“Business,” he answered quickly, being far too cryptic for my liking. But when his fingers grazed mine as he reached for his glass once again, I couldn’t care in the least.
Everything about this man was screaming for me to walk away. From his cocky attitude to his brilliant white smile, he was subliminallytelling me to stay away.
Far away.
But there was some pull to him, mainly coming from behind my zipper. But fuck if I cared. It had been too long.
Far too long.
What’s the worst that could happen?I thought to myself.
And with that thought in mind, I asked the question I knew he’d been waiting for since the moment he said down, corny pick-up line waiting to tumble from his lips. “My placeor yours?” I asked, envisioning those lips wrapping around my cock.
“Thought you’d never ask.” There was triumph in his voice. He’d won the challenge for sure, but I wasn’t about to count myself the loser. Never the one-night stand type, I figured what the hell? What was the worst that could happen?
I actually laughed out loud, shaking myself from my pointless rambling of a flashback.
“What’sso funny?” Chelsea asked, slurring. She’d ordered another drink while I was lost in thought.
“Is she okay?” I asked the girl sitting next to me whose name completely escaped me.
“Uh, yeah, I think,” she slurred her words, too.
Clearly, I was the only one able to keep their wits about them.
But then, I ate my words. Chase came back out onto the stage with a few other strippers. My face slack,I was surprised my jaw didn’t hit the floor. The lyrics and beat of the song were lost on me. I didn’t hear a damn thing except for the rush of blood thrumming through my ears. Locking eyes with me, Chase moved easily around the stage. His hips swayed side to side, hypnotizing me. The bunch and pull of his muscles was mesmerizing, so much so that everyone else ceased to exist. For a moment, frozenin time, it was just him and me. His eyes, so damn blue, they were like the ocean pulling me under, waves lapping up against the shore.
The strippers moved down from the stage, making their way through the crowd. Women pawed at them, reaching out, touching, grabbing, making the men grind their G-string-covered dicks into their laps for a quick ten bucks. Though I’d like to judge them, it wasrather hypocritical of me since I wanted nothing more than for Chase to sit on my lap and ride my cock until we were both lost to the ecstasy of it all.
The song came to an end, and just in time. As the men made their way from the crowd back up onto the stage, Chelsea leaned over and whispered in my ear, “I think I’m going to be sick.” This meant I had approximately less than five seconds toget her into the bathroom before she lost it in the middle of the club.
Moving quickly enough to save us from all seeing her dinner spill out on the floor, I escorted her to the bathroom and held her hair while she emptied her stomach. Following quickly behind us was her older sister and matron of honor, Anna. “Is she okay?” she asked. She didn’t sway or lose her balance. Her words weren’t slurred.It seemed as if she was perfectly fine.
“You’re not drunk? I thought you were up to at least five cosmos,” I added above the sound of her sister retching in the toilet.
“Just cranberry and soda,” she answered. “I knew Bridezilla over here wouldn’t hold back tonight.” We shared a laugh before I moved away from Chelsea, letting Anna sit by her side. “I’ll go round up the other girls and get thelimo. By the looks of her,” I said, tipping my head to an almost passed out Chelsea propped up on a less-than-clean toilet, “it’s gonna be a long night.”
By the time we dropped all the other girls off at their homes and made sure they were safely inside, it was creeping up on the time I’d hoped to meet up with Chase. But my best friend obligations were keeping me from following through on that.
Anna and I each hooked an arm through one of Chelsea’s and helped her up the stairs and into her room. Somehow, we managed to get Chelsea to brush her teeth and change into an oversized T-shirt for bed. The entire process was nothing short of a magical feat, much like getting a cranky toddler whose blankie was in the dryer to do anything.
By the time Anna walked out of the bedroom, I was aboutready to text Chase to let him know I couldn’t make it. The only thing keeping me from hitting Send was that I felt like an idiot. I was actually considering texting some stripper I’d just meant to let him know I couldn’t make it to the one-night stand in which we were both more than a little interested.
If there was a larger paradox out there, I wasn’t sure what it was.
Anna must have seenme deliberating my next move. “Big plans?” she asked, tipping her head down to the phone.
“Huh, oh, what? Huh?” I rambled, shoving my phone into my pocket as if it was my deepest darkest secret.
She laughed, walking past me, pulling me with her away from Chelsea’s room. Holding her finger up to her lips, she silently shushed me. It was a pointless move because there was no way on earth Chelseawas going to hear anything. She was out cold and would probably only wake up from a wailing headache in the morning. Thinking about her state of inebriation only made me feel guiltier about leaving to go hook up.
What kind of friend does that?I silently asked myself.
And like the dork I was, I actually answered myself, too.The kind who hasn’t had sex in months, that’s who.
“Hello?” She whistled,waving her hand in front of my face. “Where’d you go?”
“Oh, uh, nowhere.”
