(May 13th 2009)

Addy wiped down the bar and gave me her sternest look, "You're sure you're okay to close for me tonight? You've been working non stop?"

"It's honestly not that big of a deal. And you are not allowed to work tonight, you've been talking about him coming back for the last month. You, my friend, are reuniting with your boyfriend tonight, cause I cannot take listening to you talk about how horny you are any longer." I gave her a smile and a nudge as I said it.

She laughed and sassily walked away, heading to the back to get plates and utensils to set me up for the night time shift.

I looked around the brewery, we were in that lull before dinner time where the shifts switched over. It was supposed to be my night off but when Addy had messaged and told me that her boyfriend, Li had completed his contracting job in Toronto early and was on his way back tonight, I had been happy to help her out.

I had been back for about a month and I generally liked most of Jon's staff. There were a few bad apples and a few girls that needed a good head shake, but all things considered it was a great place to work. It was early yet, but I thought it would be easy enough to lessen Jon's responsibilities.

I was one hundred percent certain that one of those ways was going to be Addy. She was by far my favourite out of all the girls at work. She had dark purple hair and light green eyes. A stone cold knock out, with a wicked sense of humour and one of the kindest people I had ever met.

She was a natural born leader and I thought that when I was done for the summer, she could take over for me. She would be the perfect choice for manager.

A couple of the girls had been a little snide towards me at first, feeling threatened with another single woman in town and not impressed that Jon had brought in an outsider, for the management role.

But, Addy had told them to grow up and stop being such dicks. As soon as she had stood up for me, I had been given less grief and I was on the way to me being welcomed in. Her kindness had made both this job and being home easier than I had expected it to be.

It had cemented our friendship because she had proven to be my kind of people. One of the biggest steps into adult hood, for me anyways, had been that I made a conscious effort to surround myself with positive people. Addy was willing to stand up for someone she barely knew, was funny as fuck and had shown herself to be drama free... for the most part anyway.

The other thing that helped was that her boyfriend, Li had been gone for work for the last month. She was as lonely as I was and she was quickly becoming one of my favourite friends.

We had hung out anytime I was free, which wasn't much considering I was working all the time but enough that she had worked her way into my heart.

It was funny because she went out of her way to talk about her boyfriend as little as possible, saying that she missed him too much when he was gone and so not talking about him was how she coped.

To my relief, Gabriel and I hadn't run into each other yet. I had been so scared to come home because I had wanted space from Gabriel and since being home, I hadn't seen him once. I knew he was around because I had spent some time with Mama Sawyer and Declan but he was scarce, which I should be thankful for but instead I found myself disappointed.

I started my beer and liquor counts watching as Addy walked around and closed up all her tables. We had added daily counts into our protocol, with me coming back to be the manager.

It had been easy to bring me in as a manager because Josie's dad had done virtually everything himself since Mrs. Stevens had passed away. He wasn't replacing an employee, he was lightening his own work load. He also had known immediately why I was back.

I had walked into his brewery and he had immediately wrapped me up in a big, bear hug. "I owe you and my daughter a big thank you for this."

He had explained his workaholic tendencies to me as we sat down to talk about my responsibilities and what my job would entail. He was aware that he had let himself dive into work, hard in his grief and unfortunately was just coming up to breathe now.

Knowing that he had split all his responsibilities in half, for us to share, I could just imagine how buried he had felt and I hoped that throughout the summer he would get a chance to breathe again because that's no way to live.

I shook my head to myself because I was just as guilty of being a workaholic, however my reasoning was independence. I knew my dad didn't understand it but it was important to me that I stand on my own two legs.

As Addy walked behind the bar to close up her tabs, my phone started ringing. I quickly declined the call but she gave me a look and asked, "Gavin again?"

I nodded and explained, "we've moved past the crying and now he's angry. I'm getting at least three angry voicemails a day about how I've wasted his time and all other kinds of nastiness."

She tsk'd as she cashed out one of the tables and dropped some money into her tip jar, "sheesh, you really have the worst luck don't you?"

Over drinks a couple nights ago I told her about what had caused me to want to put some space between myself and Fenelon. I had explained all about my ridiculous childhood love and then all of the disasters since.

Mostly about Gavin, I had felt  an overwhelming relief when I had been able to break up with him to come home. He, on the other hand had not taken kindly to the fact that I hadn't fallen for him the way that he had hoped. He revealed a bucket load of crazy that I was actually quite glad to have out of my life. I could just imagine if we had stayed together longer.

