Unobtainable by Jennifer Rose

months, days and hours.
    I said my goodbyes to Clair, her friend Connie, and her new boyfriend what’s-his-face before I headed to the back exit five feet away. My hand clasped the release bar and just as I pushed, a hand yanked it closed again. I turned to give the asshole holding me back shit, to find Harley’s handsome face smiling into mine. My creased brow relaxed as a smile spread over my heated face
    “Not leaving yet, are you?” he asked, close enough I could smell sweet whiskey on his breath. “You can’t leave without having a drink with me first.”
    “You bought lunch yesterday,” I reminded him. “Let me buy you a drink.”
    “But it’s Chivas night,” he announced, with a tipsy laugh, making me want to sink to my knees and unzip his fly. “On Chivas night we go big or we go home.”
    “Only the best,” I smirked at his expensive whiskey of choice, “I’m in.
    Of course I was in, I wasn’t about to walk out the door and leave my spicy god to his own devices, god only knew who’s bed he would end up in if I did.
    “Keys,” he demanded, holding out his open palm. “On Chivas night, the only one allowed to drive is a guy named Bubba with a big yellow checkered sedan.”
    I reached into my pocket and held out my keys, snatching them back just as fast. “I’ll need those back to get into my apartment later.”
    “Don’t worry,” Harley said. “I’ll take care of you.”
    Mmm…there was more than one way I could take that, I was wishing for the cozier one that involved two bodies being tangled together between bed sheets.
    I followed him to the bar without question. It was like he was all-powerful as the crowd parted like the Red Sea as we walked to the bar. Harley tapped the edge of his glass and Andy the bartender filled it, placing a glass in front of me and filling it to the brim with golden liquid. He placed the bottle on the bar and nodded.
    “I’ll get these,” I told Andy, who looked to Harley, flicked his brow and then walked away.
    “It’s taken care of,” Harley shrugged.
    “Next round then,” I said, as Harley tapped his glass to mine and shot it back.
    “Paid,” he said. “Once the bottles cracked, it’s cracked. Like I said, go big or go home. So drink up, I got a few on you.”
    Harley Cooper was suave indeed. He had an air of sureness that poured from him like molten chocolate, he was my delectable craving. I licked my lips just thinking about eating him up. He drew attention from everyone, men and women alike and no one passed him by without a greeting or a hand shake, a touch or some kind of contact. To call him popular would have been a grave understatement. I wasn’t sure if I should have the nerve to be jealous but I was feeling it, we were nothing more than colleagues and casual acquaintances, though I would have given my right nut for more. I was still unsure of his sexual proclivity, I only had my suspicions. He interacted equally with women and men, paid them all special attention, it was hard to tell if he had a preference. Maybe he was bi-sexual.
    There was nothing characteristically flamboyant or ostentatious about Harley that would suggest in any way that he was gay, it was just a feeling I got when he was close. Call me crazy, perhaps I was so into him that my imagination was playing games with my head and heart. Asking him wasn’t going to happen anytime soon either, I figured if and when he wanted me to know, he’d find a way of telling me.
    Conversation was kept mainly to business as Harley talked about contract negotiations he was in hot pursuit of. The more I drank, the more I was fascinated by anything he said. He could have been talking about the contents of the dumpsters out back of the pub and he would have had me absolutely enthralled. I was elated with his attention, he seemed to be concentrating all of it on me, and I couldn’t have been more content.
    The bartender poured the last of the bottle equally between our glasses and Harley