You Had Me at "Hello."

"Hello," a voice said—well, shouted. The club was pretty busy—from across the counter, pulling me from my daydream of leaving to go and make something of myself and my music. Zack, my coworker and best friend, was used to that happening and had just stopped bitching about me randomly ditching the real world for my fantasies, leaving him to deal with the drunken masses on his own for periods at a time.

Refraining from a sigh and an eye roll, I looked up from where'd I'd zoned out and began staring at the counter top, my gaze fixing onto a pair of wide, doe eyes that were only just the slightest bit darker than my own.

"Hey, welcome to Keep Me Guessing, what can I get you?" I asked, smiling politely at the sexy guy sat on a bar stool across the bar in front of me.

"Oh, nothing, I just lost my number and was wondering if I could have yours?" he questioned with a flirtatious smirk.

I laughed and shook my head. He was cute, no doubt, but I didn't date customers. I voiced that to him, and he pouted.

"Everyone comes here, though," he pointed out as his face twisted in confusion, which was actually quite true. Keep Me Guessing was the place to be, and I'm pretty sure the only reason I still had a job there was because of my looks.

"Exactly," I replied with a wink. "Anything else I can do for you?"

"You could give me a chance and let me buy you a drink?" he said a little hopefully, flashing me a pleading smile.

"Just because I'm a bartender doesn't mean I can drink on the job," I said with a playful eye roll, causing him to laugh.

"Well, tell me, when do you get off?" he pushed, leaning forward to hear me better over the pounding bass making its way through the thick air.

"Later," I said vaguely in response as another customer walked up to the bar a few feet down. He had clearly already consumed a fairly decent amount of alcohol, and I was wondering if Zack had cut him off, which is why he was trying to get my attention.

I looked over to him before glancing again at the sexy dark haired man—at least, I assumed it was dark. It's kind of hard to tell with this lighting—and flashed him the universal 'one minute' sign before scurrying to the other end of the counter where Zack was chatting up a few obviously fake girls whilst pouring them each a jäger bomb.

I tapped him on his shoulder and he turned to smile at me, leaning closer so I could shout in his ear, "See the guy down there?" I moved a little and pointed in the direction I'd come.

His gaze followed mine and he moved closer to yell back, "The guy with the dark hair, big nose? Apparently his name's Jack; he's been down here trying to work up the courage to go talk to you for the past two hours. Actually, it's been about a week now. Can't believe he finally got the guts, and without getting hammered off his head first."

I suddenly forgot about the other guy and my gazed moved to focus on the one who'd been hitting on me—Jack. He didn't seem like he'd had any trouble with his courage before.

He was watching me, his left forearm pressed flat against the counter, parallel to his body. His right elbow was pressed into the counter as the right side of his jaw rested in his palm. His gaze was trailing up and down my body longingly until we made eye contact and he looked away quickly, his face visibly darkening.

"He what?" I asked, turning to look at Zack again.

"Yeah," he replied with a nod of his head. "He's come in here every night for a week or so now. He usually sits down here and just kind of watches you. A few nights ago I started trying to convince him to talk to you. He's always come up with a different excuse as to why he couldn't do that, though. Why, what about him?"

"Oh, it's nothing, I just wanted to know if the guy a few down from him has been cut off or not," I said slowly, turning back around to look at Jack. He kept stealing glances every now and again as he twirled the tip of his finger over the wooden counter of the bar, his bottom lip pressed lightly between his teeth.

"You had no idea about Jack, did you?" Zack inquired deadpan, ignoring my question to state the obvious.

"No, I didn't, but seriously, has that guy been cut off or not?" I pushed.

"Yeah, he has. Just ignore him and I'll get Rian to take care of it. I really think you should go talk to Jack, though. I've kind of told him a lot about you, and he seems super into you. He's cute too, and that's coming from me, who's straight," he said, causing me to laugh.

"Keep telling yourself that, Z," I replied sarcastically, to which he glared.

"Whatever, douche, just go get yourself a date," he scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

I smiled and punched him playfully in the arm. "One, relax, you know I'm only messin' with ya. Two, you know I don't date customers."