When I described what had happened with me and Gabriel, I had decided not to use his name. She might know him and I didn't feel like it was necessary to drag his name through the mud. Plus, Saying his name, makes my heart ache.

She shook her head, staring at my phone with a disgusted look on her face, "I say count your blessings, I think you might've dodged a bullet with that one! You know my boyfriend's best friend is single and I've been wanting to set him up."

I shook my head so hard that my teeth rattled, "NO! No setups, no dates, if Gavin's taught me anything at all, it's that I need to take some time. The only thing that this visit home is going to be doing for my vagina, is helping it to collect dust. Capeesh?"

I realized I'd lost her as she gave a little squeal and jumped up and down on the spot. Shrieking out, "Where is he?" I turned around to see who she was talking to and felt the breath whoosh out of my lungs.

It was as if a jolt of electricity glued me to the spot as my eyes met Gabriel's familiar sky blue orbs.

Not tearing his eyes away from mine, he said, "Liam didn't want to see you till he showered."

Jesus... Li... I should have realized.

I watched as his eyes ran over my body and then his eyes met mine again, twinkling as he said, "I thought about showering before I came in too, but I've heard all the girls around here have dusty vaginas, so why would I?"

The lack of oxygen combined with utter mortification that he heard my comment had me wheezing out, "hey Gabriel!" It was a nasally pitch that I didn't realize my voice could hit and I felt even more heat flood my cheeks. At this rate, it felt like my head was going to explode from my blushing.

My feet really wanted to carry me around the bar, to latch on for a giant hug but instead I broke our eye contact, spinning towards Addy and meeting her wide eyes. "Li as in Liam?"

She laughed,"You guys know each other? But..." she stopped whatever she was about to say and looked back and forth between Gabriel and I, floundering. Her eyes widening with an awareness of who he was to me.

Gabriel interrupted our silent communication, "I'd love a beer ladies." I looked over at him, noticing a slight flush on his own cheeks.

Addy reached out and poured a pint of our house beer and set it down in front of him. Although his eyes hadn't left me, he asked her how she'd been and they chatted quietly.

I handed him a menu and as he took it our hands brushed, causing shivers to dance up and down my spine. He gave me a panty melting smile, "thanks stranger!" I couldn't help my answering grin.

Apparently the time apart hadn't done anything for the way my body responded to him.

As I went back to my counts. I could feel his eyes tracking my every movement, causing every inch of me to feel heated and out of sorts.

The Gabriel of my memories didn't take up so much space, it honestly felt like he was the only one in the pub.

All of his boyish cuteness was long gone and I was being observed by the best looking man I had ever seen in my life. His blue eyes drew you in but then his dark curly hair, plump lips, the dark scruff teasing an impossibly strong jaw line and those chiselled cheeks, made you stay. It was impossible to look away.

I grimaced as Stephie came in to start her shift. She was one of the girls who had given me such a hard time at the beginning. This was her second job so she didn't work tons but when she was here, she sucked... hard. She was convinced that the attention should be on her, all the time and she saw me as competition.

She walked through the door and caught sight of who was at the bar, immediately flouncing over and throwing her arms around him from behind. "Gabriel, you guys are back! I've missed you."

I raised my eyebrows but turned away, knowing I had no reason for the giant knot in my gut. Her familiarity said a lot and although it was silly, logic had never played a big part in my feelings when it came to him.

He gave her an awkward smile as she said, "maybe we can hang out again after my shift?"

I didn't hear his answer as I moved down the bar. Stephie was on till close with me tonight, I knew what kind of "hanging out" would take place at two in the morning.

I sighed, it appeared that no matter how much distance I put between us, he still managed to fluster me senseless, make my butterflies dance and without a doubt cause my heart ache.

I needed to get a handle on my shit.

I looked at Addy who was watching me with sympathy in her eyes, I gave her a little smile and said, "I just need to do the back counts and then you're good to go. I can't believe your boyfriend is Liam. Small world!"

Then I rushed to the back, needing a minute alone to get myself together and to give myself a chance to get my stupid fluttery heart under control.

A/N- originally I wasn't intending to give Gabriel's POV of their second first meeting but I absolutely can't move on without knowing how he's feeling. Stay tuned for Gabriel's perspective. 💕

Thoughts? 🤓 Did we get enough story here? Anything you think is missing or that you want me to write more of?

Just saying... if I was to give this chapter a title it would be, "Heart Flutters and Dusty Vaginas" 🤣🤣

FYI- The time jumps from now on are going to be smaller. :)