Get the hint already and back off, Bud!
“I know you didn’t step out of the house looking like that to not get noticed,” he says. Rounding my side and walking in front of me again, he gives me an awkward-looking wink. I have to swallow back the vomit that involuntarily starts to rise in my throat. Go ahead and touch me one more time and see where that gets you, asshole.
An unpleasant silence falls between us as we sit and stare at one another. Rolling my eyes, I stand up from the table and try to think of a way to lose Bud. Maybe I can claim to need to use the restroom. Maybe I should pretend I smoke so I could go outside and hopefully ditch Bud and his wingman in the process.
Tom, the wingman, who, along with Gwen, is now missing. A blank stare crosses my face.
Frantically, I begin looking around the bar for Gwen as Bud takes a step closer. It’s as if he thinks standing up from the table is code for wanting him to move in. Moron. I roll my eyes, and then continue to try and put distance between us as I scan the room for any sign of my now missing best friend.
Leaning in, Bud takes a deep breath right next to the curve of my neck. “You smell good,” he says, intruding upon my personal space.
I’m taller than him with my heels on, which makes me have to look down on the tiny man.
“Really,” I glare at him, “is that supposed to make me want you now? Make me change my mind and decide to let you take me home so I can spread my legs for you? I don’t think so, buddy.”
I take a step away from the table and continue to scan the room, looking for Gwen. Unfortunately, Bud still persists, stepping up beside me, he tries to grab a hold of my waist. Shaking off his grasp, I shoot him a look daring him to try it again.
“Don’t be so cold,” Bud slams down his now empty glass on the table. “Pretending like you don’t want it. If you’re half as easy as your friend was last night with Tom,” he says, reaching out to try and touch me again, “I shouldn’t have to try hard at all.”
I honestly can’t believe what I am hearing. First, the jerk has the audacity to think I can easily be picked up. Then, he insults Gwen, thus obviously insulting me further. I know her shenanigans aren’t always honorable, but damn it, no one gets to say so except me.
“Excuse me, but I think it’s about time you go to hell. While you’re at it, make sure and take your friend with you.”
Grabbing my coat and purse, I turn to leave. I’ll find Gwen wherever she is, but there is no way in hell I am standing here and listening to this for one more second. Bud grabs my arm and swings me back around. I glance down at his hand, holding me in place with a tight grip, then look back up again with a hateful stare.
He smiles mischievously. “Don’t be like that. We can take it slow … if that’s what you want.” He licks his lips and moves closer, his voice is now a grotesque whisper between the two of us. “Trust me, baby, I know you’ll like it.”
He grabs me around the waist, and tries to grind himself against me, cornering me up against the table.
“Let me go,” I manage. I push off him in a desperate attempt to break free and make a run for it, but he doesn’t budge.
“I’ll leave you begging for more. Come on, you know you want to, baby. I know you haven’t had anything as good as me.” Bud tightens his grasp, leaving me barely any room for escape.
I yell, “I said let me go! Stop it!”
Chapter Two
Noah
Southern California. Alright, I’ve been here, done that. Can we pack this up and go home now? The west coast is nothing but an insane world with endless buildings, endless people, and endless… craziness. Two hours sitting in traffic to go five miles? No thank you.
I glance at the time on my phone for the hundredth time in the last two minutes and then look over at Rex and his latest fling. Beth, the bar troll that’s somehow made it to day three.
Wrapped around one another, Rex and Beth are totally unaware of the looks of disgust people are giving them. They continue groping one another in a way that I’m surprised doesn’t make them feel uncomfortable. They’re saying goodbye for what Beth thinks is just until tomorrow, but I know it’s permanent. Rex never holds a relationship longer than a week, two tops.
I met Rex in college. He’s a born and raised Californian that landed at Ol’ Miss. Rex was as far from a southerner as you could get and always stuck out in a crowd. Saying he was from California gave him a lot of attention from the ladies, which he loved. How we ever became friends, I couldn’t tell you, but somehow, we managed to hit it off and have remained almost inseparable ever since.
He suggested I move out to California with him when he graduated last spring, and I jumped at the idea in order to put some distance between me and my past. A girl that broke my heart and still won’t stop haunting me. Lesson learned. Never break up in a small town. You can’t escape it.
Moving to California sounded like a chance to live in greener pastures, so I signed up to take my senior year of classes online and followed him out west eager to make a fresh new start. I figured a new life, where no one knew my name, was exactly what I needed.
Once we arrived in northern California, I liked the change of scenery. The hills and country almost felt like home. We signed a year’s lease, and I started to stretch out and settle into a brand-new world. However, now my year is almost up, and my time in California is ending. I haven’t agreed to renew a lease with Rex, and honestly, I can’t wait to pack up and move back home. I thought I could find some sort of new meaning to life and freedom in the move, but the longer I stayed, the more I regretted it. With absolutely nothing to keep me here any longer, I decided the California lifestyle, northern or southern, is definitely not for me.
This trip south was Rex’s last attempt at changing my mind. But actually, all it did was prove he might just be stupider than he looks. A country boy has no place in a cluster fuck like Los Angeles. The beach was pretty, but overcrowded. I dream about being home in the beautiful countryside, where I have the space to breathe and think. Something you can’t do with all the noise and chaos in California.
Trying to find something else to focus my thoughts on besides the two I’m sitting next to, I let my mind wander back to a girl I saw standing on the edge of the pier tonight. I couldn’t stop staring at her. Hell, on a scale of one to ten, she was off the damn chart. Even from where I stood on the sand, I was drawn to her. She looked sad in the most gorgeous of ways. If that’s even possible. Though, through the ocean’s glare and her apparent sadness, I couldn’t help but be stunned by her beauty. One look at her and I knew she’s had to have broken a thousand hearts. At one point, she smiled, and I found it hard to catch my next breath. She was stunning in the way that everything about her made you want to know her more. In that brief moment, I found myself wanting to be able to experience everything I could about her.
What she smelled like …
