Free Love Unscripted by Tina Reber Page A

eyes held mine for an extra moment. He smiled at me, tilted his head slightly, and then proceeded to unbutton his top shirt. I was curious as to why he was undressing in my pub. I couldn’t look away.
    He patted his hand on his chest and stretched back. That’s when I noticed he was wearing my blue T-shirt under everything else.
    I chuckled to myself; no longer could I contain my big grin. He raised his eyebrows a couple of times and winked at me.
    It was almost one o’clock in the morning when his group got up to leave. Ryan stood there staring at me while he put his jacket on. He left out a sigh then turned and headed for the door. And just like that, with no words, no goodbye, he was gone.
    Fortunately when the celebrities left so did most of the crowd. The pub was trashed. We went through most of the bottles of beer I had stocked in the coolers as well as most of my liquor reserves. Bottles, glasses, and empty pitchers covered most of the tables.
    “ How freaking crazy was that?” Pete shouted as he helped collect the garbage.
    Marie had tray after tray of dirty glasses lined up on the bar top, but despite the huge mess that awaited clean-up, she was still smiling from her celebrity encounter.
    “ I cannot believe that they came here !” she giggled. “I’m still jittery!”
    I smiled at her. Ryan and his friends were just people who wanted to have a good time tonight too.
    “ One thing is for sure - Ryan Christensen couldn’t take his eyes off of you!” she teased me.
    I groaned at her for pointing that out.
    “ And don’t you roll your eyes at me either!” she reprimanded.
    I let out a big sigh while visions of Ryan flashed through my mind. We did stare at each other a lot tonight .
    Why did he try to protect me? I started washing dirty glasses trying not to think about it, but I was failing miserably.

Chapter 4 - Games
     
     
    “ You made the paper ,” Tammy announced, tossing the Monday local section of the Seaport Times newspaper in front of me. My dear friend Pete was holding Tammy’s other hand. He pulled out a chair so Tammy could join me at the big, round table in the middle of the pub.
    I was so glad when Pete put that engagement ring on Tammy’s finger. He loved her so much and she surely made him happy. Tammy was a sweetheart and a great friend.
    “ We did?” I asked as I paged through the newspaper to find the article.
    “ Yep, you’re on page two,” she replied.
    “ Where?” I didn’t see an article.
    “ There, the picture.” Tammy pointed.
    I studied the photo of people standing outside my front door. The caption read “Local night spot Mitchell’s Pub had a long waiting line Saturday as visiting celebrities were reported to be inside.”
    “ That’s it?” Marie asked as she read over my shoulder. “No story?”
    “ Whatever. I’ll take the free advertising,” I joked. “And speaking of long lines… here, this is for you.” I pulled two envelopes from my pocket and slid one to both Pete and Marie.
    “ What’s this?” Pete asked, peering inside the envelope. He counted it out. “This is five hundred bucks!”
    “ Well, we had a monumental Saturday night and I wanted to share the profits with you. You both worked very hard and I wanted to say Thank You in more than words.”
    “ Thanks!” they both said in unison.
    Marie’s husband Gary tried to grab the envelope from her.
    “ Hands off, mister!” she yelled, smacking his hand. “I busted my ass for this!”
    “ Yeah, Gary! Keep your hands off that money!” I scolded him. “Marie needs all of that. Maybe that way she’ll be able to stay in the game longer tonight.”
    “ Oh, I see!” Pete bellowed. “You think you’re going to win this money back tonight, do you?” He grinned at me.
    “ That’s right! We’re upping tonight’s bets from quarters to dollars. And the sooner you shuffle the cards, the sooner I’ll be rich,” I teased him. “Marie… while you are over there, can you grab a bowl