Work Text:
Eddie had seen a lot of things over the years bartending. Heard things too. Things that probably should’ve stayed behind closed doors like confessions to affairs and white collar crimes. Hopes, dreams, and failures too. Rushed announcements to a group of girlfriends that the reason the one wasn’t drinking was because they were pregnant. Awkward first dates. Even more awkward twentieth dates. He had people ask him for help calling a cab, others curse him out for calling them a cab, panicked crying at lost credit cards, fist fights.
But Evan Buckley was maybe a first. Or maybe that was just the way Eddie’s stomach did a little flip when those blue eyes looked up at him from where he was safeguarding a seat and had so much hope in his face, it hurt.
Eddie wanted to fall into them immediately; swimming in the blue and hope until he bathed himself in them. It physically pained Eddie to have to go take the list of complicated cocktails from the bachelorette party clustered in one of the corners in a gaggle of tulle and sequins instead of letting gravity pull him in the direction he wanted to go.
Four cosmos, two mojitos, and a single glass of sparkling moscato later and Eddie gave into the pull his felt at the base of his spine and crossed the opposite end of the bar where those blue eyes were searching the crowd for someone. Probably whoever he was waiting for even though Eddie almost hoped they wouldn’t come.
Which was terrible of him hoping someone would get stood up but there was a reason he kept his own selfishness locked deep inside.
Up close, he was even more beautiful. A strong nose that settled between his two gorgeous eyes with lips that were supple and full. Pink dotted his brow in a birthmark up onto his forehead like the perfect spot to kiss.
And the curls.
Jesus Christ the curls.
They were blond and escaping from the pomade he must have run his fingers through as the heat of the bar increased with more drunken bodies.
Those eyes widened as Eddie got close before the smile stretched across his face. Something fluttered free in Eddie’s chest, making his heart beat twice against his ribcage to remind him to breathe.
“Hi,” Eddie said, only a little breathless if he said so himself. “What can I get you?”
“Hey uh,” he said with a nervous stutter that made his cheeks pink. “Uh can I get an IPA and then will you pour whatever shots they want on me.”
He nodded to the bridal party as he held out his card.
“Mid shelf. Tell them congratulations.”
“Sure thing. ID?” If Eddie asked to see his ID just so he could know his name well, that was between him and God. The man handed it over with a soft grin like he knew what Eddie was doing but that was impossible. Eddie was an uncrackable vault thank you very much.
Evan Buckley. Twenty-seven.
“You want to open a tab, Evan?” Eddie asked and tried not to shiver at how perfect that name sounded on his tongue.
“No thanks,” Evan said with a shake of his head. “I’m here to meet a date. I think we’re going to try and grab some dinner.”
Disappointment flooded Eddie’s veins which was stupid since he figured. But still.
“Also,” Evan added with a grin that probably got him into more trouble than was necessary. “You can call me Buck.”
“Buck,” Eddie said, trying out the name. Buck flushed as he said it, his eyes darkening, and if Eddie didn’t know any better he would’ve thought Buck liked the way he said his name too. “I’m Eddie.”
“Nice to meet you,” Buck said before he sucked in a breath and shook off whatever had taken over him. Instantly, the nerves came back as he looked around the bar. “Now I know who to call if this date goes bad.”
“Blind date?”
Buck’s hands disappeared into his lap and he nodded. “Sort of. We work with the same people and I’ve heard his voice on the radio. I’m a firefighter. He’s pilot.”
“A firefighter, huh?” Eddie teased, pouring Buck his IPA in a chilled glass. The thought of Buck in suspenders and boots made Eddie’s belly warm until it seeped into veins. Buck straightened with a little more confidence as he nodded and Eddie rewarded him with his drink. “Well, I’ll be here all night. I’ve got your back.”
The pink flushed all the way up into his hairline and Eddie couldn’t help but stare as that birthmark got redder.
“Thanks,” Buck said, ducking his head with a shy smile, and Eddie left him to cool down a little.
The bachelorette party cheered and predictably asked for tequila, thanking Buck with a drunken screech from across the bar that made Eddie’s ears ring, and he busied himself with work. Bartending wasn’t what Eddie would call his evocation but the money was consistent and he could find a job anywhere. It also had the added bonus of not having a lot of downtime. PTSD was a bitch and loud crowds still made Eddie’s skin itch but being busy helped a lot. It pushed him to getting back to the way he used to be before he’d been shipped off to a desert and nearly died. It was a temporary job but a safety net that Eddie could use to provide for himself and his son while Eddie tried to get his head on straight. Which was the only thing currently straight about him as he tried not to thirst over one of his patrons hopefully checking his phone now… Eddie winced. Forty minutes past seven.
