I'm a day early but I have the time and I don't have the patience, so...
Day 7 -- Use the words: small town, bar, jukebox
Starstruck (AO3)
Puente Antiguo, 2011
Darcy Lewis looked over the list of songs on the jukebox at the one and only bar in town. Almost all of them were older than she was, but she always did like oldies. She settled on “The Last Time I Felt Like This.” Growing up with a Johnny Mathis fan rubbed off on me, she thought as the familiar song started.
“Care for a dance?” a male voice asked from behind her.
Darcy turned to see a man she didn’t recognize smiling at her. With the town being so small, she knew all the locals by face, if not name, but this one was a stranger to her and she immediately had her guard up. “Sorry, I don’t dance with strange men.”
The man chuckled. She had to admit he was good-looking – tall, thick dark brown hair with bangs falling lazily over his forehead and gray streaks at his temples, a mustache and a short beard that came to a point, and cheekbones any supermodel would kill for. His pale blue eyes held a hint of sadness alongside the mirth that went with his killer half-smile. With his pale skin and all-black clothes, he looked like a handsome modern goth.
“Oh, we’re not strangers, though I’m definitely Strange,” he said.
Darcy raised an eyebrow. “We know each other? I find it hard to believe – Puente Antiguo isn’t known for its goth scene.”
“Right,” he said, chuckling again. “Let’s just say we don’t know each other yet, but we will.”
“Uh huh,” she muttered, rolling her eyes at his pick-up line. “In what universe?”
“This one, of course,” he said, obviously enjoying himself. “One dance, Darcy. That’s all I ask.”
“The song’s almost over.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that.” He held out a hand. “Please?”
Oh, what can it hurt? “Fine,” she sighed then she took his hand.
He led her onto the small dance floor and pulled her close enough to place his hands at her waist as she placed hers on his shoulders. They started to slow dance shortly before the song ended only for it to start over again.
Darcy raised an eyebrow. “Did you pay for more plays?”
The man chuckled. “Something like that.”
“Uh huh. What’s your name?”
“Stephen.”
“Just ‘Stephen?’ No last name?”
“Strange.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not strange to ask someone for their last name.”
He sighed heavily. “No, my name is Stephen Strange.”
“Oh. You must’ve been teased mercilessly when you were a kid.”
Stephen smiled a bit and she had to admit she liked his crooked smile. “My nickname in high school was ‘Odd,’ my classmates thought themselves hilarious.”
She had to admit it was funny. “Okay, Stephen, what’s your deal? You’re not from here.”
“Just passing through.”
“Uh huh, so you decided to just chat up the first single girl you see at the bar?” She wasn’t annoyed, not really, just curious.
Stephen chuckled. “I told you, Darcy Lewis, we will know each other well.”
She stared at him. “I never told you my last name. Come to think of it, I didn’t tell you my first name either.” She lowered her voice. “Are you stalking me?”
“If I was, I certainly wouldn’t admit it,” he said, his voice just as low and frankly, a lot sexier. “In all honesty, we’re going to be everything to each other in a few short years.”
“Should I be calling you ‘Nostradamus?’ I doubt you’re any more accurate than he was.”
Stephen grinned at her, a full grin, and her stomach did a little flip. “I don’t need a prophetic vision to know what will happen between us.” The song ended and didn’t start up again, which Stephen seemed to take as a cue. Taking her hand, he led her out of the small bar and into the relative privacy of the parking lot.
As always, Darcy gazed up at a sky full of more stars than she had ever seen in her life before turning back to him. “If you want to kiss me, you’re gonna have to wait until Date Number Two.”
Stephen chuckled, the sound doing something nice to her nervous system. “Actually, this is Date Number 58, but who’s counting?”
“You’re making no damn sense, you know,” she said, her tone almost fond.
He smiled a bit. “I know, but you’ll understand in time. I should go back.” He leaned to kiss her cheek. “Until next time, Darcy Olivia Lewis.”
She stared at him for a heartbeat then sighed. “Oh, fuck it. C’mere.” She grabbed his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss, which he was happy to give.
~
New York, 2022
Dr. Darcy Lewis looked up from her e-reader as her fiancé appeared in the room. The grin he gave her was contagious. “I take it it worked?”
“You tell me,” Stephen said as he sat down beside her on the couch and took her free hand. “Do you remember running into me in New Mexico?”
Her eyes widened with realization. “Yes! We danced to ‘The Last Time I Felt Like This’ then you kissed me.”
He rolled his eyes fondly. “Your memory is faulty if you think that’s what happened – you kissed me.”
“You started it, showing up looking all sexy then asking me to dance and kissing my cheek.” She moved to straddle his lap. “That was risky, you know. You could’ve gotten stuck in the past.”
“It was a risk I was willing to take,” he murmured as he wrapped his arms around her. “I wanted to see you as you were back then, at the start of your love for the stars.”
“And if you couldn’t come back?”
Stephen smiled a bit. “Then we’d be married for at least nine years by now, if not more.”
Darcy smirked. “You think you’re that irresistible, do you?”
“I know I am, at least to you.”
He was right, of course, but she wasn’t about to admit it. Instead, she simply murmured, “Kiss me.”
“With pleasure.”
