(Prompt photo by Niki Saunders on Unsplash.com)

Thom sipped his beer and eyed the pool table, regretting having joined his friends tonight. Aside from the very slow, inebriated game of pool, there was nothing going on. At least for him, there wasn't.

He'd watched Gio hit on three consecutive girls- each time getting a number. Christian had ditched mid-game twice to dance with random girls. J and A, well past buzzed, were sword fighting with the cues. Thom was Thom; too much in his head to talk to any of the girls, or enjoy the night.

"How did I let you convince me to come out tonight?" he grumbled to Gio who'd just returned, flashing the third phone number at him.

"You were bored, 'cause you're boring!" Gio chugged the last half of Thom's beer. He signaled to a passing waitress for another two drinks. "Lookie!" Gio nodded at the women standing in the entrance. "A bachelorette party!"

Thom recognized the woman at the center of the group, wearing a lopsided tiara and sparkly sash that read Bride in a ridiculously fluorescent shade of pink.

She worked in the hospital across from his office, and like him, was a creature of habit, always traveling in the same subway car and stopping at the same coffee shop. She smiled at him a lot. They'd had many great conversations, ones that took place only in his head, and went much smoother than if he'd opened his mouth in real life.

"Oh great!" Thom racked the balls again. "Now I've gotta watch you try for another number."

"Not try, Thom. Get. You have the pleasure of watching me get another number. You should take notes."

Thom scoffed, gesturing at the table, "Another game? Let them order drinks before you start charming them."

"Hi?" A hand rested on Gio's muscled arm, "I'm Diana. This is a dare, so just go with it, okay? We've got to interrupt and join your game, if that's cool?"

Typical bar-girl, in Thom's opinion; they were all the same, flirty, overly touchy-- her hand was still on Gio's arm-- and simply looking for a fun time. The kind of girl who'd inevitably stop flirting the minute Thom's awkward humour offended her. Not his thing, at least not after his flirty, bar-girl, ex; he considered sitting this game out.

"What's in it for us?" Gio eyed the two girls appreciatively.

"Lacey will kiss your friend."

Thom's eyebrows shot up when the speaker propelled the bride-to-be into his line of vision and pointed at him. Lacey gave her an annoyed look, but smiled and shrugged, almost acquiescing.

Gio laughingly eyed Thom for a reaction, "Sure thing, Sweetheart. I was hoping for your number, but that'll work too."

"Oy!" Thom muttered, as Gio waved over the other ladies; he eyed all five women, "This is going to be a long, slow game."

"Are you really that bad?" Lacey laughed, "Because I know you're not implying that us girls are."

Thom flushed; she was joking, he knew, but he felt the need to clarify anyway, "There're a lot of people here..."

The females had drawn the attention of Christian, J, and A, and they all watched in amusement as he floundered.

"It's just Lacey and me," Diana said.

Gio handed them both cues-- ones he'd liberated from J and A. "I'm Gio. This is Thom. So, you ladies know how to play?"

Thom flinched at Lacey's less than pleased reaction; he wouldn't have been stupid enough to ask that.

"Of course, you ass!" She stood at the head of the table as if she intended to break, ""How about a bet? Diana and I win, you buy all of us top shelf drinks."

"And if they win?"

"I'll kiss Thom!"

"What about me?" Gio teased, a pout on his face.

Lacey pulled a paper from her pocket, checked it, and stuffed it back in. She adjusted the tiara in her long brown hair, and set up her cue. "It only says I have to kiss one rando. So, just Thom."

The white ball smashed through the others, spinning them in all directions, and she grinned at the two of them. "But, it'll be so good, you'll feel it too, Gio."

Thom raised an eyebrow; the words seemed odd for an engaged woman. He figured, she knew she'd win.

Conversations swirled around him, but he only listened. Christian already had one of the ladies under his arm. "I don't have as many as Lacey!" she-- Annie (or was it Allie?)-- giggled in answer to something he'd asked.

How many what? Thom wondered, taking a long sip of his beer, half listening.

"How many do you have, Lacey?" Christian asked.

"Tattoos? I have about 10."

"Now, ask her where they are!" the tall one called Marissa had mischief on her face.

Lacey twirled, arms out, "You see what you see. The rest? Never!"

"Those are just for Jason!" Rosie smiled knowingly at Marissa and they both snickered. Great! Now Thom would spend all night wondering about them.

Somehow the combination of his third beer, the fact that she was engaged and her certainty in winning her bet, made it easier for Thom to talk her. As they played, he heard himself talking and even teasing Lacey and Diana, as a means of distracting them.

"What If I don't want to be your rando?"

Gio attempted to help Diana take a shot.

"Sorry about that. I don't even want to do these dares. I told Diana I recognized you, so she picked you, since I wouldn't kiss a complete stranger, ."

"But I am a complete stranger."

"Dee says, if I know your regular coffee order, you're not ."

She knew his order? She knew his order!

"Your turn, Lace!" Marissa yelled, "Stop flirting!"