Buck had barely touched his drink but Eddie found himself making his way down to Buck’s end of the bar anyway, ignoring a drunken grad student he was going to have cut off anyway. Buck hastily closed his phone as he threw on a smile, one that was less genuine than before but not any less bright.
“Can I get you anything else?” Eddie asked, grabbing a rag to busy his hands.
“Uh no thanks,” Buck said, something in his eyes softening that made Eddie want to melt on the spot. “My date’s just running late I think.”
Eddie tried to ignore the way the words stabbed a knife in his chest. He hadn’t been close enough to see the words but there’d be a lot of unanswered blue text bubbles.
But something told Eddie that if he called Buck out on that it would only make the bright eyed man wilt and that simply wouldn’t do.
“It happens,” Eddie said instead. Buck nodded but Eddie didn’t know if he was agreeing with him or trying to reassure himself. Either way, he had a few minutes to spare and there was nothing Eddie wanted more than to spend them with Buck. Maybe it was stupid to want that with someone he’d only just met but there was something kinetic about Buck; something that pulled Eddie into his orbit that Eddie wasn’t sure he wanted to fight. “So, firefighting?”
Buck perked up at the mention of his job and with the realization that Eddie wasn’t going anywhere any time soon.
“Yeah,” Buck said with a blinding smile. “I just finished my probie year last month.”
“Congratulations,” Eddie said and Buck ducked his head with that shy tip of his chin again. “I know what it’s like the first year in a job like that. It must feel like you can finally breathe, huh?”
“Exactly,” Buck said as excitement brightened his eyes. He sat up straighter and shoved his forearms on the bar like he couldn’t quite contain himself. “I’ve worked a lot of jobs and I mean a lot but this one, I don’t know. It just feels right, you know? Like it’s what I’m supposed to do.”
“Did you always want to be a firefighter?”
Buck snorted as he shook his head. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I was bartending down in Peru when a couple guys I met offered me a room at their place.”
Eddie arched a brow. “And you just… went? With a couple of guys you met in Peru?”
Dear God had Buck never heard of stranger danger. Buck waved his hands as he shook his head.
“I know but I was a bit of a drifter. I wanted to find somewhere to plant roots. Somewhere I could be someone.”
Eddie moved onto filling glasses of wine without even looking before he settled them onto the tray for the server to take to table thirty.
“And you couldn’t be someone at home?”
Eddie knew instantly it was the wrong thing to say. Buck’s expression faltered, his eyes dropping down to his fingers that he picked at. His shoulder bunched up his ears like he was trying to make himself smaller.
A solid rock settled in Eddie’s stomach and nearly choked him in his throat on the way down. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“No,” Buck said quickly with a shake of his head. “It’s okay. Home wasn’t great for me.”
“I’m sorry,” Eddie said and ducked his head down so he could catch his eyes; so Buck could see that he meant it. “It wasn’t great for me either.”
“Where are you from?” Buck asked, sucking in a breath as he shoved down whatever had just happened that Eddie didn’t quite understand.
“El Paso,” Eddie said easily. Home wasn’t great for him but that didn’t mean he hated where he came from. The Texas sun. The heat of the summer nights. The stars. He missed those as much as he had been aching to get away from them.
“Texas?” Buck perked up instantly. “They didn’t have any bars there?”
The small jab was enough to surprise a bark of a laugh out of Eddie and he shook his head. “They’ve got plenty. I was in the military before I got hurt.”
Buck winced. “I’m sorry.”
“No it’s okay,” Eddie said as he stepped back so Buck could see. “I lived. That’s what matters. But we needed a change and things with my folks were hard.”
“We?” Buck tried for coy as he sipped his beer but Eddie could see right through him. He braced his arms on the lip of the bar in case the hot firefighter wanted to check for a ring too.
“My son,” Eddie said, confidently. It was a test but one Buck seemed to pass with flying colors as his eyes lit up. “I’m all he’s got now. So, we moved. Started somewhere new.”
