“Yeah, I got it.”
“Good.” I nodded and swiped my glass of champagne before moving to the overhead outlook. From there I could see the rest of the lounge’s first floor.
I let my eyes scan the crowd below. There were people dancing, talking, some were eating at their tables. Movement out of the corner caught my eye and I glanced up, my breath catching in my chest.
My night just got a whole hell of a lot better,I thought to myself as I carefully observed Destiny McDonald dancing and laughing with another woman. I stared for some time, admiring the sway of her hips and the movement of her compact body in the orange, sleeveless, shorts romper she wore. Suddenly, it wasn’t enough to just watch her from a distance. Especially when I noticed another male patron in the lounge approached her, licking his lips as if he was about to make a move.
Not today, asshole,I thought as I slammed my champagne flute down on the nearest table and practically pushed a few of my teammates out of the way as I headed down the stairs to the first floor of the lounge.
****
Destiny
“Come on, D! I heard Indigo is the place to be. Oh, that rhymed!” Leslie giggled as she clapped.
“You’re drunk already,” I laughed and teased my friend, Leslie. Leslie was another good friend of mine, though we didn’t get to see each other as much since she lived out of state. We’d met freshman year as roommates at UCLA, cheered together on the same cheer squad in college, and had been tight ever since. We were sitting in Leslie’s hotel room at one of the fanciest hotels in the city. Leslie’s husband, Jerry, had business in the city and he and Les had decided to make a short getaway of it.
“I’m a little tipsy. Come oooon, D,” she whined. “Do you know how hard it is to get a night out with three kids at home? You owe me.”
“I owe you? How so?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know, you just do! We’re going out tonight.” She pointed a finger at me.
I laughed, knowing that it would end like this. Leslie was always the life of the party. One couldn’t help but have a good time whenever she was around. Ever since she’d called me earlier in the week to tell me she and Jerry would be in town without the kids, I knew we’d find ourselves out somewhere, at least one of the nights she was in town.
“Fine. I hear Indigo’s not too crazy anyway.”
“Yay!” She clapped, reminding me of the preppy cheerleader she was when we first met.
Just then Leslie’s husband entered the hotel suite’s bedroom from the living room where he’d been on a conference call.
“Hun, Destiny agreed to go out to Indigo with me tonight.”
Jerry looked over at me.
I had to work hard to keep my lips from forming into a frown. Jerry and I had never been more than cordial with one another.
“That’s cool. Y’all have fun. Hey, Destiny.” He nodded in my direction.
“Hey, Jerry.”
“Aye, I saw your husband the other day. I’ve got some business with him here in the city. I’ll let him know you’re still looking good.”
My face instantly morphed into a scowl. “You saw mywhat?” I questioned with a narrowed gaze, pinning him.
For his part, Jerry’s lips twitched, just barely keeping the smirk off his face, and his dark eyes sparkled as if he’d made the funniest joke in the world.
“Jerry, what the fuck is your problem?” I demanded.
“All right, you two. Back to your corners,” Leslie intervened, getting both physically and verbally in between her husband and I. She was at least five inches taller than me, but I stood up on my tiptoes to peer over her shoulder at her jackass of a husband. Jerry and Darryl had been good friends, both having played sports for UCLA. While Darryl played basketball, Jerry had spent his four years as UCLA’s leading running back. He’d spent six years in the NFL before an injury sidelined his athletic career. Leslie had been with him through it all. Including his many infidelities. In Jerry’s eyes, I was the one who betrayed Darryl by divorcing him, not the other way around. And every chance he saw me, he opted to take a dig, often still referring to Darryl as my husband, even after six years.
“Come on, Destiny. You know I was just messing with you,” Jerry argued.
“You can keep your little digs to yourself. Matter of fact, shove them up your a—”
“Jerry, don’t you have a late meeting you need to get to?” Leslie questioned, turning to her husband. She rushed over, pressed a kiss to his cheek, and began tugging him by the arm to encourage his movement out of the room.
“Yeah, I’ll see y’all later.”