Lacey scoffed and examined the table. She pulled her hair back, twisting it so it would stay out of the way as she leaned forward.

"You need to fix your hair every shot you take? This is pool, not a fashion show."

"Green ball. Side pocket. You take down your pretentious man-bun."

Gio smirked at Thom's protest; he'd made fun of Thom's hair since freshman year of college.

"How else am I supposed to keep it back?"

The pocket swallowed the ball and Lacey waited, hand outstretched for his hair-tie.

"I never agreed to your terms." He folded his arms, firm in his resolve to leave his hair as it was.

"I don't need you to agree..." Thom felt her tug the tie out of his hair. With a smug smile, she tousled it playfully into his face. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail, and with a teasing grin, tied it into a bun.

Resigned to having lost his tie, Thom shook his hair forward, then flipped it back; a habit he held onto from his rugby days. He supposed it seemed an odd habit now that he didn't play anymore, except for the occasional leisure game.

It still had the same effect; the girls all stared at him as he did it, including Lacey. Cocking an eyebrow at her expression, he went to take his shot, but she laughingly reached to tousle his hair again.

Thom had always hated the way some girls flirted even though they were taken. It made it hard to tell when he had a chance or when they were simply playing. He could only imagine the night's embarrassment, if he didn't already know she was engaged.

Flustered by both Lacey and the fact that his hair had fallen into his face again, he missed his shot. But he wasn't about to complain after teasing her about fixing hers.

"So, I have a favor to ask," Lacey whispered at his side during Diana's turn. "These dares. I really don't feel like asking a bunch of guys..."

"Let me see," he held out a hand for the list. It was what he expected; get a guy's number, kiss someone, tequila body shots, dance bomb a random guy.

"Really?" These were all just opportunities for her to flirt with guys before she got married.

"That's why I don't want to ask random guys..."

Pocketing her list, Thom headed towards the bar. Her face as he ordered two tequila shots was priceless.

"You pick that one?" Surprise and uncertainty, like she already knew it wasn't something he would do, but wasn't sure she was right. She'd seemed so confident when she'd bet her kiss, but Thom could see past the bravado now.

Grabbing a pen that rested on the mixing counter, Thom, without saying anything, wrote his number on her arm. He didn't know why he wrote his actual number; it would be washed off by tomorrow, and it's not like Mrs. Lacey Whatever would ever call.

Her phone lit up, a hideous dog and a baby displayed on the screen. The kind of dog so hideous, only its owner would keep a picture.

"Yours?" he asked; he didn't really want to know.

"My-? No! I take pictures of newborns and sick kids at the hospital. This family wanted their dog in them, too. It's one of my favorites- he's so cute!" she rambled. "Don't give me that look- I'm aware he's ugly, but ugly dogs need love too!"

Thom wanted to smile, but didn't. He never thought he'd be so turned on by the words ugly dogs and baby photos...

The arrival of their shots deflated the strong feeling of like swelling inside and replaced it with apprehension. "So...?"

"They're not looking," Thom pushed a glass across the sticky bar top to her. "Cheers!"

The glasses clinked, they licked their own hands, threw their heads back and felt the burn of the awfully subpar tequila. A lemon was shoved into his mouth, another bitten right off his palm. The feeling he knew he shouldn't be having about her, returned tenfold, as they laughed their way back to the game they still had to finish.

"Not gonna work!"

She attempted to distract him from sinking the last remaining ball by dancing beside him.

"I'm gonna sink it!"

He didn't.

She did.

She won. Of course she did!

Thom and Gio dutifully bought the girls the drinks they wanted, and when the drinks were done, watched as they left, laughing and flushed from the flirting and alcohol. Thom sighed.

When he'd gotten on the subway that morning, he known relatively nothing about her. Now, through the sheer accident of being dragged into the same bar, he knew several things about her. Things that made him think she was even more beautiful than he'd thought before.

He knew she had a fiancé-- she'd met him while playing hockey, according to Marissa-- but his heart didn't seem to care. She could probably wipe the floor with him in a game of pool, even if he hadn't been so distracted. She was the perfect combination of sweet and badass, and on the ride to work on Monday morning, she would have someone to talk to.

And he knew he would always regret missing that last shot, if only because he wouldn't get that mind blowing kiss she'd promised.

"I forgot something," Thom heard not long after he and Christian started a new game. He ignored her; she wasn't going to distract him again.

But ignoring was hard, when she jumped up on the edge of the pool table, grabbed him by the

collar of his shirt and tugged him toward her. "I forgot to tell you I'm not really engaged."

Her mouth on his, stalled his brain, and she was gone before he could kiss her back. He stared at her dumbfounded as she called over her shoulder, gesturing at her arm, "This better be a real number, Thommy-boy!"

When Thom agreed to come out with the boys tonight, he'd expected a night of watching his friends getting too drunk. He'd expected to be too sober to enjoy the jokes. He hadn't expected to meet the girl of his dreams.