Operation Meet Cute by K.M. Neuhold

Chapter 15

TEDDY

“Well, I’ll be damned. This is an honest-to-god gay bar.” Harlow looks around with a shocked expression as we step inside. The rainbow flag hanging in the window was a good indication, but the bartender in a crop top and two men making out against one wall definitely confirm it.

Marnie seems to have grabbed a table, waving at us from across the room when she spots us.

“I’ll grab drinks and meet you over there,” I offer.

“Are you on some kind of mission to be the most thoughtful, helpful man in existence this week?” he asks. “Because if you think that’s going to earn you sexual favors or something…you’re absolutely right.” Harlow gives me an exaggerated wink, and I chuckle.

“I just want you to have a good time while you’re here, and I’m also trying to impress your friends and family,” I confess.

“Well, it’s working. I’m pretty sure they’re all going to want to adopt you by the end of the week. In fact, you should probably tone it down a little, or I’m going to start looking bad.”

“You got it. I’ll be sure to spill your drink on you once I get it and say something rude to Marnie’s fiancé,” I joke.

“Perfect. Way to be a team player.” He gives me a playful pat on the ass and then saunters over to his friend.

I get our drinks and a few shots as well and then join them at the table.

“No shot for you?” Harlow asks when I set three down on the table and pass them out.

“Nah. You have fun and let loose. I’ll drive us home later,” I assure him. One beer is plenty for me.

“Bottoms up,” Marnie says, and the three of them down their drinks.

“Oh, Teddy, this is my fiancé, Oscar. Oscar, Teddy.” Marnie introduces us, and I reach across the table to shake his hand. Compared to Marnie’s glamorous flair, the man seems a bit plain. Although, the same thing could be said about me and Harlow, I suppose.

Like me, he has a glass of beer in front of him and passes the shot I grabbed for him over to Marnie, who downs it quickly before grabbing Harlow’s hand and insisting they dance.

“She’s really happy to have him here for a visit,” Oscar says as we watch the two of them find a spot on the small, crowded dance floor and shake it to an Abba song.

“I think Harlow’s happy to be here too. I’m not sure why he stayed away so long. He made this place sound a lot worse than it seems to be.”

“Small-town syndrome,” he says wisely. “You either never leave or never want to come back. There doesn’t seem to be much of an in-between.”

“Huh, I guess that’s true.” My own hometown isn’t much different, and I can’t say I’ve been back all that often since I left.

I sip my beer slowly and watch Marnie and Harlow dance with abandon, a smile lingering on my lips. They stop for drinks every so often, Harlow’s increasingly silly and sloppy dance moves giving away his level of inebriation as it builds.

It occurs to me as I watch them, that his ever-present hunt seems to be absent. He’s not scanning the room, calculating any potential meet-cute opportunities. And the men who do approach him only get a small amount of attention before he returns to Marnie each time.

Every so often, he slows in his movements, looking in my direction and smiling when our eyes meet. It might be foolish, but it plants a precious seed of hope inside my heart.

The hours tick by, empty glasses piling up on the table while Oscar and I make small talk and get to know each other.

A little before midnight, Harlow stumbles over to me.

“Hey, I want to show you something.”

I smirk at the slur in his words and the way he sways toward me, standing between my legs and putting his hands on my shoulders to steady himself.

“Okay, show me.”

“It’s not here. Come on.” He grabs my hand and tries to tug me up but ends up stumbling back. I catch him around the waist and stand up.

“I guess we’re heading out. Good meeting you.” I wave goodbye to Oscar who already seems to have his hands full with his drunk fiancée.

I keep an arm around Harlow as I settle up the tab and lead him out to the car, pouring him into the passenger seat and then getting behind the wheel myself.

He rolls down his window and gulps in deep breaths of the fresh, country air as we drive, giving me directions every so often. The short drive seems to sober him up a bit, and by the time we reach a quiet, tucked-away field, he’s steady on his feet when he gets out of the car.

“Another field?” I tease, following his example and getting out of the car.

