Deleted scene from The Brewer and the Bartender

I padded into the kitchen the next morning, stifling a groan when I saw Richard making himself an espresso. That machine probably cost more than my first car.

“Morning, Richard,” I said, nodding a hello at him. Yes, it was unusual for me to greet him with his actual name and not a few choice words I knew would irritate him, but what could I say? I was determined to stay in a good mood this morning since I was meeting Derek in a few minutes, and I wasn’t going to let this asshole ruin my day. I headed straight for my twenty-dollar coffee pot, which he’d generously let me hook up in the corner of the kitchen, and set out to fix my morning brew.

Richard cast a wary glance at me, like he was waiting for the joke or the punchline which was sure to follow. “Good morning,” he finally muttered.

That fucker actually rolled his eyes as he said it, like it pained him to be polite to me. Well, he didn’t have to do me any favors. Owen wasn’t even here to witness the exchange. And speaking of— “Where’s Owen?”

Richard sipped his espresso out of his tiny mug, pinky finger extended just so, and hummed in approval. “Still asleep. I’ll have to wake him up before I leave. He’s getting behind on his work.”

Jesus. Did anyone live up to this asshole’s standards? Owen was still studying when I got back from the bar last night, and I’d bet my left nut he was up past midnight. “Maybe you should let him rest.”

“And maybe you should get your own place and butt out.”

I took a deep breath before speaking, not wanting to escalate this into the shouting match that I was now a hair trigger away from starting. “You’ll be happy to know I have an appointment with a realtor this week.” I didn’t, but if this exchange told me anything it was that I needed to get off my ass and get out of here or the two of us were going to end up killing each other.

“Ah, I see. So that’s where you were last night? Preparing for the big move, were you?”

The coffee pot beeped, at last indicating that my pot was done and that I wouldn’t have to stand here any longer and pretend to be nice to this prick. I could’ve just told him I was at work last night, but it was none of his business what I was doing, and he knew it. Just like it was none of my business why he was going to the office on a Saturday. Again.

I began filling my travel mug, unwilling to wait even a minute longer for my coffee to cool off enough to drink. I wasn’t going to stand here any longer than I absolutely had to. “Don’t worry. I’ll be out of your hair soon enough, and you can go back ignoring Owen and pretending I don’t exist.”

I didn’t stick around to see what he was going to say next; I popped the lid on my travel mug, grabbed my keys from the entry table, and headed out. After more than a month here I’d finally learned to don my running clothes before I left the guest room, just in case. I was grateful today I’d learned that lesson early on.

Normally I would jog the quarter mile to the river, but since I hadn’t been able to finish my coffee I hopped in my car and drove. The park was still mostly deserted, so it was easy to find a parking spot. I gave myself a good five minutes to get as much caffeine in my system as I could before I got out, locked the car, and stashed my keys behind one of the tires.

I was still a bit early so I jogged the half-mile loop once to warm up my muscles before stopping on the far side to stretch. Balancing one hand on the waist-high wall at the river’s edge, I grabbed my foot with the other hand, stretching out my quads. As my muscles began to loosen up I glanced out over the park and spotted Derek, his powerful legs carrying him toward me in a long, easy stride.

Damn, he had nice legs. And I liked seeing what those legs could do.

“You done a loop already?” he asked. “Looks like you’ve been sweating.”

“Got here a little early and thought I’d warm up a little. What about you? Need to stretch some?”

“Nope. I’m good to go.”

I released my leg and shook out my limbs. “How many miles are you up for?”

“What do you normally do?”

“Five. You?”

“I could go for six today. Maybe seven or eight.”

I grinned at him. “Bring it on.”

***

Derek was the perfect running partner, pushing me just enough to challenge me but not so much that I couldn’t keep up. We ran five miles but ended up stopping there. Whether it was because Derek had reached his limit or he wasn’t willing to push me past mine I wasn’t sure. Either way now we were sharing a comfortable silence as we walked the loop to cool down, the July sun casting a blinding reflection across the water. The heat index would be over a hundred today. I really should get out of the sun, head back to Owen’s, and grab some food and a cool shower before I headed to work.

“So, what got you started running, anyway?” I asked him instead. The question startled a laugh out of him, and I frowned. “What?”

“Of all the things you could’ve said, that was not what I thought would come out of your mouth.”

“Why, what’d you think I was going to say?”

“Something a little more vulgar.”

“What, like how your glutes are doing after last night’s workout?”

Derek laughed. “Yeah, like that.”

I shrugged. “Maybe I just enjoy getting to know the guy I’m spending my Friday nights with.”

Derek looked at me for a few long moments, like he was looking for the innuendo in what I just said. I couldn’t tell what he saw in my expression, but he must have seen something, because he turned his gaze back toward the path ahead of us and shook his head, huffing a laugh. “I can’t believe I’m about to tell you this… but I was kinda pudgy as a kid.”

“No way. You? I need pictures.”

“That would be a big fat hell no. It was traumatizing enough hearing the kids call me…”

“What?”

“Never mind. Anyway, my parents had to sacrifice a lot to get the Bootlegger going. When they finally got to the point that they were financially comfortable after Ethan and I came along, they started buying more and more junk food, because it was something they’d had to do without for so long. And I was more of an indoors, stay-in-my-room-and-read kind of kid.”

