“What better time than the present?” I shrug.
“You’re just feeling territorial.”
“Okay, and? I’ve been territorial over you since I was fifteen. This isn’t new.”
“And I am too, but I’m not suggesting we start unleashing this on people when we’re drunk just because you’re feeling like a caveman.”
“I couldn’t think of a better time to do that, actually.”
“You guys still doing okay?” the server asks from where she stands at the end of our table.
Just before Saint speaks up that we’re doing fine, I interject. “We are, but can we get two shots of tequila, please. Silver preferably. Whatever’s your best.”
“Wild!” she exclaims with a hint of irritation, but I can always count on Saint to be down to take a shot with me.
“Should I make it four?” I ask playfully, and she meets my energy with an equally playful scowl across her gorgeous face.
“Two’s good for now,” she tells our server before she leaves with a polite nod. “You’re the worst, you know that?”
“Figured you may need a little liquid courage.”
“So… how’s it going to work, anyway? You live in Seattle, and I still have seven months until I graduate. I can’t exactly move right now.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“You have an entire business. Is it that easy to just… move?”
“The other option is to be across the country from you for seven months, and we’ve had to do that for too long as it is. I’m over that shit. It’s not ideal as New York and Seattle are entirely different markets, but relocating will definitely attract less immediate attention to the fact that we’re together.” She begins chewing on her thumbnail, and I know that means she’s nervous. “What’s wrong, baby? Is this not what you want?”
“Of course, it is. It just feels like you’re having to change your entire life, and I just don’t want you to resent me for that.”
“Do you actually think I’m capable of resenting you… over anything?”
A smile pulls at her lips. “You know what I mean, Wild. It’s a million-dollar company you built from the ground up inSeattle. I don’t want to seem selfish by saying you have to be the one to move here.”
The server returns to the table with two shot glasses filled to the brim and sets them in front of us. I see the annoyance laced with a hint of heat in Saint’s eyes because she knows if I’m ordering tequila, then I want her nasty tonight.
And I do, especially after I claim her in front of that asshole and any other guy who thinks they have a chance with her.
“Fine. Would you consider moving to Seattle after you graduate, and we can figure out where to go from there?”
She drags the shot glass across the table, and when some sloshes over the side, I watch as she makes a show of licking it off her finger while maintaining eye contact with me.
“Don’t fucking start unless you want to defile the bathroom here.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time we did that.”
“It would be at…” I look down at my watch. “Two p.m.”
She gives me a look like she doesn’t believe that. “Doubtful.” But she shrugs. “I figured you may want your cum dripping down my legs while you told Jace to back off.” She rolls her eyes before downing the shot without waiting for me.
“Halle Grace.” I chuckle at her before doing the same. “Couldn’t even wait for me. I taught you better than that. But let’s put a pin in the serious conversation we were having about where we should live and focus on my ‘cum dripping down your legs’ part.”
Those two shots did eventually become four, and then six, and now we’re each three shots deep as we’re leaving the bar as it turns to early evening, and I know she must be starting to feel hungry. “Is there food at this bar, or should we stop? I know you must be getting hungry.” I wrap an arm around her and kiss her temple before pulling her closer to me. She fits perfectly right under my arm against me, just like she always has, and I don’t miss the quiet sigh of contentment as she slides an arm around my waist.
“A little.” She giggles, and I can tell that the alcohol is starting to catch up with her. She has a higher tolerance thanmost people her size, I’m sure, thanks to an introduction to alcohol far before she was twenty-one, but tequila usually gets her there faster than anything else. She pulls out her phone, and my eyes immediately spot the name on it.Notin a group text. Just one name with the number three next to it, indicating thatJase Suttonhad texted her three times. She opens it, and while it’s what I expected, it still annoys the shit out of me that he’s pressing her to meet them so badly.
Jase: Where you at?
