Excerpt from An Unexpected Christmas

 

As Sara jumped off the stool, she bumped into another person and suddenly, she found her pretty red dress covered in beer.

“Ugh!” Sara groaned, pulling at the wet parts of her dress. Her dress was a mess. She couldn’t stay any longer looking like this. Her dress was sticky and clung to her body.

“Oh, I am so sorry,” a deep voice said to her. Sara looked up into the eyes of a guy she hadn’t seen around town before. And she was sure Serena would have spotted him out to her if he wasn’t a new face. He was everything Serena would consider hot with his intense green eyes, shaggy brown hair with bangs that fell around his eyes and he wore a plain black t-shirt, revealing his ripped chest and showing tattoos on both of his upper arms like he was the kind of guy her parents wouldn’t her dating or spending time with her daughter. Either he worked out quite a bit to look the way he did or he could eat and eat without putting on the weight.

“No, it’s my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Sara stammered, unable to form a proper sentence. Sara didn’t usually have a problem talking to boys. She was always able to strike up a conversation and a coherent one at that. How could her vocabulary be restricted to a mere couple of words?

“Well, allow me to at least help you.” He grabbed a handful of paper towels from the bar and passed them to Sara. As she took them from him, Sara’s fingers briefly touched his hand, sending waves of shock through her body. She hadn’t been touched like that since Aiden.

“Thanks,” she said, adverting eye contact down to her dress.

“So can I buy you a drink?”

Sara shook her head. “No, it’s fine. You don’t have to do that.”

“Yes I do.”

“No, really, I was leaving anyway.”

“C’mon, let me make it up to you,” He challenged. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

Sara tilted her head, scrunching up the balls of paper towels in her hands.

“Okay.” She returned to the stool she was previously sitting as the guy with no name sat down on the stool next to her, calling over the bartender.

“One beer and—” He looked over to Sara.

“And I’ll have a root beer. Thanks, Mike,” Sara finished. As the bartender moved to serve another customer, the guy looked at her questionably and Sara shrugged. “It’s a small town. We all know each other.”

“That’s not what I meant. You don’t drink beer?”

Sara shook her head. “Sure, I drink beer, just not tonight. I don’t really feel like it.” She looked at him and narrowed her eyes vigilantly.

“What?” he asked her.

She folded her hands together on the bar. “I’m just wondering if you’re always this persistent with women you spill beer on in a bar. I’m curious.”

“Only when such woman is as beautiful as you are then I don’t want to let them get away,” he showed a devilish smirk.

Sara blushed, feeling her cheeks go red with coyness. She bet his smirk won over many women he picked up in bars. “So are you new to town?” she asked him.

“You could say that. I’m…” He stopped as though there was something else on his mind like he should say something but didn’t. She obviously didn’t know him. “I’m just passing through town. By the way, I’m Jesse.”

“And is that name supposed to mean something to me?”

Mike returned with their drinks and Sara nodded her appreciation his way.

Jesse picked up his glass and took a sip then wiped his mouth with his hand. “Probably not,” he said. “I just thought we were introducing ourselves. I say my name. You say your name.”

Sara studied his side profile, taking notice of his five o’clock shadow on his face. “Well, Jesse, I didn’t know we were playing that kind of game but I suppose this is the part where I tell you my name?”

“That would be the general idea of the game.”

“And how do I know you’re not some kind of stalker? Should I be wary of you?” She rested her right elbow on the bar, and turned her body so that she was facing him.

“If you want to but you have nothing to worry about. I’m not a stalker. Like I said, I’m just passing through town,” he explained.

“That’s what they all say. So why are you passing through town?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“No I don’t. Not really. I’m just being friendly and getting to know a tourist. It’s what anyone in town would do. Why are you here?” she asked again, refusing to back down until she got an answer from him.

“I’ll tell you if you tell me your name.”

Sara rose to her feet, taking one more mouthful of root beer.

“You’re going so soon?”

She swallowed. “I have somewhere I need to be,” she told him. “Besides, if you’re not going to tell me why you’re here then I don’t have to tell you my name. I’m not going to converse with a stranger because I was taught better than that.”

“Can I call you then? I’d like to get to know you better over dinner or something?”

Sara leaned into him. “Tell you what. You can call me when you tell me why you’re here.” She challenged.

“So how will I tell you?”

She grinned. “Then I guess we’ll both be left with unanswered questions. Bye.”

She was faced with an uncertainty. Should she say more? Should he know her name? Give him wanting more? She figured she could have a little fun, maybe toy with his feelings. She might not be looking to date him but even if she wasn’t then it didn’t mean she couldn’t keep him hanging on. She had used to keep the guys wanting more in high school.

And as she disappeared out the door, all she said to him was, “But if you’re staying in town for a while, you can always look for me. I’ll be the girl you spilt beer on, whose name is Sara.”