She walked to the bar and stepped behind it, pouring herself a glass of bourbon on the rocks. It wouldn't get her drunk, but two or three of these would at least help her chill out a little bit. Then she just looked at Eric, waiting for him to say something first.
"I didn't realize that filling in for the manager meant fraternizing with the customers."
She shrugged her shoulders, "It's a slow night, they asked me to join them for a game, I did. You are the one who said we aren't going to be exclusive. Why are you here, are you stalking me now?"
He shook his head and looked down, uncertain for a moment but then looking back up with more certainty. "No, Josef told me you were working here tonight and I thought I'd come in and say hi. And, I'm sorry for saying anything. You're right, I did say we wouldn't be exclusive and I have to remember that goes both ways. If I don't want you flirting with other guys I have to agree to not flirt with girls, too. I keep screwing up Kendra. I'm sorry."
"I need to go check out the kitchen and walk through the other rooms and make sure everything is still okay everywhere. I'll tell Ace your drinks are on the house, sit here as long as you want."
She walked to the other side of the bar to let Ace the bartender know that Eric's drinks were on the house and then she headed back into the kitchen before making her way to check on the vampire room. She ordered six ounces of blood while she was back there, just the smell of Eric had made her hungry. Then she strolled through the party room that was almost empty and the smokers room that wasn't empty before heading back to the main pool room. Eric was still sitting at the bar, still nursing a beer, and he had some cheese fries he was eating, too. When she came back into the room the biggest football player walked over to her. "Doll, is that guy bothering you? You looked sad when you were talking to him. I can get rid of him if you want me to."
"Thanks Ben, that's sweet, but I don't want you to get rid of him. Not like I'm sure you'd probably do it, anyway. He and I were trying to make a relationship work and now.. I don't know. Sometimes real life just gets in the way and you have to think that maybe it wasn't meant to be, even though it breaks your heart to think that. Ya' know?"
He hugged her. "Sorry you’re hurting, doll. If you want someone to take your mind off of him, help heal your broken heart, I'm the guy for the job."
She laughed as she hugged him and then pushed him away. "You big goof, thanks for making me laugh. Now go play pool with your friends."
As she walked back to the bar Eric looked pissed off. Kendra raised herself up on a barstool, leaving an empty one between the two of them. "How are the fries?"
"Not being exclusive doesn't mean flirting with other people in front of each other, Kendra."
Kendra kept her voice low so that only Eric would hear her. "Eric, you are beginning to piss me off. In the first place, what you saw when you walked in was good natured interaction with customers. I'd have played pool with them even if you and I had been exclusive. And what you just saw was the macho football player telling me I looked sad when I was talking to you, and asking if I was okay. We weren't flirting, I told him that you and I had been trying to make a relationship work but now it wasn't looking so good, sometimes real life fucks things up and some things just aren't meant to be. That was why he hugged me. If you weren't here then he'd have never seen me get emotional and then I could have kept things good natured with them. And while I'm at it, it took you six fucking days to make up your mind whether or not you wanted to see me anymore. And then suddenly you can't stand to go another night without seeing me? You didn't miss me those six days, why the emergency all of a sudden? You say you want to date me, but want to hedge your bets, don't want to take yourself off of the market. Fine, we can do it that way, but don't you dare say a word to me when you walk in on me working when you were not invited and happen to see me playing a game of pool with customers on a slow night."
"You don't think a relationship can work between us? What's changed? You said we'd make it work if we both wanted it to, and I want to."
"Oh, a relationship could work just fine if you'd get out of the way and let it. Right now I'm just waiting on the next thing to come along and freak you out and make you take another six days to decide whether or not you can live with it."
"Kendra, that's not really fair. You hit me with a lot that night. I didn't even know.. you know, existed. And to be told they do, and you are, and then you bit me, and then the scene we had was pretty intense, and... I just needed to process all of it. Are you going to hit me with that much all in one night again? I really hope not."