An amused smile creases his lips. Sebastian Ardalan is not unaware of the effect he’s having on me. “Go ahead,” he replies. “Break.”
Pull yourself together, I scold myself, resolving to focus on the true reason I’m here. I have to beat Trevor and wipe that smug expression off his face. I slide my bracelets off my wrists and put them on a nearby table. “Can you keep an eye on them?” I ask. “They aren’t valuable, but I don’t want to lose them.” He looks curious, so I elaborate. “They’re souvenirs from trips.”
“I get refrigerator magnets when I travel, and Daniel buys coffee mugs,” he confides as I chalk my cue.
“Really?” I look up, surprised by Sebastian’s revelation. I didn’t expect to have something in common with a billionaire or a celebrity chef, but it’s nice to know that even they shop at kitschy souvenir shops.
He nods. “Really. Daniel drinks about eight cups of coffee a day, so he collects coffee mugs as a memento of his vacations. I used to take photos, but I never looked at them after I got back home. The magnets, I can look at each time I open the refrigerator.”
Sebastian gives me some tips about breaking. He shows me how to move the tip of the cue closer to my hand so I have more control when I make the shot. When Daniel comes back with three shots, the three of us lift our glasses in a toast and gulp down the vodka, then Daniel shows me where to aim so I don’t scratch. They make me practice scattering the balls, over and over again, and each time I make contact, they speak encouraging, supportive words.
Their coaching works. After fifteen minutes, I stop dreading walking up to the table to try and dispel the tightly racked triangle of balls. I start hitting the cue ball cleanly, and when I follow Daniel’s advice - slow and steady - I even have my first legal break. Three balls hit the rails.
“I did it!” I exclaim. “I can’t believe it. I actually did it.”
“Yes you did,” Sebastian agrees cheerfully, handing me my stack of jewelry. “Congratulations, Bailey. We’ll make a pool player out of you yet.”
For the first time ever, I believe him. Less than an hour of instruction and I’ve learned how to break? Daniel and Sebastian are miracle workers.
* * *
Clark’s in some kind of snit when he shows up and reads the paperwork that the bartender hands him. Sebastian sneaks a look and comes away grinning.
“What?” I ask. After hanging out with Daniel and Sebastian for a little over an hour, chatting about work and vacations and my pool game, I feel a sense of camaraderie with them.
Sebastian laughs out aloud. “Clark’s rank dropped. He’s now a three. Idiot.”
“That’s not very nice.” Though Clark was a dick to me last week, given my general ineptness at the pool table, I feel sympathetic for anyone that’s struggling at the sport. Even douchebag Clark.
“Trust me, it’s perfectly justified,” Daniel replies. “You know why his rank dropped? He can’t play opposite a woman.”
“Huh?”
“He’s way more aggressive when he’s playing a woman,” Daniel explains. “His shot selection is reckless. He hits the balls too hard. Sound and fury, but no substance. He’s trying to prove something.” He shakes his head. “Clark’s been playing in the league for a while. Other teams have figured this out, so they always put up a woman when he’s playing. Of course, he loses far more often than he wins. Watch.”
Just as Daniel predicts, when Clark puts himself up to play, still muttering about the incompetent American Poolplayers League, the other team confers briefly, and a petite Asian woman comes forward. Both Daniel and Sebastian are struggling not to laugh, and to tell the truth, I too am fighting my urge to giggle at the thunderous expression on Clark’s face.
Bailey, I think to myself, you might be in trouble. I’m extremely attracted to Daniel and Sebastian, but as I told Gabby over lunch, attraction is not enough for me. Liking them is a pretty necessary part of the equation. The problem is, after this evening, I like them a lot.
“Where’s Juliette?” I ask them, to try to distract myself from that train of thought. We’d been introduced last week, and we’d even had time for a brief conversation, where I’d learned that she had known Daniel and Sebastian for more than a year. She’d been polite enough, if a little aloof.