“I love kids,” Buck said and Eddie smiled as he thought to himself what Buck must be like on the job whenever kids are involved.
“I love this one,” Eddie said, hating more than ever that he had to keep his phone in his pocket before management caught him. “I was actually going to be a firefighter. That’s why we picked LA. That and because my Abuela lives here.”
“Yeah?” The curiosity was there in that question but Buck refrained from probing. Eddie appreciated it but it wasn’t necessary.
He was trying to be better about not being ashamed that he needed a minute sometimes.
“I was struggling a little getting back into civilian life,” Eddie said with a shrug. “I haven’t ruled it out. But I’m taking a second. Getting my feet settled back on the ground.”
“You’d be a great firefighter,” Buck said before he could help himself. The pink flared back up into his cheeks as his eyes widened but Eddie caught him.
He smirked as he felt the frequency of Buck’s interest. “The suspenders?”
“God, you’d look amazing in the suspenders,” Buck breathed and when had they gotten so close? Eddie leaning across the bar, Buck leaning into Eddie. It was like a collision that couldn’t be stopped; that neither wanted to stop.
“I bet you look just as good in those too,” Eddie said, his eyes dropping to Buck’s mouth as those lips opened on his inhale.
“He does.” The new voice startled them both apart as a man stood behind Buck, glaring at Eddie like he wanted to rip him apart with his teeth.
Buck made a small squeak of surprise as he fell back into his chair and the pink from before flushed into a bright red that disappeared into his hairline again.
“H-Hey,” Buck stuttered as he turned to the man. “Stuart, right?”
Stuart sniffed as he dismissed Eddie for Buck.
“Yeah,” Stuart said with a breathless smile like he had run inside before he reeled Buck in for an awkward hug that Buck didn’t seem quite ready for. His long legs tangled on the barstool as he tried to stand and ended up in a half squat. “Sorry I’m late. The Uber driver was an idiot.”
“And you couldn’t bother to text him,” Eddie stopped to check his watch. “Forty minutes ago?”
Stuart shot Eddie a near sneer before he tossed his card onto the bar top. “Two whiskeys. Straight. Keep the tab open.”
“Oh,” Buck said, looking unsure all of the sudden. “I thought we were going to get food. I haven’t—”
“At this point, we won’t get a table anywhere and after the shift I had I could use a drink. You don’t mind, do you?”
Eddie certainly minded if it meant having to watch Buck and Stuart flirt at his bar but he kept his mouth shut as he poured the drinks and opened Stuart’s tab.
“I— No,” Buck said and Eddie could almost hear the rumble of his stomach in the sigh that followed. “That’s fine.”
Eddie grabbed another glass and filled it with some orange slices, pineapple, and cherries before he set it in front of Buck with a pointed click. Buck shot him a grateful smile that made Stuart’s glare burning through a hole in the side of Eddie’s face worth it. But Eddie just set their drinks down and then reached over and slipped Buck the very small but at least helpful food menu.
“Let me know what you want, Buck,” Eddie said with a smile of his own.
“Do you know that guy?” Eddie heard Stuart ask before Eddie threw himself to the neglected other end of the bar.
A sparkly manicured hand latched onto his wrist and all the bachelorette girls in various states of drunkenness were staring at him.
“Don’t worry, honey,” the one with the bride sash said with a nod in Buck’s direction. “He won’t be leaving with him tonight.”
God, Eddie hoped not. But he knew better than to get his hopes up so he kept quiet.
Which was kind of ridiculous because Eddie didn’t go out with patrons. Being a single father was complicated. Eddie wasn’t a complete dolt either. He knew he was handsome and he had a level of charm that made people smile. Part of the job was making people comfortable and feeling seen. Being considered passingly attractive helped with the competitive market of the bartending scene in LA and the tips slipped with phone numbers he never called were too good to pass up.
But he never took home patrons. He was paid to flirt. Except flirting with Buck felt a lot easier than it had any right to be. Flirting with Buck felt like talking to someone who got Eddie. The connection he felt could’ve been all in his head but he didn’t think so.
If Eddie caught Buck glancing his way every so often while Stuart kept talking then well…
And Stuart talked.
A lot.
So much so that Eddie couldn’t remember the last time he saw Buck respond. He topped Stuart’s glass off when he finished his drink that he banged on the bar top with Buck’s own whiskey left with only a sip or so missing and his finger fiddling the food menu but when Eddie asked he just shook his head.
