Iris

"Another one?" Josiah, my favorite bartender in the city, asked the moment my empty glass clinked against the bar's shiny wooden counter.

I squinted at the glass, debating the wisdom of more alcohol, but after the day I'd had, I deserved it. Alcohol wouldn't fix anything, but right now it made things a hell of a lot easier to deal with.

"Just one more," I answered, raising the cup and rattling the ice in it. "But cut me off after that."

"Sure thing, Iris."

Hearing him say my real name made me queasy and giddy at the same time. Then again, maybe the queasiness was left over from the headache I'd had earlier in the day. Finding my sister making out with a stranger on my couch when I got home only made the headache worse, but an extra strength dose of pain meds and a few hours of sleep at Minh's place got rid of everything but a lingering ache between my eyes.

After waking up, I should have gone home. Deadlines loomed for my book, but I would rather risk missing one than walking in on my sister having sex.

No...that wasn't right. After waking up, I should have called Garrett. He deserved the truth, but I was too chicken to tell him. Because I knew the moment I did, I would lose him. That left me sitting in a bar at five on weekday. Drinking away my problems.

"Thanks, Josiah," I said, accepting the fresh vodka tonic and taking a sip.

He threw his towel over his shoulder and propped an elbow on the bar. His deep brown skin glowed in the warm lights hanging overhead. He flashed a bright smile that would have normally made my heart race.

"What's wrong? You don't seem yourself."

That's because I'd been pretending to be someone else for the last two weeks. Even now, wearing a pair of my favorite overalls and an oversized sweater I'd found at Minh's place, I couldn't shake Ivy out of my system.

Or maybe, if I was honest with myself, it wasn't Ivy at all. Somewhere between playing dress up and falling in love with Garrett, I'd changed, and everything in my old life felt off. Like a pair of pants that no longer fit just right.

"Just been busy with work," I finally replied.

"Maybe you should take a vacation. The mountains are lovely at this time of year. Especially when you go with a friend." He winked.

I lowered my glass and stared at Josiah with an open mouth. Was he hitting on me? How many times had I sat in this very seat and thought that a guy like him would never go for a girl like me? Ivy was his type. Not me.

"Think about it," he said as he walked away to help a customer at the other end of the bar.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out, my mind in a daze. A daze that quickly cleared when I saw my sister's name on the screen. She could wait. There was no way I had the energy to talk to her right now, even if she was probably calling to ask me to pick up something from the store.

The legs of the chair beside me scraped across the floor as someone pulled it out. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I pushed down my irritation at the newcomer's choice of seat. Everyone knew the proper etiquette was to put at least one chair between you and a stranger when there was room.

"Rough day?"

I almost fell out of my chair at the sound of Garrett's voice, but my surprise turned to concern when I saw how disheveled he looked. His collar was unbuttoned. The tip of his blue tie poked out of his jacket pocket, and I couldn't tell if his wild curls were the result of wind or fingers. But worst of all were the purple smudges under his eyes, and the empty look in them when they settled on me.

"Garrett. I've never seen you in here." I mentally slapped myself on the forehead.

The wooden chair creaked as he leaned back in it and scanned the bar. "Never been here before, but I was in the area. And I need a fucking drink."

He was in the area. Why was he in the area? The only thing in this area that could interest him was my place. Had he gone to my apartment?

He must have seen the whirring panic in my expression, because he forced a smile to his lips. "Sorry, Iris. Didn't mean to sound so unhinged."

Iris. I swayed in my seat.

"Whoa, you okay there?"

Garrett's hand shot out to grab my arm. Just the feel of his slightly roughened fingertips on my skin sent heat shooting to all the right places. Places that remembered very distinctly just what those fingertips were capable of.

"I'm fine," I whispered.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

He let me go slowly, staring at his hand in confusion as he moved it back to his lap. In my books, this would be the point where the love interest would be shocked by the intense connection he felt, but that was only in romance novels. Since he thought I was the wrong sister, there was no way that touch meant anything to him.

"I'm actually glad I ran into you."

"Why is that?"

Was he going to ask me about Ivy? I sent up a silent prayer that he didn't, because I couldn't keep lying. But this was definitely not the place to have that conversation.

"It's about your sister."

For fuck's sake. Running my finger around the rim of my cup, I mustered up a confused smile. "Oh lord, what has Ivy done now?"

A shudder went through him when I said Ivy's name. Did he know? Had he shown up at my apartment and found her there? Nausea returned in full force, but I shoved it down.

"She went home sick today, and she left something of yours behind."

"Something of mine?" My voice was several octaves higher than normal, but Garrett didn't seem to notice. He stared straight ahead, refusing to look at me.

"A manuscript for your newest book. I hope you'll forgive me, but I couldn't help myself. I read a few chapters."

Now he turned. Anger made his green eyes brighter, and the knuckles of the hand resting on the bar were white. When he first told me about his anger issues as a kid, I thought he had to be exaggerating, but not anymore.

"Garrett—"

"Imagine my surprise when I read several extremely intimate and personal details about my life in those pages. Things you couldn't possibly know unless your sister told you. Was this all for research? Did you two have a good laugh while she spilled the tea?"

"Garrett, wait..."

"You know, I kept telling her she was more like you than she thought, but now I think it's the other way around. You're more like Ivy. Both of you man-eating, wh—"

"Do not say something you'll regret," I blurted out, refusing to let him call me that. "Now let me explain. Please."

Grabbing my drink off the counter, he tossed back the contents before standing. "You know what? I thought I wanted an explanation. Turns out, I don't. It won't make any fucking difference. Tell your sister she's fired."