Raj opens his mouth like he’s about to say something more, but a burly dude in one of the booths on the other side of the bar summons him over with a graceless, “Hey!” Raj holds up a finger. “One sec, I’ll be right back.”

One second turns into one minute, which turns into a solid ten. I like watching him scuttle around the bar. It’s like reality TV—as long as it lasts, you can tune out whatever’s happening in your actual life. He takes a whole round of orders from the guy in the booth, pours each one, loads them up on a tray, and sets each drink down in front of the correct guy; he runs checks; he drops by what looks like an awkward first date at the bar to see if they need refills.

“Are you new here?” I ask when he swings back by my seat. “I mean, aside from recently, I haven’t seen you around here.”

“You’re here often enough that you notice when the bar staff changes?” he says, smirking.

I can’t help but laugh. “Yes.”

He fidgets with the left sleeve of his hoodie. “Yeah, I, uh, I’m new. Got hired about a month ago.”

“Congrats. Where were you bartending before?”

“Nowhere. I’m in between gigs right now,” he explains. “I was the senior engineer at a tech startup. At first, I loved it. But I got burnt out after three years. It felt like I was tethered to writing code that didn’t actually help anybody. And the meetings—” He groans and goes slack-jawed. “Pointless. The worst. So I left. I’m figuring out what my next move is. I thought I’d pull in some extra money here while I work that out.”

“Wow. It’s cool that you’re making a change.”

“Thanks. Just gotta figure out the next thing. I want to do something meaningful this time, you know?”

“Totally, yeah. It’s best when you love what you do.”

He leans his elbows on the bar and looks down, smoothing his hands over his head. When he looks back up, his cheeks are flushed.

“You’re, like, the third person I’ve told, aside from my old coworkers.”

“Seriously?”

“Easier to tell a stranger. You’re not letting them down,” he says, shrugging. He pauses, then adds, “Though, I guess if you’re here as often as you say you are, you won’t be a stranger for long.”

I take a long sip of beer and weigh what I’m about to do. It’s not a difficult choice—Raj’s honesty stirs something in me. I want to be real with him.

“I have a secret, too,” I offer.

He raises one thick eyebrow and drums his hands across the top of the bar. “Shoot.”

“I accidentally led my Instagram followers to believe that I’m engaged,” I say.