Before I could get to Clay, Melissa, the hostess extraordinaire, rushed to his side and plastered herself against him like a second skin. “That was amazing, Clay,” she cooed in his ear. Oh, gag. I grabbed hold of Clay’s arm and squeezed.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked quietly in his ear. Clayton looked over at me, only now realizing that I was standing there.
He grinned at me and pulled me into a hug. Melissa looked miffed that she had been discarded. “Mags. I’m so happy you’re here! Did you see that? That was epic!” he said, ridiculously pleased with himself. I pulled on him and we moved toward the door.
“Yeah, I saw you. I thought you said you didn’t want to be doing that stuff,” I replied, looking at him with concern.
A dark look crossed Clay’s face and he yanked his arm from my grasp. “What are you? The party police? I’m having fun. I thought that’s what you wanted. For me to meet people and, you know, socialize.” I didn’t say anything. Clearly, Clayton was not a friendly drunk.
“I did want that, but you were the one who said you had a history with this stuff. That drinking isn’t good for you.” I tried to grab his hand again.
Maybe if I could get him out of the garage I could get him to see reason. Well, that was wishful thinking. Clayton Reed was way past reason and had dipped precariously into Crazyland. He pushed my hand away. “Back off, Maggie! I don’t need you telling me what I should and shouldn’t be doing. I did just fine before you came along to mother me.”
My mouth fell open to reply, but then I closed it. I wouldn’t be this guy’s punching bag. Drunk or not. Love of my life or not. I didn’t put up with that kind of shit from anyone. So I shoved him in the center of his chest, making him stumble backward a few steps.
“Well, pardon me for giving a crap about you. I was just worried. But if you want to act like a drunken asshole, that’s fine! I just won’t be around to watch it!” I slammed out the door and into the cool night air.
I pressed my back into the cold metal of the garage door, trying to calm my breathing. That went well. I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the pavement. I leaned my forehead against my knees, wrapping my arms around my legs.
The door opened beside me and I lifted my head to see Clay step outside. He looked around and then noticed me sitting on the cold pavement alone in the dark. He sank to the ground beside me, keeping a cautious distance between us. I didn’t say anything. I had nothingtosay.
“I’m sorry. That was totally uncalled for,” Clay said softly. Though his words were slurred, he at least seemed to possess some understanding of how horribly he was behaving. And he appeared genuinely contrite.
“Yeah, you kind of suck right now,” I remarked, refusing to look at him. Clay’s fingers touched my chin and he pulled my face around so that I was looking at him.
“Please don’t be angry with me. I can’t stand that. I need you way too much to have this between us.” His words were desperate and I was shocked at what he had just said.
He needed me? Since when? And, while my heart thrilled, something inside me hesitated, unsure of how to respond. His fingers slipped into my hair and he started to pull me toward him. More specifically, my mouth toward his.
Before our lips touched I stopped him. I put my hands over his to still the movement. “What is this, Clay? What are you doing?” I murmured, the skin of our lips brushing against each other.
Clay gazed into my eyes and a pool of warmth flooded my belly. Why was I talking? Why didn’t I just let him kiss me? How long had I wanted this, and I was making him stop? Was I freaking nuts?
But it just didn’t feel right to have him do this when he was drunk. I wanted him in his right frame of mind when he kissed me. I didn’t want it to be some sloppy event outside of Melissa James’s garage. Clay backed up. “I thought you wanted this. You’ve been sending out signals like crazy.” Clay seemed angry. Embarrassed, even. I had taken his guy card... again.
I touched his face, but he pulled away from me. Dear Lord, his moods were all over the place right now. “I do want to kiss you. Just not like this. I mean, you’re kind of wasted right now. This isn’t exactly romantic.” I laughed nervously.
Clay shook his head. “Who said I’m looking for romance? Can’t we just hook up and it not be all serious?” Whoa. Okay, that hurt. Glad to know that our kiss wouldn’t mean quite the same thing to him as it would to me. Even though he had just told me he needed me. He had seemed absolutely wretched when he thought I was angry with him. He was so hot and cold, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
“All right, then. This is clearly not going to happen, so I’m going to go find Daniel and Rachel.” I stood up. Clay got to his feet behind me. His face was unreadable but it was obvious from his body language that hewas nothappy.
“You go on. I’m just going to hang out. You know... socialize and all,” he said nastily, and turned around and went back into thegarage.
My stomach dropped and I blinked back tears. You have got to be kidding me. I had hoped tonight would be fun. But between Rachel’s dramatics and Clay’s drunken craziness, the night was quickly turning into a disaster.
I found Rachel and Daniel, who were swinging on the play set in Melissa’s backyard. Rachel seemed to have sobered up and was actually smiling, which was a relief. “Hey, guys,” I called out as I reached them.
They both looked up at me and smiled. “Hey. Where’s Clay?” Danny asked, kicking his legs out in front of him to get the swing moving.
“Yeah... well, he’s being a royal butt. I don’t really feel like subjecting myself to that, if you know what I mean.” I perched on the seesaw and pushed with my legs to make it bob up and down. Rachel blew the hair out of her face and slowed her swing down until she was swaying gently back and forth. She looked over at me sheepishly.
“I’m sorry about the amateur dramatics earlier. I think it’s official that I can’t exactly handle my alcohol.” I gave her a look that said I agreed with her statement.
“Yeah, I guess we’ve learned that lesson. Next timeyou’retheDD.”
Rachel laughed. “Deal,” she agreed.
“I had no idea that Clay had a problem with drinking, or I wouldn’t have encouraged him to do the keg stand. But he never mentioned anything,” Rachel said guiltily.
