Unknown (Unknown Identity #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and the art of mixology.
    Leslie stayed by the bar as Josie headed to the bathroom to check her makeup.
    “You’re not going to shake it up, baby?” a guy behind Leslie asked, his face close to her ear so she could hear him. She whirled around to see a handsome blond guy in a business suit.
    “I don’t dance.” She turned her back and ignored him. Baby. Really?
    Amber came by a moment later to check her drink. “You want another?”
    Leslie nodded and then rolled her eyes behind her, hinting at the guy behind her. She shook her head and hoped Amber got the hint.
    “Gotchya!” She leaned across the bar. “Hey sweet-cheeks, the lady here wants to buy you a drink.”
    Leslie nearly joked on the liquid in her mouth. What the hell!
    “If the lady’s buying, I’m not saying no.” A soft chuckle that sounded completely different from the voice in her ear a few minutes ago had her spinning around. A very fit, dark haired guy held out his hand.
    “Grant?” She burst out laughing and leaned forward to hug him. “Fancy meeting you here!”
    Grant chuckled and winked at her while Amber stared open-mouthed at the two of them. “You guys know each other?”
    “Old friends.” Grant winked again. “Before Leslie moved here.”
    “What’re you drinking?” Leslie asked.
    “Rum and Coke.”
    Amber mixed the drink, clearly making it doubly strong. She slid it across the bar. “Any friend of Leslie’s is a friend ours.”
    A slim female came up beside Grant and reached for his hand. Leslie didn’t recognize her, but then again she really didn’t know a lot about Grant besides his being her secret agent. Guess they both had a life the other didn’t know about.
    “Thanks for the drink, Leslie. You look great in red!” He raised the glass and headed toward the dance floor with the girl.
    Josie returned and sat down on the stool where Grant had been standing a moment earlier. Amber made her another drink as well. It felt like a hundred times in the first hour, guys would approach them and ask them if they’d be interested in dancing, giving them their numbers, or if they could buy the girls a drink. Leslie would always thank them politely and refuse their offers, feeling like a horrible person, but definitely not wanting to encourage the behavior.
    “Are you not looking for anything?” Josie asked while Amber attended two guys who had given up on trying to flirt with Josie and Leslie. Amber was great at steering them away, introducing people at the bar to one another, and letting them carry off with each other to party elsewhere.
    “No,” Leslie answered, stirring some strange concoction Amber had made just for her.
    “Why not?” Josie asked, after a moment of clearly trying to decide whether or not she should ask the question. Clearly it was eating at her and Leslie was surprised it took that long for her to wrestle with the dilemma.
    Leslie let out a sigh and decided it was time to let it go. Or maybe the alcohol decided. “I used to be married,” Leslie told her, shouting over the music and barely getting it to Josie. “Before I moved here, I lived in San Francisco with my husband.”
    “What?” Josie shouted. “Are you kidding me? You’ve lived next door for like an entire year and you’re just now telling me this? You’re a girl who loves her secrets.”
    Leslie shrugged, taking a drink before she decided that she should tell Josie the rest of the story. Leaning in so she didn’t have to shout over the music, she said, “He died of cancer. It really sucked.”
    Josie stared at her for a moment with her big hazel eyes before she launched herself at Leslie and hugged her tightly. It was the kind of hug that everyone around them thought was probably induced by drinking too much, but Leslie knew better and she hugged her friend back, letting herself be nurtured for the first time in a long time.
    “Hey ladies,” a guy said, coming up and hitching up his pants as he looked at the two hugging ladies