“Yeah, I could’ve guessed that after your story about getting the chemistry book for your birthday.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “So what changed?”

“Once I hit my teens, I started hanging out at the Bootlegger more and more after school. I still wasn’t old enough to work there, but Dad would pick me up after school and let me stay with him until it was time for him to head home. Let me help out bussing tables, switching out the kegs in the cooler, stuff like that. But mostly I just hung out at the bar. That’s actually how I got to know Harvey and Martin and the guys.”

“Oh my god.” That made me laugh even more. I could totally picture Derek as a teen shooting the shit with those two.

“But there was this bartender, Craig…”

“Ah. Now we get down to it.”

“Yep. He was basically the reason I figured out I was gay. Anyway, he went with me one day to switch out the kegs. My dad always had me take the empty ones and just line them up against the wall inside the cooler, and it would take me a while because they were pretty heavy, at least for me. But Craig just picked them up like they were nothing, one in each hand, and when I saw the way his biceps bulged out? That’s when I knew.”

“That you wanted to suck his dick right then and there?”

Derek laughed. “Well, yeah, but he was straight and I was underage. But no, that’s when I knew I had to start working out. I started running because it was easy, something I could do myself. Then I started doing pushups in my room at night. By the time school started back the next year, I’d lost most of the baby fat and was in good enough shape that I joined the cross country team. The rest is history.”

“So in other words, you knew even when you were a teenager that you wanted to open your own brewery, and some hot bartender with bulging biceps helped you realize you couldn’t gain everything you’d need by holing up in your room reading textbooks?”

He laughed. “Something like that.  I didn’t think the subtext would be that obvious, though.”

“You’re good at what you do. You shouldn’t have to pretend you’re not passionate about it.”

“Yeah, well…” Derek trailed off, looking like he wanted to say more but then decided not to. “Okay, what about you, then? I’ll bet you were a track star in high school.”

I laughed to myself at the image Derek’s question posed. “Nah, I didn’t start running until I got to college, actually. My roommate Cole was a runner. I started tagging along.” And later trading hand jobs after our runs, though I didn’t mention that part out loud.

“So what did you play back in high school? Baseball? Soccer?” Derek prodded.

“What’s with the sudden obsession with my high school athletic career?”

“Hey, I told you about what I was like back then. Just trying to get a mental image of a young Leo Corbett. You couldn’t have always been as suave and confident as you are now.”

“I wouldn’t exactly use those words to describe me back then, no.”

“Then what? Out and proud drama club kid who played the lead in spring musical every year? Loner rebel who ditched class to smoke weed in the parking lot? Straight A student that everybody hated because you blew the bell curve on every test? What?”

I laughed. “You have a very active imagination, you know that?”

“Hey, if you insist on being so secretive, I’m just gonna start making shit up. I’ll go back to the Bootlegger Monday and tell all the guys about the time you got suspended for pantsing the principal at the anti-drugs assembly. In your cheerleading uniform.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being a cheerleader. They are athletes too, you know.”

“Ah.” Derek nodded knowingly. “Now we get down to it. Cheerleader, huh?”

“No, you asshole. I wasn’t a cheerleader. I did have a huge crush on one, though. He could do that thing, you know? Where you jump in the air and do the splits and touch your toes?”

“Oh, yeah. I did a few of those just this morning. Little warm-up before my run.”

I laughed and shook my head. “You are such a little shit.”

“I know. It’s one of the things that drew you to me.”

“Ugh. Okay, fine. My parents divorced, and my two younger siblings and I stayed with Mom. You can probably guess the rest: single mom, three kids. There wasn’t exactly time for things like extracurricular sports. And even if there was, I wasn’t exactly the letter-jacket-wearing joiner type.”

“Let me guess. Oldest kid equals built-in babysitter, huh?”

“So, you’re familiar with that phenomenon too?”

Derek nodded. “Although probably not to the degree you were, I’m guessing.”

“Yeah.” I glanced out over the river; the sun was climbing higher in the sky, and the temperature was distinctly warmer now than it was when we’d begun. We were about to finish our loop; the parking lot was just around this last curve. Pretty soon I wouldn’t have any more excuse to keep talking to Derek. Unless I invited him to breakfast?

No. I’d already pushed beyond one comfortable boundary today. I had to take this slowly.

“Well anyway, this is me.” Derek pointed to his truck, parked not twenty feet away.

The urge to reach out and pull his body against mine, to wind my arms around him and kiss him breathless, was strong and visceral. It wasn’t even about sex. I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a quickie in the backseat—that was, if we could find somewhere private enough—but it wasn’t what I craved at the moment.

Derek turned toward me, standing just close enough in my personal space that it would look suspicious to anyone watching us. His eyes darted down to my mouth, a brief yet noticeable action that only served to ratchet up my desire to capture his mouth with my own. Derek had been an exceptional kisser to begin with, and had only improved over the past few weeks, learning all of my weak spots and using them to his advantage every time our lips met.

It wouldn’t take much. All I had to do was take one step forward, and I could get one last taste of that delicious mouth before I drove home and jerked off in the guest shower.

Before I could talk myself out of it, though, a runner whizzed past us, brushing Derek’s arm as he passed by, and the spell was broken. Derek stepped back, waving an awkward goodbye as he climbed into his truck, and I was left standing there alone, sweaty, and confused.