“What the hell. We were there last night too,” Rex exclaims, cutting me off again. The mention of the “we” that escapes his lips doesn’t slip past me. “I didn’t see you guys, though.”
“Strange,” I question, wondering who he was with last night. “The place isn’t that big.”
“Well, I was kind of wasted,” Rex confesses. “I spent most of the night shackled up with some girl in a back booth, and now she won’t stop calling my phone…” he shudders, closing his eyes, obviously scarred from the experience “…but still, what the hell.”
“You already said what the hell,” I laugh as Rex rounds the bar and takes his seat next to me. He leans back against the counter as he surveys the room. Glancing back at me over his shoulder, he smiles a mischievous kind of smile that I have seen a few times before. One that always means trouble.
“We could’ve all hung out,” he persists. “Three’s a crowd, but four’s a party.”
He nudges me, trying to make a point, but I’m utterly and completely lost. I have absolutely no clue what he is talking about..
“You, me, and Gwen would still only make three, Rex,” I assert, annoyed. “Who, do you presume, would be the fourth?”
Turning around, I face the direction Rex is, just in time to see the one person I never thought I would ever see again. My cheeks flush. My hands spontaneously start to tremble.
I whip back around fast and sit down my glass. With wide eyes, I stare down at the bar top and wonder what’s the best next move to make. My heart thuds wildly against my chest and my palms sweat. Rex catches on to the sudden shift in my mood.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Rex asks. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Noah?” I whisper.
Chapter Seven
Noah
Standing in the Monroe family restroom washing my hands, I look up at my reflection in the mirror and repeat to myself, “Just a few more hours, you got this.”
Turning around, I dry my hands on towels that look way too fancy to ever be touched. Shaking my head at how some people choose to live, I ready my mind for the night ahead. Opening the door, I walk back to join the party in the living room, on the very opposite side of this very vast suburban house, and wish for time to move faster. Not just to bypass this night. But so I can get one day closer to moving back home.
Rex has been trying to get me up to the Monroes’ house for dinner since I first arrived in northern California. He grew up with the Monroe family, and wanted me to like them as much as he and his parents do. Every time he asked me to join him for dinner, I politely refused. Spending time learning how the upper middle class enjoy their liberties is not something I ever desired to partake in.
Normally, upon invitation, I would have refused again. This time, though, Rex played the mother card against me. The asshole hadn’t even asked if I’d go, but rather had me answer the door when his parents showed up unexpectedly. Rex’s mom gave me such a hard time and promised an evening of fun and laughter. When that didn’t work, she gave me grief by saying how much she wished I would meet their family friends at least one time while I lived in California. Eventually, I caved. Fifteen minutes later, I found myself in the car driving to the house and the family I had tried to avoid since moving out west.
I had met Michael Monroe a few times before, and knew he and Rex had some sort of bond. They’ve been friends since they were in elementary school. I can’t say I mind the guy, but I wouldn’t say he and I are destined to be friends. Michael has an air about him that alludes to the fact that he thinks he’s better than everyone else. I make it a point to rarely spend time in people’s company who hold such high opinions of themselves.
Entering the living room, I hear banter and laughter coming from the bar at the back end of the room. I know Michael’s younger sister is supposed to be at dinner, and if she is half as condescending as Michael is, I’ll need something stronger than beer to survive the night.
Michael I can maybe deal with. But throw in fake plastic chicks that flip their hair, and bat their eyelashes at everything and I’d rather pass.
It wouldn’t matter what his sister is like though, because ever since last night, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the girl from the pier. She’ll be the center of every fantasy of mine for a long time. One I’ve indulged in once or twice since she left me last night.
Our connection, our chemistry, the way I felt her body react to mine, is my new favorite drug.
Glancing up, my eyes grow wide as I take in who is sitting at the bar alongside Rex. Eva turns and looks me straight in the eye, then nervously swivels herself back around, giving me a perfect view of how her slender waist gives way to perfect round hips fit snugly in a tight black dress.
She whispers my name, “Noah?”
The way she says it leaves me immediately more aroused in her presence. It repeats in my mind, matching the thundering of my heart, as I imagine her saying it writhing in pleasure underneath me.
“Lucky guess or is there something I should know?” Rex playfully asks, completely oblivious to the truth.
I stare at Eva, not knowing who should speak first. Speechless, stunned, we both find ourselves at a loss for words. Although, this time, I don’t feel like I’m the one that has any explaining to do.
I wink at her when she glances over her shoulder at me. Her face blushes. I wonder how she would look breathless and flushed on top of me, or hell, looking back at me as I take her harshly from behind.
Eventually, Eva turns around and faces me. Time drags on anxiously. Normally, I don’t suffer from anxiety, but right now I feel like the walls are slowly closing in. Suddenly lightheaded, it’s as if everyone else is sucking all the oxygen out of the room.
Last night, after she left, I talked myself into the idea that maybe, given the chance, she’d want to see me again. But does she? Maybe I had misread our chemistry.
