It was never that. It’s hard to explain fully.” She looks around then her eyes brighten before she shouts. “Oh! Remember that first morning when we made eggs at your place?”

  “The day you expelled stuff from your body that we decided never to speak of again?” I ask and take a drink of my beer to hide my grin.

  Nodding and rolling her eyes at the same time, she says, “Yes. That day. We won’t speak of the specifics, right?”

  April brings Sierra’s drink and sets it in front of her along with the mushrooms. The table is getting so full of food she can hardly fit it in, but we manage. After taking a large drink and commenting how great it tastes, Sierra pops a breaded mushroom in her mouth, chews, swallows, takes another drink.

  “Right,” I murmur.

  She wipes her hands on a napkin and uses her fork to load up her plate with all the food in front of us. After she’s satisfied with her plate, she takes another bite. “Sorry, I guess I was really hungry.”

  “Like I care. Eat up.”

  “Okay, so remember when you were like “make a decision already!” and I was fighting you?” I nod and she points to me. “That. That’s the reason. It was never that I wasn’t allowed to decide. But it was like, okay, if he wants to do something different, is it going to turn into a massive fight? Because that’s how it was with my parents. So I just became… compliant.”

  My eyebrows furl and the fried food settles in my stomach like lead. “I hate that.”

  “I know. I do, too. Aren’t you glad you got Sierra 2.0?” The happiness that radiates from her somehow makes the sick feeling I was just having go away.

  I chuckle and eat some nachos because… cold and soggy nachos are nasty and I don’t want them to go to waste. She does the same as she continues to explain.

  “Anyway, so those feelings bubbled back to the surface when I thought about him but I looked at you and I just… I knew I could handle seeing him again. If he wants to try to take Toby, he won’t succeed.”

  By the time she finishes speaking, I’m about a second away from jumping out of my chair and kissing the shit out of her. “If we weren’t in the middle of your uncle’s bar I’d throw you down on the table and fuck you so hard right now.”

  She laughs so hard she bends over, slapping the table. “Not that I’d be opposed to that, but why?”

  “Because you basically just told me that I make you stronger. For me? That’s literally everything.”

  The smile from her face drops but not in a frown. “Oh.”

  “Yeah. Oh.”

  “Wow. Are we M.F.E.O. or what?”

  I am sure my face is taking care of expressing my confusion, but I still ask, “What the fuck is M.F.E.O.?”

  Her eyes widen and she almost falls out of her chair trying to stand up so quickly. Just then April returns with the onion rings. “What’s wrong?”

  Sierra points to me. “This guy doesn’t know Sleepless in Seattle!”

  “The movie?” I ask and April and Sierra look like twin guppies with their mouths dropping open at the same time.

  “Yes, the movie, you nimwit! What else would I be talking about?”

  “I don’t know! What’s M.F.E.O.?”

  April gasps. “Made For Each Other! How do you not remember that? It was only one of the most adorable parts of the entire movie!”

  “Y’all are outta your minds.”

  “At least we know movie pop culture,” Sierra sasses with her hands on her hips.

  “Does a movie made in the 80s really qualify as pop culture?”

  “90s, thank you very much. And YES! Yes, it does.”

  “Shame on you,” April teases and I groan.

  How did this conversation turn this way? Minutes ago I was about to confront Toolbag, pissed that he’s here in my town, in my girl’s, his ex-girl, uncle’s bar then I realize that I give my girl courage and strength and wanted to take her to the bathroom and have bar sex with her. Now I’m watching Sierra and April recap scenes from a movie I haven’t seen in so long I can barely remember who was in it.

  “Can we get back to the point here?”

  “What’s that?” Sierra asks, sitting back down.

  “You think we’re made for each other?”

  She rolls her eyes adorably. “Duh. Of course I do.”

  Well, if that doesn’t just make me want to stand on the table and shout over to Toolbag that I won.

  “Gag. Y’all are so sickeningly cute,” April teases.

  “I know,” Sierra brags.

  April laughs before moving back to the bar and Sierra and I are left alone.

  “You need to let him know you know he’s here.”

  “I know,” she sighs. “I just don’t wanna.” She pouts but it isn’t annoying. It’s cuter than anything.

  “Want me to go get Kyle? We can both go with you — standing on each side of you like bodyguards?”

  She laughs. “As appealing as that sounds… no. I need to go over myself.”

  “I’ll be right here,” I promise. And I will be. Keeping an eye on her the entire time.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  SIERRA

  I take a deep breath and pick up my water glass, just in case he’s a royal dick and I need to toss something on him. I’m not about to waste a perfectly good cocktail on him.

  One step, two, three, I look over my shoulder to see Jack has turned his chair so he can watch. I roll my eyes at how protective he is but can’t deny that it feels
good to have him in my corner. I wasn’t lying earlier when I said he makes me feel stronger.

  “Jeff,” I say as soon as I’m standing next to his table. His head whips up from where it was bent over staring at his phone. He doesn’t belong here, looking pretentious in his black dress pants and shiny shoes, a button down under his sport coat.

  “You.”

  “Me? What the hell do you mean? You’re the one sitting here in my uncle’s bar and don’t try to say you didn’t know it was his. You’ve been here before. You knew good and damn well what you were doing when you walked in here today. So now inform me of what you already know.”

  He doesn’t hesitate in answering me, which I’m grateful for. The sooner I can get him out of here, the better we’ll all be. “I want Toby back.”

  “No.”

  He leans back in his seat, an air of cockiness surrounding him like a cloud. After assessing me, looking me up and down, he lifts his Manhattan and takes a drink, wincing at it. “Fucking place doesn’t even know how to make a decent Old Fashioned,” he grumbles.

  “Maybe they would if you knew what kind of cocktail you were ordering.”

  He does more grumbling into his drink before he slides it away. It’s not even the type of drink he doesn’t like about it. It’s whiskey and bourbon in general. He’s not a hard liquor guy, and for some reason that makes him feel weak. So he won’t admit that he can’t stand the taste of it.

  “Get on with it, Jeff. What are you really doing here?”

  “I said it already. I want Toby back. He’s my dog. I adopted him.”

  “And I’ve had him with me for over five weeks and you haven’t tried until now to get him back.”

  “I was busy. We had finals at school and I needed to be there a lot.”

  “Wrong answer. Finals aren’t for weeks because it’s only the middle of April. And I seem to remember what you ‘needing to be there a lot’ was actually about.” I raise an eyebrow at him and take a seat. He narrows his eyes.

  “Please have a seat and join me.”

  “Thanks.”

  “That was sarcasm, Sierra. Just give me my damn dog.”

  I cross my arms over my chest and give him a look. “Damn dog, huh? Sounds like you really care about him.”