“You don’t like whiskey?” Stuart asked with a nudge of Buck’s glass towards him.
Probably doesn’t want to get drunk on an empty stomach, you asshole. Buck had been assuming he’d be eating dinner by then and instead, he was milking a warm IPA and a glass of whiskey he didn’t order. Eddie opened his mouth to offer to get him something else but Buck beat him to it as he shook his head.
“No, no I do!” Buck took another sip, his eyes catching Eddie from the corner of his eye. “I just don’t like to rush a good thing.”
Eddie felt something warm settle in his stomach as the words nettled in between his ribs and seeped into his chest. Buck tapped the glass and Eddie tried not to smile too wide as he noted that all of the cherries he’d left him were missing. Buck’s lips quirked up into a smile before he tore his gaze away to settle back on Stuart and Eddie left him to his shitty date.
The bar got louder as the night went on and Eddie’s torn focus was starting to make that hypervigilance crawl up Eddie’s spine. The bachelorette party had long since moved on and the evening rush picked up as people gathered in the bar to chat and catch up with one another with the oncoming weekend settling in the air. Eddie busied himself with filling drink orders and clearing up checks with groups that wanted to all pay separately but he kept one eye on Buck who was patiently dodging the way Stuart seemed to be inching closer and closer to him. A hand crept up to brush a curl from Buck’s forehead and Buck would tilt his face away. Stuart would lean in to say something quiet over the crowd and slip his hand onto Buck’s thigh and Buck would turn in his seat. Each touch kept getting more forward and purposeful until finally Eddie saw Buck grimace in discomfort.
He was across the bar in a matter of seconds.
“C’mon, Buck, let’s get out of here and—”
“How are we doing?” Eddie asked, cutting off Stuart and giving Buck a chance to lean back in his seat.
Eddie was pretty sure he didn’t make up the look of relief Buck shot his way. He definitely didn’t make up the hot glare as Stuart’s hand fell away from where it had been suspiciously close to Buck’s crotch.
“We’re fine—”
“Can I get a water, please?”
“If you’re thirsty you could just drink the drink I ordered you,” Stuart said, a sour expression uglying his face as he aimed that jab at Buck.
“Maybe you should’ve asked what he wanted then.” Eddie snapped before he could stop himself. He felt like he was in a tug of war with Stuart holding Buck with his jowls while Eddie growled at him to let go. Buck’s jaw dropped as he stared at Eddie before turning his head between the two of them. But Stuart’s ire was aimed sorely into Eddie’s chest where he was sure he was trying to figure out how to skin him alive.
“Maybe you should mind your own business, man,” Stuart said, dropping a possessive hand onto the back of Buck’s bar stool. All it managed to do was cage Buck in until his wide shoulders hunched inward.
But Stuart could glare all he wanted. Eddie had been in a desert before. He could take the heat.
“And maybe you should start keeping your hands to yourself before I have you tossed out.”
“It’s okay!” Buck rushed out, grabbing the whiskey and taking a drink. He winced at the burn and turned to Eddie with a quick aside. “Can you put this drink on my tab?”
It was as quick of a dismissal Buck seemed to be able to come up with and paired with the pleading look, Eddie couldn’t refuse.
Eddie made a point by getting Buck his water first and held Stuart’s glare until Buck murmured his quiet thanks before he turned to cash Buck out.
“Look Stuart,” Eddie caught Buck saying as he walked away. “You seem nice but I don’t think this is—”
Eddie didn’t need to hear the rest to know that Buck was letting him off the hook.
“Come on, Buck!” Stuart pleaded as Eddie went through the motions of editing their bills. He had zero intentions of charging Buck for the whiskey but he pretended anyway as he listened to Buck end his disastrous date. “You didn’t even give us a chance.”
Guilt formed a pock mark on Eddie’s stomach that grew with each passing second.
He shook his head. What was wrong with him? He never interfered with dates. Even bad ones where usually a drink was thrown and the people around the couple were cringing at the tension.
But there was something about Buck that Eddie couldn’t let go; something about him that Eddie couldn’t hide in his usual detachment the way he could with everyone else. He’d been so excited, hopeful, and he deserved to have a good time. Not whatever scrapes Stuart was throwing him.
There was also a very good chance Stuart could get Eddie fired but there was something about Buck too that told Eddie he was worth it.
