Lydia
Eleven Months Ago
Dance music beat loudly around us, sending vibrations through my chest.
“You want another Manhattan, baby?” Blake called to me as he placed another round with the bartender for him and his friends.
“Yeah, sure.” I smiled.
Blake and his friends were all dressed in their work suits, while I was standing there in leather pants, a studded leather jacket, and a beanie over my head, feeling wildly out of place in this swanky club.
His friend Anthony joined him at the bar. We had only been here for less than an hour, and he was already pretty shitfaced and annoyingly loud. His voice carried to where I was standing, a few spots away with a couple more of Blake’s friends, as he tried to chat up the bartender.
“Hey, darling, what time do you get off work?” he slurred.
“Not interested. What are you drinking?” she shot back.
“I’ll have a shot of Fireball if I can take it from between those tits.”
Blake laughed at his friend’s antics, but the look of disgust on the bartender’s face said she didn’t think it was very funny.
“I bet the view looks fantastic when you’re on your knees. You should let me take you to the bathroom so I can find out if I’m right.”
A different bartender crossed from the other side of the bar, a man this time. He tapped her on the back, and they deftly switched sides. “We got a problem over here?” he asked as he finished the orders.
“Not at all,” Blake chuckled. “Ignore him. He thinks he’s funny.”
“He’s not,” the man shot back, dropping the drinks on the counter with a hard stare. “He says something like that again and he’s out of here. You got that?”
Blake and Anthony laughed it off, taking the drinks and making their way back to us.
“Her loss,” Anthony said, adding a little too loudly. “I’m great at getting head.”
Blake held my drink out for me. Before I could take it from him, he pulled it back with a smirk. I shot him a dry look, but my grin didn’t lend it any heat. He offered it to me again, and then again pulled his arm back before I could take it, his eyes shining with amusement.
I lifted to my toes with a smile, my hands climbing over his shoulders, and touched my lips to his.
“You look super hot tonight. Not that you’re not gorgeous every night,” he whispered to me, nipping at my ear.
“Are you sure? I don’t feel like I fit in with this crowd,” Itold him, looking around at the women in short, tight dresses, their makeup applied to highlight their already beautiful looks.
Blake handed me my drink, for real this time, and slipped behind me. One arm circled my waist, pulling me close to him.
“You’re different, Lydia. No doubt about that. But none of these women are as fascinating as you. In a sea of all these women, you’re the only one I see.”
My cheeks flushed, my heart pitter-pattering in my chest, even after months of being together. Blake didn’t hold back his compliments, always telling me I was beautiful and interesting. But it affected me the same every time. No one had ever made me feel so special.
“That’s because I’m blocking your view,” I laughed, making light of it.
“No. It’s because I’m in love with you.” He kissed my neck, and I turned my face so I could capture his lips on mine.
“I love you too.”
* * *
Present Day
Seb hadn’t come back from the bathroom, waylaid by yet another woman who fell for his dimpled smirk and sexy tattoos.
