“Hey, Paddy. I hear you are selling. What’s up with that?” Tristan said, looking around the empty bar.
"Well, business has been slow, and I'm getting on in years. No one I know wants the bar, so I think it's time to sell," Paddy said. “I thought we could go to the backroom to chat. It's private, and no one will hear us."
“Sure, Paddy,” Tristan said, gesturing for Paddy to go on in front of him.
“You go ahead, and I’ll get us two cold ones," Paddy said, patting Tristan on the back.
Nodding, Tristan smiled. “That sounds wonderful,” he said as he walked towards the back. At least he would be able to have a beer with someone.
“SURPRISEEEEEEEE!” Blasted into Tristan’s ears as he opened the door to the backroom. In front of him were his brothers, sisters-in-law, friends, and Heather. The room was decorated with streamers and balloons, and everyone was smiling and clapping at him.
“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” he said, looking at Heather. “I thought everyone forgot.”
“Would we forget your birthday?” Heather said. “We’re just missing Tyler, but I'm sure he's celebrating in his own way."
Paddy came in and handed Tristan a beer. “Gotcha Tristan,” he laughed as some of the waitresses carried in huge platters of food.
“Are you really selling your bar?”
Paddy looked at him and shook his head with a grin. “Are you nuts? This is a goldmine. Got ya good, Darlington.”
People started to come up to Tristan to wish him happy birthday. Music suddenly began coming through the speakers at the opposite end of the room.
“Sorry to have misled you, bro,” Lucas said. “How were your showings today?”
“Oh fuck, Lucas. If they come to us with any more houses to show, I’m leaving town,” Tristan said vehemently. “I was actually disgusted by them. Those two are nuts and the most annoying couple I have ever met.”
“So, we were convincing?” John's voice said behind Tristan.
Turning quickly, Tristan saw John and Sunny smiling at him. “What the hell?”
“Tristan, this is John Craig and Jenny Price, friends of Sammy’s and also actors. The whole day was made up just to keep you busy so we could plan all of this,” Lucas said, laughing. “Heather was the mastermind behind the whole thing.”
"I know we actually did sound disgusting," Jenny said, laughing. “I had to fight to keep a straight face. You were so patient with us, Tristan.”
Tristan looked at them and burst out laughing. Of all his birthdays, this was the best he had ever had, and he got to spend it with the people he loved. As he looked at Heather from across the room, he suddenly couldn’t wait to get her alone so he could thank her properly and show her how much he appreciated everything, and he’d make sure to take his time.
Chapter 2
Tristan looked at his commission check from the sale of the Embers Building. Thirty thousand dollars. Not bad for a month’s worth of work. “I think I’m going to like real estate,” he said out loud, shoving the check in his pocket.
Although Darlington Realty was a family run business, Tristan hadn’t been sure that was what he wanted to do. His older brothers were all agents, and he remembered the excitement of helping his mother when he was a young boy, but as he grew, he lost interest. Architecture was what he was interested in, and he wanted to design buildings, not sell them. After the death of his mother, his life had seemed to fall apart. She had always been the one to support him in any of his decisions, and without her there to guide him, he lost himself.
When he looked into enrolling on an architecture course at the local college, he found that he needed to take some extra math courses to be eligible. Finding math, geometry, and algebra boring, he soon changed his mind and decided to go for his real estate license instead and join the family business. Having only worked for them for a few months, he was already making more money than he could have ever imagined and soon realized that the Darlington name was well respected in the field.
“Hey, Tristan," Heather said, coming down into the kitchen. “I hope you didn’t have plans for us today.”
Tristan looked up at her, shaking his head. “No, I hadn’t thought about it. Why?”
“Lisa is coming over so we can sort through some clothes. There's a drive on for clothes for the needy, and if there is one thing I have a lot of, it’s clothes," Heather said, pouring herself a coffee.
Tristan had met Heather Masters in his last year of high school. He had always been a quiet guy, not bothering with too many people. Having a small circle of friends was just fine for Tristan. Heather, on the other hand, had just moved to town and knew no one. From the first day Tristan had laid eyes on here, he was smitten with the blond beauty who sat in front of him in geography class.
“Do you have an extra pen?” she asked one day, turning around to face him. “I forgot mine.”
Tristan reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a pen, handing it to her. "Here you can use this one," he said, smiling at her. Her lips were a soft shade of pink; he wanted to kiss them to see if they were as soft as they looked.
"I'm Heather, by the way," she smiled at him.
“Tristan," he answered, feeling his heartbeat louder in his chest.
“Thanks for the pen," she said, turning back around to face the front.
“Want to have lunch with me?” he blurted out.
Heather turned back to him. “What?”
“Lunch. Would you like to have lunch with me?”
Heather nodded her head and bit her lower lip. “Yeah, that would be nice,” she answered as the teacher came into the room.
Tristan spent the rest of the class staring at the back of Heather’s head, trying to think of things to talk about at lunch. That’s all he could do because he had given Heather his only pen. He hoped she took good notes and would let him see them.
After that day, they were inseparable and became great friends. That summer, they became more than friends, and it would be a summer Tristan would never forget.
He didn’t have much experience in sex. The few girls that he had dated before Heather had only let him feel their boobs, so he never got to any other base, but Heather was different. There was so much more to their relationship than just seeing how far he could get, but the first time they were together, a flame had been ignited, and it had been burning bright ever since.
***
It was a Saturday night, and they were sitting down in Heather’s basement watching TV and doing a jigsaw puzzle, something that Heather loved doing.
“Heather,” her mother called as she came downstairs. She always did that, calling out Heather’s name before coming down the stairs. It was almost like she was giving them a warning in case they were doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
"Yes, Mom?” Heather answered, turning to see her mother come through the door.
“Your father and I have been invited over to the Murphy’s for a BBQ and a swim. If I leave you money for a pizza, will you guys be okay? Tristan can stay for supper too.”