Buck caught Eddie’s eye and Eddie, helpless to do anything but follow those puppy eyes, moved back over to them. Stuart was looking at him sullenly but Eddie paid him no attention.
“I’m going to run to the restroom real fast,” Buck said and Eddie nodded, trying not to let the sadness swallow him up at the rest of Buck’s unspoken words.
I’m going for run to the restroom real fast before paying my bill and getting the hell out of here.
Technically, Eddie wasn’t supposed to save seats but he’d snarl at anyone who came near it.
“I’ll watch your stuff,” Stuart said with a contrite shrug. “Just because the date’s over doesn’t mean we can’t at least finish our drinks, right?”
Buck looked uncertain but Stuart just relaxed back in his stool.
“As friends, right?” He added and that made something relax in Buck’s expression. His eyes softened as he smiled and nodded.
“Friends.” He shot another relieved look at Eddie before he stretched up. “I’ll be right back.”
And then he was gone and Stuart’s demeanor shifted back into something nasty and spitting.
“Fuck you,” he snapped at Eddie. “Things were going great.”
“If that’s your definition of great then I’d hate to see when things go terrible.”
“What’s your deal man?” Stuart spat out. “You get a kick out of picking up other people’s dates? What? Tired of being pretty to look at but too much of an ass to take home?”
“Keep talking sweet to me and I’ll have to charge you for that dinner you’re too cheap to buy for your date.”
Eddie slapped his bill down before he could respond and moved to help the other neglected patrons at his bar.
“Hey,” Stuart said, hand outstretched as if to grab him before he thought better of it. “There’s two whiskeys on here.”
Eddie arched a brow. “You ordered two.”
“He said—”
“He said he was going to the restroom and you ordered two drinks.”
Stuart snapped his mouth closed with a click of his teeth, seething, before he took the receipt and signed it. He didn’t quite throw the pen at Eddie but it was a close thing.
Whatever. Eddie had had worse things thrown in his direction.
“Hey Eddie,” Tina, waitress/bartender called as she took the two drinks in his hand away. “They need you by the back.”
Eddie frowned but let her take over as he hurried to the back. They didn’t usually need him unless people were starting to get rowdy and as much as Eddie was thrumming with the irritation of Stuart and his smug face, Eddie really wasn’t in the mood to haul two drunken messes through the crowd. Except the crowd thinned out the closer he got to the back— people more interested in hanging out around the tables and the TVs where the spring air was filtering through the open windows— and Eddie circled around.
The gentle touch at his wrist made him jump but the spike of adrenaline dulled into soothing honey as he almost fell into the endless blue eyes.
“Hey,” Buck said with a quiet shy smile that made the fluttering in Eddie’s stomach fly up into his chest as his heart thundered. “Sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?” Eddie asked, his voice sounding breathless to his own ears in the quiet that seemed to soften around them.
“Stuart was an asshole to you,” Buck said, his lips twisting in unhappiness that Eddie wanted to soothe away with his thumb.
So he did.
Buck’s gasp was silent, his soft breath escaping him and puffing against Eddie’s wrist where his pulse was thundering beneath his skin. He pressed his thumb into the corner of Buck’s mouth and Buck leaned into Eddie’s palm like it was the only thing holding him up.
“He was an asshole to you too .” Eddie stressed because something told him that the thought hadn’t even crossed Buck’s mind.
Buck’s eyes fluttered close as he pushed into Eddie’s touch.
“Not as much of an asshole as I'm going to be for leaving with the bartender tonight,” Buck said with a sigh. His eyes opened with a wide sort of flash of insecurity. “If-If… I don’t mean… I would if you—”
Eddie smothered those doubts with a shove of his hips, pushing Buck back into the wall as he crowded up against him. Another gasp and that time Eddie felt that breath on his face. It rippled through him like a tidal wave of want, making his blood sing with desire as he got close. It felt bold and dangerous but oh so right . Every inch of Buck felt like it was a perfect match to Eddie’s.
He wanted those lips on his but he knew that if he kissed him then, he’d never be able to stop.
“I want,” Eddie said, his throat drying as Buck’s tongue slipped out to lick his lips. “I want you.”
Buck let out a sound Eddie wanted to drink up and the fact that he couldn’t was killing him. The blue in Buck’s eyes disappeared into black as his pupils widened and Eddie could’ve fallen in if he got close enough.