"You don't date anyone," he corrected, "and besides, has he ordered a drink from you yet?"

I thought about it for a second before shaking my head. "Well, no, he hasn't, but—"

"Well then he's not considered a customer, so go give him your number or something. I know you want to, and don't even think about saying you don't because I know you better then that," he said firmly as he pushed me back towards my 'post'. I stopped after a few steps and turned to give him a look that was between pleading and glaring. He was already turned around and talking to the bar's security guard, Rian, about the persistent drunk down near my end.

With a heavy sigh, I continued on my way, stopping in front of Jack. I looked up as his face broke out into a wide grin, and I couldn't help but smile genuinely back; he was just too damn cute.

"So, Jack," I started, but I was cut off before I could continue on any further.

"How do you know my name?" he asked, not seeming freaked out in the slightest, just insanely curious.

I pointed down to Zack, who was, in turn, pointing Rian in the way to go, before I turned back to look at Jack, saying, "I went to go talk to my friend Zack over there about," I stopped to nod my head down the bar, "that guy, who is trying to order another drink after having been told he's not getting served anymore, but he thought I was talking about you and told me all about how you keep coming in here to watch me every night."

I saw his face flush as he stuttered out an, "He told... You know about... Oh, fuck, I'm so sorry, you probably hate me and think I'm some huge creep, but you're just really attractive and you seem like such an awesome guy, and I'm so sorry, I'll just lea—" he rambled off apologies as he stood from his seat, turning to shuffle through the crowd.

I reached out over the counter and latched onto his wrist, pulling him back to the stool he'd previously been sat upon.

"Hold on a second, I don't hate you. If the roles were reversed, I'd probably be too nervous to talk to you, too. Sit down, I wanna know what Zack's said about me," I said, smiling to show him that I wasn't mad.

He sent me a sheepish smile back and clamored onto the stool as I leaned into the counter across from him.

"So?" I pushed, sending him another smile, this time attempting to be a little flirty about it. It's been a long time since I've had to flirt with someone, but, like Zack said, Jack isn't a customer, and he was right; I do kinda want to get to know him. He's cute, what can I say?

"Well, he told me that your name is Alex and that you just turned twenty-four. He said that you're gay and don't have a boyfriend, or anything remotely close to one, but he wouldn't tell me why, though," he answered with a shrug.

"Is that all he said about me?" I mused, tilting my head to the side as I glanced up curiously at the ceiling.

"Well, no, he also said that you're really big into music and hope to become a famous musician one day, and I'd love to hear you sometime, if that's okay," he replied.

"Is that it this time?"

"Yeah, everything else we talked about was just along the lines of an unsuccessful pep talk," he said with a nod.

I couldn't help but laugh a little at that, shaking my head as I murmured a quiet, "You're cute."

Thankfully, he didn't hear me over the music. Unthankfully, he asked me to repeat what I said.

"You're cute," I said a little louder since I didn't feel like lying to him, smiling as he grinned madly at the two simple words.

Just then, Rian walked by. "Hey, Lex. Sup, Jack? Glad to see you finally got the balls, bro," he said with a laugh, which Jack returned.

"Wait, do you guys know each other?" I asked as Rian continued on, stepping from behind the counter to escort the other guy out.

"Uh, he kinda tried to convince me to talk to you, too," Jack confessed, shrugging his shoulders.

"Y'know, you know a lot about me, and all I know about you is your name," I said with a faux pout.

"Well, what do you wanna know?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"You should just tell me all about yourself," I suggested. "I get off in, like, ten minutes. We can go somewhere else then, if you'd like. I don't know what's open at two in the morning. Denny's, maybe?"

His eyes lit up in the dim light before he squinted at me. "I thought you don't date customers?" he asked slowly as his eyes analyzed my face.

"You're right; I don't," I affirmed with a nod.

"What made you change your mind?" he pushed, still seeming unconvinced.

"Nothing made me change my mind," I assured, blushing slightly as I thought about how cliché my next words were going to be. "You had me at 'hello.'"