Alicia’s smile quickly dissolved and she turned her attention toward Bria and Isaac dancing.
“Really? Relationships aren’t allowed?”
Jake leaned in. “Oh, there’s no rules against it … but trust me when I say, you don’t want to be in one.”
“And why is that?” I didn’t like people telling me what I could and couldn’t do, even if a relationship was at the bottom of my list.
Alicia, Jake, and Ollie exchanged glances until Ollie faced me again. “A long story for another day.”
“So, where you from?” Alicia quickly changed the subject just as Bria lifted her arms and wrapped them around Isaac’s neck. Her cropped shirt raised higher, nipples almost showing. Isaac dragged his hand up her side to her breast and grabbed a handful, caressing beneath the thin fabric.
As I winced, Bria moaned while her eyes stayed on Ollie, but Ollie was oblivious as he scrolled through the music on the phone.
After a few seconds of the groping, Bria turned around and kissed Isaac. I’m not talking about an innocent kiss.No. This was a tongue-dueling, spit-swapping, manic kiss, and I forgot Alicia’s question altogether.
“I … eh …” I snapped my head away from the two who were locking lips and back to Alicia. “P.A.”
“P.A.?”
“Pennsylvania.” I took another swig of vodka as Jake stood. He made his way toward Isaac and Bria with his bottom lip between his teeth.
All three of them danced. Well, I wouldn’t use the term “dance.” I didn’t even know what term to use to explain what they were doing. They looked like three mammals in Antarctica fighting for warmth.
Alicia and I went back and forth with irrelevant questions to pass the time, and finally, the perfect amount of drunk hit, and I was feeling good, but not good enough to participate in the friction of the three starved animals.
Somehow our conversation went from twenty-one questions to laughing about Stanley, the security guard. Ollie sat with his long legs out in front of him and ankles crossed, leaning on his hands behind him and listening intently. The weight of his gaze stayed on me as I turned my attention back to the entertainment of Isaac, Jake, and a sweating Bria dancing.
“Come on, Ollie. There’s room for you in here, too,” Bria whined. Ollie shook his head, and Bria made a pouty face. “For once in your life, have a little fun.”
“What are you afraid of, Ollie?” I asked mockingly as I bumped him in the shoulder with mine.
A nervous smile rose, and his adorable dimple appeared. “That.” He nudged his head Bria’s direction. “I’m afraid of whatever that is and what it will eventually turn into. That’s not my cuppa tea.”
Bria pulled Jake’s face down to hers and they kissed. My eyes almost popped out of their sockets. “I thought he was gay,” I whispered over to Alicia.
Ollie looked over to the mammals for the second time tonight. “He is,” he stated simply.
What in the hell did I walk—ordrop—into?
Alicia lifted her shoulders in a half shrug before she stood to join the other three, leaving me alone on the floor with Ollie.
“What about you?” Ollie asked.
“What about me?”
“Are you the type of girl to have fun or the kind who sits back and watches everyone enjoying themselves?”
“I don’t know … neither … both.” I sighed. “I usually don’t drink, so I suppose drinking is my way of letting loose tonight.”
Ollie smiled and leaned over on one elbow. “Why don’t you drink?”
“Because I like being in control, and I don’t want to end up doing things like that …” I pointed over to Bria making out with Isaac. “I don’t kiss people. I’ve slept around but kissed only a few—fewer times than I can count on one hand. The act is too personal.”
Ollie raised a brow. “You’re trying to tell me kissing is more personal than sex?”
“Yes, both psychologists and scientists can prove kissing is more intimate than sex.”
Ollie tried to control his lips, but small laughs blew through them.
