Singled Up

**This story is inspired by the song Singles You Up by Jordan Davis**

We had come to the bar after met up with my family so that he could watch the game. Like always he had ordered us both drinks before I had a chance to say a word. It's not that I mind drinking a bit of wine but usually only with dinner. Normally I would chose a whiskey and coke or similar mixed drink but Joe has never bothered to ask what I want to drink when we go to the bar. Considering I don't really care about the sports game that's on I start looking around the hometown bar that I had gotten into trouble at more than once and saw one of my high school friends. I was surprised to meet Alex's eyes and nodded at him, admittedly a little grumpy at how the day was going.

I nursed my wine as the game continued but I couldn't really care less about what was on at the TV's. Joe didn't even notice my disconnect as he kept downing beers. The bartender, another old friend from school, winks at me as he dumps a notable amount of salt into a beer before putting it in front of Joe. Eye's wide I take a sip of my merlot to hide a chuckle. Without even looking he grabs the beer and takes a big swig and immediately started coughing. I couldn't help but starting to laugh which he was extremely unappreciative of. It was the first time since we'd come in that Joe even looked at me.

Looking around and seeing that nobody was going to back him up, Joe got a little angry. "Let's go, we're leaving." He slammed some money down on the bar and started walking towards the door. Suddenly in a better mood I stayed where I was and thanked the bartender.

"You can leave if you want Joe, but I'm going to hang out for a while. In fact why don't you go back to the city because we are clearly done." I couldn't help the smug grin as he looked absolutely peeved. One of my favorite songs came on and I was singing a long as Joe stood there confused. Deciding to ignore him, I looked back over and saw Alex jamming out to the song to. Picking up my wine I made my way over to catch up with an old friend.

Before I noticed, my wine was gone and Alex and I ended up ordering food as we continued to chat. He told me that he found it surprising that I had put up with the guy for so long because he could tell that I was unhappy from the moment I walked in. There had always been a connection between Alex and I, and it was good to see him again. The day might have started off as being in the dumps but now I was with good company and my night had improved greatly.

When my wine glass was empty Alex asked if I wanted some whiskey. I smiled at the consideration but since the food was coming and the evening had greatly improved I opted to order another glass of merlot. I had never dated Alex before I moved away but the thoughts had always been in the back of my mind. It was hard not to have those thoughts because we had grown up together and a lot of people had always expected that something would come of the friendship. Here we were years later and it looked like there was finally something coming of the good friendship.