Theo sighed, knowing there was no use in arguing with the man.When Trick got something in his head, it was hard to convince the wide receiver to change his mind.
Theo looked out the window, watching as the lights blurred in the darkness.
“And if all else fails, man, at least there’s the drinks!”Shaun said, his eyes like saucers.
Trick high-fived him before grabbing Theo’s shoulder.“Amen to that.”
Theo forced a smile, but it was not genuine.
Maybe Shaun’s right, too.Maybe I just need to have a drink or two and relax.I can do that, right?Tonight doesn’t have to be about getting laid.It can just be about talking to people, hanging out, sipping on some Piña Coladas.
Though even as Theo thought these things, he felt like a fish out of water.He was ashamed to admit how long it had been since he actually slept with someone at this point, or gone on a date that didn’t end with a girl ghosting him.That was what Trick and his friends failed to understand.Theohadtried.To flirt, to date.Four years was a long time to be single.Especially when Trick and his friends were constantly having sex.Very loud, sometimes suspicious sex, in his dorm room.
Upon his descent from the Uber into the den of seduction that was theMystery Masqueradeat the DeLux Cafe, Theo found himself on the edge of a precipice.Trick grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it with excitement and Theo rallied himself to do as Trick suggested.
Which was much easier after the two Piña Coladas he’d consumed so quickly, his nerves getting the better of him as he waited patiently for the event to start.
His goal was simple—it was just conversation, after all.Surely he was capable of conversing with a woman, and covering his face would likely provide an extra air of anonymity for Theo to hide behind.
Here, tonight, at the DeLux Cafe, Theo could pretend to be someone else.
Someone confident and cocky who knew how to flirt and please a woman, should the circumstances present itself.
He could pretend to be the man hewantedto be.A man a woman wouldwant.To keep.
Not some rejected perpetually single nerdy college student.
And just as the second fruity little drink hit him, the night began.He’d found his seat across from a lithe, beautiful woman wearing an ivory toga that clung to her curves deliciously.The tight pull of the fabric around her breasts enhanced her ample cleavage, elevating her pale skin.Her mask was a deep bronze, intricate, and looked far cooler than the black plastic mask Trick had likely picked up fromParty City.But it wasn’t her breasts or her lusciously dark, curled hair with its mysterious slivers of pink shining through that spilled out of her stylish updo that drew Theo to the woman before him.No, it was something else, some force he could not quite explain save for the fact it felt magnetic.
He could have sat anywhere in the cafe, but he’d chosen to sit there.It was almost as if fate had lured him there.
Theo did not believe in fate, but what if fate believed in him?
He didn’t know her name.Nor did he know how old she was.Theodore Lange did not know anything, really, except that the minute he caught her amber gaze, he felt like she could see right through him.Underneath his mask, to his bloody soul.And that was as exhilarating as it was terrifying.
He’d never felt this way about anyone before, not even his ex-fiancé.
So, he did exactly as he had promised himself to do.He put Trick’s teachings to the test.It was a miracle he’d remembered his ice breaker—a cheeky little bit about what a person’s drink says about them, something he’d discerned from many nights out with Trick and his teammates—and he’d delivered the conversation without managing to look like an absolute fool.
And Miss Perfect—because as far as Theo was concerned, the goddess in front of him was the embodiment of perfection itself—had done the one thing Theo feared from the get-go.
She challenged his claim.
But Theo did not feel called out or on the spot by her rebuttal, nor did he feel angry that she had corrected him, and continued the conversation by educatinghim.No, Theo felt electrified and found his responses came easy, the banter between him and Miss Perfect sparking a desire within him he hadn’t felt in years.
He wasflirting,and successfully.And, it seemed, she was flirting with him as well, reciprocating and teasing him.Theo wantedmore.He did not wish to entertain anyone else in the cafe.He only wanted more of the spark Miss Perfect had ignited within him.
Though, to be fair, it wasn’tallMiss Perfect’s charms that had Theo feeling alive and excited.Usually, it took a lot more than a couple fruity drinks to get Theo drunk, but Theo, like his friends, had been used to cheap beer and bottom shelf liquor.He was not prepared for the strength of his sweet frozen cocktails.
Or maybe it’s just a change of scenery, a break, I don’t fucking know.Whatever it is, I’m not fighting it.I feel relaxed and I’m having fun,Theo thought to himself as he stood tall and proud.His verdant gaze drifted to Miss Perfect, to her vibrant red lips, her eyelashes behind her mask fluttering as she looked up at him.
With a smile on her face.
Trick would be proud.
Come to think of it, where is Trick...
Theo scanned the room momentarily, looking for his friend, breathing a little easier when he saw him at a table in the corner talking to a woman, smiling his patented perfect football player smile.