“Fuck, I never do this.”
Something wicked flashed in Buck’s smile and he pushed his hips up against Eddie’s with a sinful groan. “When do you get off?”
“Two hours,” Eddie said before he pushed back and skated his lips against Buck’s, bumping his nose against his. “You think you can wait that long?”
“Yes,” Buck breathed. “Let me get rid of Stuart.”
Eddie scowled at the mention of the asshole at the bar and Buck laughed.
“You aren’t subtle, man. Trust me. I can get rid of him.”
Fuck it. Eddie was already so far gone on his restraint he didn’t feel like waiting.
He surged up— the fact that Buck had an inch or so on him was way hotter than it should be— and captured Buck’s mouth with his own. Buck responded with a desperate enthusiasm that drove something wild and possessive in Eddie’s chest as he shoved impossibly close. He kissed those gorgeous plump lips, drinking in the sounds Buck freely fed him, and grinded his leg against Buck’s stirring hard on. It was frenzied but lazy; frantic but patient. They took their time and hurried as if they didn’t have enough. Buck’s arms curled around Eddie’s waist and held him close while Eddie drove him wild with his tongue. Buck responded beautifully, sighing as he opened his mouth, and Eddie flicked at the heated taste of whiskey before he bit down on Buck’s bottom lip and pulled.
They broke away way too soon and Buck keened as Eddie put space between them. The sound almost took Eddie out at the knees.
“Two hours,” Eddie said as he nibbled at Buck’s strong jaw before he nosed as his pulse point. Buck tipped his head back for easier access but they really didn’t have time. And there was the tiny fact that Buck’s date was still a sour stench in the bar. “And I want you to eat something. Understand?”
Buck huffed out a breath as he nodded.
Eddie could still feel the press of Buck’s fingertips against his spine as he stepped out of reach. He drank in the sight of Buck— back pressed against the wall, chin tilted up with the curve of his lips into a smirk that Eddie wanted to lick— before he turned back to the bar and tried to will time to speed up.
Stuart was still sitting at the bar but Eddie didn’t care. His mouth tingled with the bruise of Buck’s kiss and his heart hammered against his ribs until it felt like he was floating on air. Eddie moved across to the opposite end of the bar where a woman was toying with her sparkly clutch and waiting patiently while the others around tried to wave Eddie over.
“What can I get you?”
“Vodka martini please,” she said with a relieved smile. “And a plate of the fried pick—”
Her body went rigid as if she’d been shocked into stillness.
“Ma’am?” He asked, checking her for any signs that she was about to pass out. It wouldn’t have been the first time.
Though her face was pale, with her eyes wide and a sick slackness to her mouth, she didn’t falter. She just stared over Eddie’s shoulder in disbelief and said, “He just put something in that drink.”
Something cold prickled at Eddie’s too hot skin as his stomach bottomed out beneath his feet. Eddie turned and watched as Stuart pushed Buck’s glass back to where it was, something fizzing settling at the bottom of the whiskey.
Everything seemed to fall into slow motion, stretching Eddie thin as he saw Buck cutting through the crowd and smiling something pleasant at Stuart. Blue eyes glanced up to him for just a second before Buck sat down and took his drink.
Eddie was across the bar in two seconds flat.
“I was just—” Buck didn’t finish as Eddie’s hand slapped over to the top of his glass, knocking his knuckles into Buck’s pursed lips.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Stuart demanded as Eddie snatched the drink away from Buck. Buck’s eyes were like saucers as he stared at him, just as confused but Eddie couldn’t explain. The words were lodged like a knot in his throat that was bottling up all the anger burning in Eddie’s gut as he stared at Stuart.
Stuart’s expression faltered and Eddie knew.
“You put something in his drink.”
“What?” Buck breathed.
Stuart sputtered. “What? No I didn’t. You—”
Eddie jumped over the bar with ease and shoved himself in between Stuart and Buck.
Everything had gone deathly quiet except for the sharp ringing in Eddie’s ear as his anger raged in his chest like a pressure cooker.
“What the fuck, dude!” Stuart cried as he stumbled out of his stool and shoved Eddie back for distance. “I didn’t do anything!”
“You didn’t just slip something in his drink?” Eddie snarled, daring Stuart to lie as his cold sweat turning hot. Stuart went pale with a green twinging his complexion. He gaped at Eddie and shook his head. “You couldn’t get him to sleep with you after you treated him like shit so you decided to slip him something?”
