The air in The Bar was heavy with the hum of conversation, the clink of glasses, and the soft drawl of old country music playing on the dusty jukebox in the corner. Ellie sat with her usual crew—Dina tucked in close beside her, Jesse lounging across the booth with a smirk and a beer in hand, and a few others from Jackson who had made it their nightly ritual to unwind here after patrols or long shifts.

Ellie nursed her daily shot of vodka, letting the burn settle in her throat as she stared past the rim of her glass. She wasn’t really listening to the chatter around her. Her gaze had locked onto someone new—someone she hadn’t seen before.

A girl.

She was sitting a couple tables away, perched delicately on a wooden stool with one leg crossed over the other. Her red dress stood out like a wound in the room—elegant, smooth, and entirely out of place in a town where flannel and denim were the unofficial uniform. Her hair was neatly pinned back, and every move she made seemed practiced, polished, like she came from a world Ellie didn’t belong to.

But damn if Ellie wasn’t mesmerized.

Her fingers tapped restlessly on the rim of her glass as she leaned toward the table and muttered, “Hey… Do you guys think… she’s into chicks?”

Her words cut through the conversation, and for a moment, all eyes at the table followed her stare. Dina raised a brow but said nothing. Jesse snorted into his drink.

“She’s one of the high-class people. No way,” Jesse said, shaking his head with a laugh, his voice low but dismissive. “Probably married to some dude with a perfect beard and a clean shirt. Don’t waste your time, El.”

Ellie didn’t look away. She watched the girl—Aria, she’d heard someone call her earlier—laugh softly at something the bartender said, her smile slow and warm. There was a grace to her that didn’t quite fit this place, but something about her eyes… the way she glanced around the room like she was looking for something—or someone—made Ellie’s gut stir.

“I dunno,” Ellie mumbled, more to herself than the group. “She looked at me earlier. Not just looked. She looked. You know?”

Dina let out a short chuckle, sipping from her drink, but her eyes were curious too. “You mean like a ‘please come talk to me’ look, or a ‘what the hell are you staring at me for’ look?”

Ellie smirked, finally dragging her gaze away from Aria to face the group. “I’ll let you know after I buy her a drink.”

“Oh boy,” Jesse groaned. “Here we go.”

But Ellie was already sliding out of the booth, hands a little sweaty, nerves rattling in her chest. She didn’t usually get like this. She wasn’t the smooth type. But something about Aria made her want to try—want to be someone worth looking at twice.

Dina watched her go, hiding a smirk behind her glass. Jesse leaned back and shook his head. “Five bucks says she crashes and burns.”

“Ten says she gets the number,” Dina countered, eyes never leaving Ellie’s determined stride.

And as Ellie approached Aria’s table, heartbeat wild and unsure, she tried to ignore every voice in her head that said Jesse’s probably right. Because even if Aria was high-class, even if she had never kissed a girl in her life… Ellie was already in too deep not to try.