Cut to the chase

'I don't love you, Zeanne.'

The corner of Zeanne's lips lifted into a wry smile and she tilted the glass in her hand which made the huge ice inside clink against it. She stared at the round-shaped ice that was starting to melt. It looked like a huge diamond when the bartender first gave it to her earlier and the golden liquor just made it look even prettier.

The ice was melting beautifully but it was so painful for her to look at that it almost made her cry. "It's just ice afterall. I'm the foolish one for hoping that it could still be a diamond."

She was starting to feel a little woozy and a sob threatened to escape her lips but she swallowed it by downing the drink in her hand in one shot. The continuous burning sensation in her throat made it so much easier to keep herself from crying. She raised her glass to call the good-looking bartender again who had been watching her attentively since earlier.

He approached her but he didn't refill her glass. Instead, he spoke in a low and polite tone. "Shall I call a taxi for you, Miss? Or do you have a friend to pick you up?"

"Why?" She frowned at him, feeling offended. "Are you refusing to serve me more drinks?"

He pointed at the poster on the wall behind him and gave her a well-rehearsed apologetic smile which she easily caught on. "I'm sorry but I believe that you've already had enough."

Zeanne could not help but laugh with incredulity. "Damn it. Why is everyone like this to me? Did you guys have a get-together and colluded with each other to harass me?"

"I apologize if you feel bad about this but it's our policy and it's for your own good as well." He picked up the glass that he was wiping with a towel earlier then proceeded to add. "If something is troubling you, I suggest having a warm glass of milk with chamomile and getting a good night's sleep. It always worked for me."

"What do you think of me? A kid?" Zeanne scoffed and slammed her glass down on the counter. The loud sound made the male customer on the other end of the counter turn to look at her with curiosity but she couldn't be bothered. "Why's everyone acting as if they know what's best for me? One wants me to stop acting. Another wants me to stop loving him. And another wants to stop serving me drinks. What do you guys know about what I need anyway? What about what I want? Does no one care about that at all?"

He stopped cleaning the glass in his hand and placed it down carefully before bending down to level his gaze with hers. "What do you want then?"

"I want to kill someone." She declared with vehemence.

He blinked his eyes. 

Once. 

Then twice. 

And smiled. "Which one? The one who's refusing to give you more drinks?"

She shook her head which she immediately regretted because it made her surroundings spin around her. She steadied herself by grabbing the edge of the counter. "The one who wants to stop me from acting."

The bartender gave a low chuckle and straightened up. "Then shall I ask the one who wants you to stop loving him to pick you up?"

She almost shook her head again but she managed to stop herself in time and just raised her finger to tell him no. "Don't call him. He's the last person that I would want to see me like this. Tell the other one to bring me home instead."

"The one that you wanted to kill?" The smile on his face grew bigger with amusement and his sharp tooth looked really charming. "I'm sorry but I don't want to abet a murder."

Zeanne laughed out loud then leaned her chin against the back of her hand, not taking her eyes off the bartender even if it strained her neck because he was quite taller than she had expected. "I was not talking about that one. I'd get killed if he saw me like this. Tell the one who's refusing to serve me drinks to bring me home instead if he's that concerned about my well-being."

She didn't fail to notice how his well-mannered smile slightly faltered for a moment before he spoke again with the same composed manner. The seriousness in his tone amused her. "I'm sorry but the most that I could do for you is to book you a cab."

Zeanne leaned back on her stool and crossed her arms in front of her despite her pulsing head. "Why? Are you afraid to get into a scandal with me?"

The bartender froze and he didn't bother to hide his discomfort. "I'm sorry but I don't know what you mean."

Zeanne nodded her head with a knowing smile. "Understandable. That hurts my pride a little. But I guess I do have to work a lot harder for the great Craige Clinton to know who I am, don't I?"

His eyes shot at her and his eyebrows twitched. "How..."

"Don't look so forlorn. Your disguise is impeccable, no worries." She gave him a once-over again. She nearly got fooled by his blonde wig and carefully drawn dark stubbles along his jawline, especially against the low light. But after studying him for the past hour, she confirmed his identity when she saw him smile at a customer earlier. "I just happened to know who you are before I came here."

The frown on his handsome face grew deeper but it did little to no damage on his looks. Then he hissed under his breath, his tone laced with controlled anger. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"Me?" She chuckled, finding his reaction really amusing. Even more amusing than finding out that a top actor disguises himself as a bartender in a rundown bar as a form of stress reliever. The thought that there really were all kinds of crazy in the world, crossed her mind. "Nobody. I just came to check you out."

When he remained silent, her smile grew wider at the memory of the incredulous conversation that she had with Arthur before. "My ex asked me about the wedding when he was in the hospital. And he sounded like the two of you knew each other very well. Mind telling me what happened to the wedding?"

"What wedding?" He looked at her as if she was speaking a different language.

She grinned. "Our wedding. Yours and mine."

"I don't understand a thing that you're saying…" He started but his words trailed off. He then looked at her as if she's crazy or something close to that.

"Right? It sounds crazy even to you. It's from this shitty dream that he had when he was in a coma." She slid her glass towards him which he skillfully caught. She only saw him on screen and on the photos that she got from her private detective. Seeing him in person, standing in front of her, felt so surreal. "You and I have never met before. I'm sure of it."

He slowly nodded but then his lips twitched and he smiled. "We did."

Disconcerted, she leaned over to study his face once more. But it didn't awaken a single memory. It only made her insides grumble and she felt like vomiting but she held it in. "Where?"

"In your ex-boyfriend's dream." He smiled which caught her off-guard before she could even recover from his absurd words. 

She felt like she's been played. "You're annoying."

"And you're drunk." He retorted without missing a single beat. "Although, I would have to admit that you have a very refreshing pick-up-line. But I'm sorry. I'm not interested in shallow relationships. Especially with drunk women."

"I'm not drunk." She protested.

"Yes, you are." He answered almost instantly again. Then he peered at her and gave her a disarming smile that showed his dimple. "Otherwise, you would not mistake me for that actor."

Her eyes squinted at him, thinking that he was trying to trick her. "You can fool the universe but you can't fool me. I know exactly who you are."

"How can you be so sure?" He watched her with amusement.

"Lying is my forte." She dropped her head to one side of her shoulder and closed an eye with a smirk. "And I could see through your lies even with only one eye open."

He chuckled. "Then that's all the more reason for me to send you home since you keep on insisting that you're not drunk despite all these obvious drunken antics."

"I told you, I'm not drunk." She said through gritted teeth.

He drew closer to her then whispered in her ear. "You see, lying also happened to be my forte. But I could tell that you're definitely drunk even with both my eyes closed."

She tried to say something but he raised a finger to stop her and winked as he took out his phone from the pocket of his vest. It didn't even take him a minute to finish doing whatever he was doing. "The cab will be here in 2 minutes."