He climbs up onto the hood, scooting back until he can lie against the windshield. I join him, reclining back to look up at the night sky overhead. The only thing keeping the field from being pitch black is the light coming from the headlights.

“I forgot how quiet it is out here,” he says.

“It’s nice,” I agree. “What’s the story with this field? Did you lose your virginity here? Have your first orgy here?”

He gives me a half-hearted shove against my shoulder.

“Nah. This is where I used to come during my parents’ divorce. Things were so messy, and my mom was always crying, so I’d get on my bike and ride out here and just…be.”

“It’s a good field,” I muse, letting the music of the crickets and cicadas wash over me.

“It is.”

We fall into companionable silence for a while.

HARLOW

“This is almost a perfect movie moment,” I say with a happy sigh, tilting my head up toward the blanket of stars overhead.

“Just need the right guy?” Teddy guesses. His voice almost sounds strained, but it’s possible I’m imagining things.

I scoff. When is he going to realize he’s exactly the right guy…if I wasn’t so afraid of losing him. “No, silly.”

“What’s missing then?” he asks, his hand inching over until his pinky brushes against mine on the hood of the car.

“Hmm.” I consider the question for a second and then clumsily hop off the car, stumbling for a few steps before catching myself. Teddy jumps up too, no doubt to save me from falling on the treacherous, soft grass. I might get ugly green stains on my clothes. Gasp. I grin at him, waving him off to assure him I have my feet under me and then opening the car door to fiddle with the radio.

I flip through the stations until I land on one that’s playing “At Last” by Etta James. Classic. I turn around and offer my hand to my best friend.

“May I have this dance?”

Teddy looks stunned, quietly blinking at me for several heartbeats before taking my hand and tugging me into his arms. I go willingly, wrapping one arm around his neck while keeping the other clasped with his. Pressed chest to chest, I can feel the speedy pitter-patter of his heart against mine. He smiles softly, his eyes locked on mine as we start to sway to the beat.

I thought the most romantic thing about this moment was going to be the millions of shining stars overhead, but the second we’re touching, I can’t look anywhere but Teddy. My stomach flips and flutters, every inch of my skin tingling all at once.

Teddy’s heart seems to calm after a few seconds and mine follows in unison, beating out the perfect tempo together, accompanied by the chirping crickets and beautiful croon of Etta James. For three impossibly short minutes, the world fades away, and nothing exists except me and Teddy and this unbearably perfect moment.

The song fades to an end, and he tightens his arm around my waist like he doesn’t want me to leave just yet. Fine by me, I didn’t have any plans to go anywhere.

“Low,” he whispers my name, his voice husky and just a little shaky. My throat tightens and my heart quickens. I don’t know what he’s about to say, but I’m terrified to hear it. “I—”

I cut him off with my lips on his. He makes a muffled sound against my mouth before kissing me back.

“All that alcohol is really going to my head. Why don’t we go back to the motel and get some sleep?”

Teddy’s eyes silently search my face in the dim light, and I worry he’s going to say it anyway and ruin everything. Relief rushes through me when he nods, releasing his grip on me and giving me a wry smile.

“Sure, let’s go get some sleep.”

I’m shaky on my feet as I make my way over to the passenger side of the car, and I don’t think it’s due to the booze. Teddy has me weak in the knees. He has the world unsteady under me and my mind reeling over everything I thought I knew and believed for the last thirty years of my life.

We’re silent as we make the short drive back to the motel. I slump in my seat, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of the car window. As soon as we get inside our room, Teddy goes to his bag and fishes out a packet of aspirin and then fills a cup of water from the sink and brings me both.

“Take these. You’ll thank me in the morning.”

I give him a soft smile and do as he says. Neither of us says a word as we strip down bare and climb in next to each other. Something big and terrifying seems to fill the space between us. I’m not ready to face it yet, and he doesn’t force the issue, just lifts his arm in invitation. I slither over next to him, resting my head in the crook of his armpit and pressing my nose against his skin to breathe him in.

There are things on the tip of my tongue that I want to say to him, but when I open my mouth, all I manage is, “Night, Teddy Bear.”

He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Night, Low.”

Maybe I’ll be braver tomorrow.