And both his hands are staying firmly put on my hips, in the safe zone, in a way that makes it clear it’s taking everything he has not to touch me all over. The way he’s looking at my lips… Ohshit. We’re having a moment. And it’s a moment we’re not supposed to be having.
But fuck it.
Fuckme, even. I don’t care anymore. If it hurts, it hurts. I have a bad case of the screaming thigh sweats for him, and it won’t be denied.
“You really are Wonderboy,” I tease him lightly, and his head tilts infinitesimally to one side, and mine turns to the other, and we slowly, slowly move closer…
“May I have your attention, please?” Someone yells with perfectlyawfultiming. The music stops abruptly, and someone is tapping a glass with a fork for attention.
Oh, man, it’s our head of finance, Rob. Cute, in a preppy boyband-ish sort of way. He looks all excited and nervous. I smell an announcement. God, I hope we’re not all fired? The business has been doing well with me running business development.
“Can…Jade, can you join me here for a moment?” he asks Jade from the compliance team. They’ve been dating for about…what, six months? A year? My mind is a little fuzzy from the beer and the whirling with Damon.
Jade wanders over with a nervous smile and he reaches for her hand. She’s sickeningly gorgeous, the sort of woman who never chips her nail polish and whose lipstick lasts all day and who wears white and still looks pristine as a laundry detergent ad by the end of the day. If she wasn’t such a sweetie, I’d hate her guts.
“Ah…um…” He laughs and cringes. “God, my heart is going a mile a minute…um…” He reaches into his pocket, andoh my bloody god, that’s a ring box.
No. Please, no. Not this.
Jade gasps prettily, and then he’s on one knee in front of her to a chorus of “awwwws”. “Jade, my sparkle pants…” They both giggle, andsparkle pants? Really?“I love you.So much.Will you marry me, sweetheart?”
She nods, crying so very daintily. “Yes,” she says on a happy sob.
Everyone cheers. He puts a ring on her finger and I can see the rock glitter from here. It glitters even more as my eyes fill with tears against my will.
It isn’t fair. It isn’tfair…
I feel gentle fingers turning my face away from the lovey dovey scene, and then there’s Damon with his gorgeous eyes, and I want to howl because I’m surrounded by things I want but cannot have. Like Damon, as more than a flirtation. A sweet proposal. The possibility of saying yes without condemning my vagina to a death sentence.
“Are you OK?” he asks, looking genuinely concerned for me.
I sniffle. If the lovely and newly engaged Jade had done the same thing, she’d sound adorable. I just sound like a cat sneezing. “I want to go home. Please. Just take me home.”
Damon
I’m definitely the more sober one out of the two of us, so I manage to get us a taxi back to hers. She sniffles the entire time, and I feel pretty helpless—I’ve never dealt with a crying woman before—so I do the only thing I can think of that might be helpful, and open my arm to her. She quickly snuggles in and starts quietly crying.
Oh, shit,pleasedon’t let her have a thing for Rob…
My heart sinks. It would explain a lot. We were having a great time, and then all of a sudden she’s teary and wanting to go home after Rob proposed to whats-her-face.
Poor Faith.
When the taxi pulls in, I pay, and she tugs on my wrist with a pouty frown. “Come up to my flaaaaaat,” she grumbles sweetly.
“Er…OK.” I’m not one hundred percent convinced it’s the best idea, but Iamconvinced I want to stay with her just a little longer. I want to see she’s OK because she’s been upset, and because…
Fine, I’ll admit it to myself. Because she’s sending brand new feelings ziplining through me and I want more of them, please.
She punches a code into the front door and yanks it. “Lift’s broken,” she mumbles, so we trudge up two flights of stairs, and I’m behind her. The way her gorgeous arse sways is mesmerising and I really need to stop staring before she turns around…
“You’re going to hurt me,” she mutters, “but I kind of want it.”
“What?” What’s she talking about?
We get to her door, with a large silver 12 above the peephole, and she spends a few seconds trying to insert the key in the keyhole, missing once or twice. “My vag will just have to cope.”
Her what??!!
