“That you’re an instigator and always up to no good,” I continue to tease.
The other dancers around us crowd and cover us from our friends, tucked far away in a booth, but Mabel still steals a glance around and closes the gap between us, pressing her body to mine, her mouth close to mine, hovering next to it. “No idea what you’re talking about.” Her eyes are heated, looking into mine.
I’m waiting for her lead here. We are in public, our friends are so close. She wants to keep this private; between us. This is out of the norm for us. Like she has mentally caught what she has done, she quickly retreats, shyly tucking her hair behind her ears. “Sorry. Got a little caught up,” she offers, looking embarrassed.
I collect her hands in mine and lift them up, moving her around to continue dancing. “Just enjoy yourself.” I try to make her feel better by leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, and continue to dance with her, hoping it will help her not overthink the moment. Her smile returns and she moves with me, loosening up again and feeling the music. We dance for a few songs together, singing to each other, laughing.
“I’m getting a drink. Would you like one?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’ll come with you,” she replies and follows me to the bar.
The nightclub has gotten busier since we got here, and the lineup for the bar is chaotic. Drunk people talk loudly and are swaying or mis-stepping around us. I get taller so I can keep an eye on my surroundings. It’s not rowdy, but messy. I see a flash of bright pink hair about to fall into Mabel, and instinctivelymove her to my front so they can catch themselves. “Sorry!” the pink-haired woman says, covering her mouth as she laughs at her clumsiness. I smile back politely before she turns back to her friends.
I keep Mabel’s back pressed to my front and my arms around her, protecting her from any other run-ins as we make our way to the front of the line. Having her there puts me at ease, and I relish the feel of her back resting on my chest.
Getting to the front of the bar, Mabel leans her elbows against the bar to be closer to the bartender to put her order in. My eyes trail down to her ass as she bends over the bar, her dress slipping up a little, the back of her toned thighs exposed, begging for my hands to graze underneath and pull her panties down.
When the bartender moves to make her drink, I lean in. “What about my order?”
“Don’t worry, hotshot. I put your order in,” Mabel replies, I can hear the playfulness in her voice.
“Why am I going to regret this?” I laugh.
The bartender has their back to us, but I can see all the bottles around them. They turn around with their creation and it’s a small-sized bucket. Yes, BUCKET, complete with a handle and a few twirly straws coming out of it.
“What the fuck is that?” I ask Mabel in disbelief.
“A Long Island iced tea in bucket form.” She laughs as she waves her hands in front of the bucket in a flurry. “I wanted totry it, but the girls didn’t feel like splitting it. Luckily, you are my drinking buddy tonight.” She pokes a finger in my chest.
“Lucky, maybe. You might need to carry me back after this.” I laugh as I lift the bucket from the bar and turn to go back to the booth. Fortunately, the crowd of people behind us see the bucket and part so we can get through.
Setting the bucket on the table in the booth, everyone stops their conversations and stares at it with as much disbelief as I did.
“What thefuckis that?!” Cole exclaims, his mouth in a smirk.
“A Long Island iced tea, in bucket form,” I reply, holding back a smirk, too.
“Good luck there, bud,” he replies and goes back to his beer.
“It’ll be fine! We don’t have to finish it.” Mabel bounces from behind me and sits down on the free bench seat. The booth is dark with a dim hanging light in the middle, and bench seats create a ‘U’ shape, each couple sitting on a bench to themselves but talking together.
“I was just letting everyone know that Shelby, Dave, and Nikki finally decided on joining us for the last few days of the trip, and then will head to MudPit with us before the end of the break,” Sophia informed us.
“That’s awesome. I miss working with you and Dave.” I shoot playful daggers in Javi’s direction, to which he pretends to be real interested in the ceiling, then smiles. Unable to keep up the charade. Last season, Rayna and Javi came in and offered Sophia, Dave, and Micah roles in his team. And while it wasabsolutely the best opportunity for three wonderful people in my team to progress their careers, I still like to give him shit about it.
“I needed that championship-winning team.” He shrugs back.
“You’re an asshole. That’s what you are, champ,” I say, popping the ‘p’ at the end.
Mabel takes a sip of the bucket and pushes her hand into my arm. “Oh! This is really nice! You should try it!”
I take a straw that is close to me and nod in agreement. It is actually really nice. Not too overrun with alcohol that it is all that you taste, but this will definitely be my only drink tonight.
We sit around talking some more before a song comes on that the three girls want to go dance to together.
We move so they can exit the booth and sit back down to mind their bags.
“Relegated to bag bitches,” Cole muses, checking the time. We have been out for about two hours and he already pre-warned everyone he would be a short stay as he didn’t want to leave Otto on his own for too long. “Okay, I have about an hour left in me and then I am out,” he announces. “I am going to hit the dance floor with the girls to make it worth pushing my bed time out so late.” Javi moves so Cole can get out of the booth.