“I didn’t—” Stuart said, backing up with his hands raised. “Back off man! I didn’t do anything!”
Eddie curled his hand around Buck’s glass tight enough that it was a miracle it didn’t shatter in his grip. Instead he thrusted it forward under Stuart’s nose.
“Then drink it.”
Stuart looked down at the glass and then back at Eddie before he shoved him back and ran.
Eddie’s shift lasted longer than two hours after that. Between management swooping in to have Eddie file an incident report, the cops coming in and filing another report, and everyone needing their drinks re-poured to make sure Stuart hadn’t slipped anyone else anything, Eddie was running ragged trying to catch just a glimpse of Buck. But a stern no nonsense woman with the sergeant bars patched on her shoulder had flown into the bar with the rest of the officers before she quietly taken a shell shocked Buck away.
By the time everything was said and done, the police had Stuart’s name and address— the idiot left his ID— and eye witness reports as well as Buck’s unfinished drink that they left with a determined slant in their mouths.
Eddie hadn’t seen Buck since.
He tried not to let the disappointment fill his chest as he finished working, a fine tremor in his hands from the left over adrenaline that he couldn’t shake and a tingle in his lips from the memory of Buck’s kiss. But Eddie couldn’t really find it in himself to blame him. Buck had walked into Eddie’s bar with so much hope in his face, only for everything to crash and burn. Eddie would’ve wanted to go home and bury himself under the covers too if he had been in his shoes.
With his tips counted and Eddie clocked out, he tried to not to groan at the thought of going home alone where he had nothing more than a hot shower waiting for him. Normally, he was eternally grateful for his Tía Pepa taking Chris so Eddie didn’t have to worry about racing home to get him in bed these late nights but just the thought of going home to an empty house while he was still wired sounded awful. The disappointment was even heavier to shake when he remembered the way Buck had responded under his touch; the promise in his kiss.
And now he was gone.
It sucked.
Eddie waved his goodbyes to the bouncers and his relief crew only to stop when he stepped outside.
Buck was leaning against the hood of a Jeep parked out front, gorgeous plump lips wrapped around a straw to a soda that he sucked with a cute sort of slurp.
His eyes lit up as he saw Eddie’s surprise.
“Hi,” Eddie said, trying to figure out if he was hallucinating or not.
Buck pulled off his straw with a pop and leaned over to set his drink on the hood. “Hey.”
Eddie scanned him from head to toe, checking for injuries the same way he had when Stuart had originally ran off.
“I thought you had gone home,” Eddie said.
Pink pooled into Buck’s cheek at the study.
“Well,” Buck held up a bag of fast food and shook it in front of Eddie. “You said I had to eat something first.”
That felt like a lifetime ago and Eddie couldn’t stop the snort of laughter if he tried. He crossed the distance between them in three easy strides and despite everything, Buck still grabbed onto his waist and pulled him flush against him without hesitation. The back of the Jeep jutted Buck’s hips forward and Eddie reached up to brush away a curl that had come lose in all the commotion.
“Are you okay?” He asked, swallowing past the knot in his throat at how close that had been.
Buck pressed up into his touch and toyed with Eddie’s belt loops like they were made for him to play with.
“I’m okay,” he promised, sighing as Eddie caressed that birthmark with his thumb. “That’s not even the worst date I’ve been on.”
Eddie stopped and stared at Buck in disbelief. “You almost got roofied, Buck.”
Buck bunched a shoulder up to his ear in a helpless shrug. “I almost died choking on bread once. Nothing’s really topped that one yet.”
And Eddie so wanted to hear that story but maybe not quite then when his nerves were still shot and the buzzing under his skin was keeping his alertness at an all time high.
“I’m sorry anyways,” Eddie said, curling his hand around the nape of Buck’s neck so he could feel the heat of his skin. It was too familiar too soon but it felt right with Buck. “You don’t deserve that.”
Buck shrugged again. “Maybe not. But something tells me my next date won’t be so bad.”
“Oh yeah,” Eddie said, playing along even though he knew exactly why. If he had it his way, Buck wouldn’t be going on anymore bad dates for the rest of his life.
Buck hummed as he tipped his head up, lips silently asking for another kiss that Eddie was only happy to oblige.