Love on Chesapeake Bay (BWWM)

14. Money Ball

Kayla followed her map to a bar downtown called Brewer's Cask, two blocks away from the party. Once inside she spotted Jack, sitting at the bar alone, and made her way through the place to meet him.

"Hey you," she said when she was close enough.

"Kayla," he grinned, turning to look at her.

Kayla plopped down on the stool next to him.

"And what will you two be drinking tonight?" the bartender, a tatted blonde in a biker jacket, asked the twosome.

"A Coke and whatever the lady would like to drink," Jack said, gesturing to Kayla.

"I'll have a Coke too," Kayla said. When the bartender turned her back, Kayla swiveled in her stool to face Jack.

"I forgot you don't drink," she said, "You never told me why, by the way."

Jack looked at her nervously and then down at his hands. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before I had to tell you," he sighed. "When I found out about the affair..." he paused for a minute to find the right words before continuing, "well I started drinking.. a lot. I was like that for awhile even after the divorce. I decided to stop because I didn't want my drinking to affect my work."

He pulled something out of his pocket and laid it on the bar. It was a sobriety coin. '4 years' it said. "It will be 5 next month," he said.

Wow, she thought, this man is just full of surprises...

"That's pretty impressive. I'm glad you're in a better head space now," Kayla said, then tentatively added, "Are you sure a bar is the best place-"

"Don't worry about it, Kayla, I'll be just fine," he smiled. "Besides, the music here is pretty good. And they have pool."

"You wanna play?" Kayla asked as the bartender set their Cokes down in front of them.

"Way ahead of you," he said, grabbing his drink and sliding off of his stool.

Kayla followed him to the pool table. She was conflicted about what to do next. She knew how to play pool and if she had to say so herself, she wasn't too shabby. She was fairly sure if she held her own she'd have a pretty good shot at winning. The competitiveness in her told her to play for real. But then again she was really liking the thought of Jack's muscular arms wrapped around her, teaching her how to play...

"So how do you play?" She asked.

"You don't know how to play pool?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

She shook her head, innocently.

"Alright, I'll go easy on you," he said, handing her a cue.

"So you hold the cue stick like this," he demonstrated, leaning over the table, holding the stick parallel to it, directly below his chin. He cocked the stick back and hit the cue ball with precision, sinking the solid green 6 into the left corner pocket.

Damn... Kayla thought, beginning to question her plan to play dumb as he cued up and hit the solid orange ball just shy of the right pocket, he's pretty good.

"What happened to going easy on me?"

"That was me going easy," he winked. "You're up, Bruiser."