Zack surveyed the crowd. There were plenty of good-looking guys milling around, but no one jumped out at him. He turned back to his friends and gestured to the bar. They nodded and followed him. They managed to find an open spot with one chair, which Alexa graciously held out for Zack. He accepted it with a bow and then pulled her onto his lap. Zack pretended to haul Lee onto his other knee, but Lee smacked his hand away. A bartender appeared and took their drink orders. Zack sized up the crowd and decided to order a double Scotch and a beer as well. He might not get another chance for a while.

“Kira still isn’t here,” Alexa observed. She was swinging her legs between Zack’s like a little kid and fiddling with one of her eyebrow piercings. “I wonder what’s keeping her.”

Zack grinned. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were nervous.”

“Oh, shut up. I am not. I just hope she’s safe. Woman traveling alone at night and all.”

“She’ll be fine. She needs to hurry, though. The dance floor is calling my name.”

“She’s probably late because of you two,” Lee joked. “You guys work such weird hours, I bet she thought we weren’t meeting until dawn. What kind of call center did you say you work in again?”

“Well, what can you do?” Zack said, dodging the question. “Our boss makes our schedules. We’re mere laborers.”

Alexa tensed, and guilt stabbed Zack in the stomach. She hated not being truthful about what they did for a living. It made it seem like they were ashamed, according to her, but Zack wasn’t quite ready to out himself a second time to Lee. After some convincing, Alexa had agreed to wait until Zack was ready. For now.

The bartender came back with their drinks just in time to distract Lee from asking any more awkward questions. Zack picked up his Scotch and downed it before Lee and Alexa had even touched their respective cocktails.

“Jesus,” Alexa said, “save some for the rest of the bar.”

“Not tonight, babe. I’m on a mission.” Zack paid for his drinks and then scanned the crowd again. He made eye contact with a few guys but looked away before they could take it as an invitation. Two of them were decent-looking, and one was unequivocally hot, but Zack was looking for something in particular. He had no idea what that was, but he was sure he’d know it when he saw it.

He grabbed his beer and sipped it at a more reasonable pace. Alexa and Lee were chatting about a show Zack had never heard of—he caught the words “lady detective” and “Australia”—and Kira still hadn’t arrived. All in all, it was an inauspicious beginning to the evening.

Just as Zack was about to suggest they dance, movement caught his eye. He craned his neck to look past Alexa’s colorful hair and saw a man standing a ways down the bar, staring at Zack.