A Bar Tender Tale by Melanie Tushmore

his idiot neighbors had evidently left it off the latch. He almost fell through the doorway, but Auryn caught his arm and steadied him. Nathan giggled away as Auryn marched him along the communal hallway to the different apartments. He asked which one was his and waited patiently while Nathan fumbled with his bunch of keys to find the right one.

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    Nathan’s bedsit was small. The door opened directly into what acted as his wardrobe, the clothes having taken over the hall. All Nathan’s coats, a vast collection of outfits and even a few old Halloween costumes stopped the door from opening more than halfway. Nathan pressed himself against it in a bid to lure Auryn inside.
    Auryn’s eyes were drawn however to the shelves on the wall, which contained the bulk of Nathan’s B-movie themed action figures and models. Nathan noticed him looking.
    “Hey.” He gestured behind him with an obvious drunken glint in his eye. “Why don’t you come in and take a look at my… zombie collection?”
    His words sounded slurred, even to him. He didn’t care.
    Auryn’s eyes looked eager, and for a moment Nathan thought he’d won, but then Auryn smiled and planted a kiss on Nathan’s cheek.
    “Goodnight, Nathan.”
    “Are you sure you don’t wanna come in?” Nathan offered, even as Auryn stepped away. “You can watch me get undressed….”
    “Goodnight, Nathan.”
    He watched Auryn leave.
    Dammit, he thought, closing the door and shuffling into his room to pass out.

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    Chapter 4

    EIGHT a.m. Friday, Nathan was awake with a pounding headache. Except today he didn’t care what had happened to Danny; he was more worried about having made a fool of himself with Auryn last night. The first few moments of wakefulness were spent lying in bed while he rubbed his aching temples. He remembered what he’d done and cringed.
    Oh God.
    He was still in most of his clothes too. Must have just rolled in and passed out. Good thing Auryn hadn’t succumbed to his drunken seduction after all, if that was all he’d been capable of. Nathan flung his arm out and patted his hand around on the floor until he found his phone.
    An apologetic text would be in order, surely. Did he even have Auryn’s number? He’d definitely entered his own into Auryn’s phone…. Nathan grimaced as he imagined Auryn would likely be deleting it after witnessing that little performance last night. He had a vague recollection of throwing himself at the man more than once, and poor Auryn trying to hold him off.
    Why am I such an idiot?
    Phone found, Nathan dragged it into bed with him to check his messages. A couple of texts, one from Tazz, another from his sister and….

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    One from an unknown number. Nathan went straight to this message, heart thumping as it opened.
    “Hope you feel okay. I’d like to see you again. X.” Hah!
    Nathan was beaming. Just one kiss though? He texted back: “I’ll assume this is Auryn, and if so yes! If you’re sure I didn’t scare you off with my drunken letching? XOXO.” Yeah, XO’s, Nathan thought. Take that , Auryn.
    He saw the original message had been sent late last night, but as Auryn worked in an office, he was bound to be an early riser. Nathan smiled to himself. He snuggled back into his covers with his phone perched on the pillow, too jittery to doze off again.
    After twenty minutes and no message, Nathan tried not to feel disappointed. He didn’t start work at Tequila Mocking Bar until eleven, so he had a lot of time to kill. Throwing the covers off, he staggered the small distance to his TV and selected a film to watch. When one felt like a mixture of horror and comedy, one need look no further than the hits from the 1980s. The Lost Boys was one of Nathan’s favorites, proof of which being a giant film poster on the wall above his futon bed.
    He grabbed a half-full, mostly flat bottle of cherry cola