“Yep.”

“Your first time to Ireland?”

How can everyone tell? “It is.”

“How are you liking it so far?”

She pulled her gaze from the beer and looked at Danny. Antonia didn’t know if it was the exhaustion or the repetition, but the question sent her into a peal of laughter. “Jesus,” she said in between gasps. “I’m sorry.”

Danny gave her a curious smile. “Beggin’ yer pardon?”

Antonia leaned over the bar and shook her head. “It’s not you, it’s everyone...”

“I’m pretty sure I asked her the same thing earlier today,” said a masculine voice from behind her. It was a very familiar deep and husky voice that she remembered hearing not too long ago. Antonia whirled around to face her frozen pizza friend, Aiden. He was wearing the same snug sweater and gorgeous smile from earlier.

Her mouth must have fallen open because Steven remarked, “She looks like she seen a ghost.”

“Aiden,” she breathed.

“Antonia,” he replied, tipping an empty glass at her.

“Her name’s Antonia?” Danny said. “That’s a real class name!”

“That’s what I told her,” Aiden said, leaning past her to place his glass on the bar. She felt the warmth of his body as he pressed closer to her. His scent was a pleasant mix of soap and citrus. Her belly flopped as his arm brushed against hers.

“What’s she do for a living?” Danny asked as if she weren’t standing there.

Aiden gazed down at her and pursed lips that were almost shrouded by his black beard. “I’m not sure, Danny. I don’t think I got around to asking her that.”

She shook herself out of her stupor and answered, “I publish, I mean, I used to publish books.”

Aiden gave a nod. “Well, there you are. She used to publish books.”

“Any Irish books?” Steven asked.

Antonia frowned. She had no memory of her past life before arriving to this bar. “I don’t know,” she murmured. She also wondered how the tables had turned so quickly. Only hours before, it was Aiden who was the nervous one. She swore that she’d had the upper hand in their previous interaction. Now, she bumbled like an idiot, a passive viewer of a spectacle that was quickly unfolding. “I’m not sure,” she clarified.

“Don’t worry boys,” Aiden said with a wry grin, his forest green eyes twinkling in the low light of the bar. “One day, an Irishman will make it across the pond. I heard Oscar Wilde did alright for himself.”

“He did alright indeed,” Danny said. “Your Guinness?”

Antonia was, as her mother called it, “stuck on stupid.” She slowly turned to reach for her beer, hesitating to take her eyes off Aiden. She didn’t remember being this nervous when she met Derek. That was a walk in the park compared to the flush of embarrassment that currently struck her. “Thank you,” she said to Danny.

“I’ll have the same as the lady,” Aiden spoke up. “And please put it on my tab.”