“We have to be invited first,” he says. It’s a jab at me. Mostly because outside of boxing, I don’t really do anythingfor fun. Andrew loves to remind me of that all the time, but our ideas of fun usually aren’t the same.
I smile. I don’t want to be the one to ruin the moment. I’ve seen a couple people around the room watching us, and when people watch, they listen. When they listen, they talk. When they talk, my dad finds out.
I’m about to say something, but Mila beats me to it.
“You’re invited,” she says. “We’ll have a barbecue and pool party. Won’t we, honey?”
Jesus Christ.I watch Andrew bite back a laugh. He is enjoying this so much.
“Of course, my love. Anything you want,” I answer.
My love?I don’t know where that came from. I’m not a ‘my love’kind of guy. Hell, I’m not a pet name kind of guy. If I was it would bebabyorsweetheart.Butmy love?
I down the rest of my drink, seriously contemplating a second one.
Bianca is beside herself, loving the promise of something a little more domestic as far as Andrew and her are concerned. I’ve wondered if she is interested in more than the occasional wine and dine followed by the walk of shame. Something more consistent could be good for Andrew.
She leans in then, and they kiss. It’s a peck at first, but then it goes deeper. I clear my throat and glance at Mila. She is smiling down at her glass, circling the rim with her finger. I turn in my chair and reach up, pressing the side of my pointer finger to her chin, turning her head to look at me.
Mila’s brown eyes are dark and wild as she gazes up at me. Her lips part as if they know what’s coming. I lean in and pressmy lips to hers. It’s a slow, soft, hot, lazy kiss. No tongue. No urgency. Just contact.
I feel her eyes flutter open as we pull away just enough to look at each other, and a small smirk tugs at the corners of her mouth. I consider doing it again, this time with tongue. I want to taste her. But before I can, music blasts through the speakers, making both of us jump back.
“Here they go,” Andrew shouts over the songBottom’s Upby Trey Songzas it fills the room. We watch as Brynn and her girls hop into the ring for their dance routine. Brynn is in the middle with two girls on either side of her.
“Who’s the new girl?” Andrew asks. “The one in the braids on the end.”
“A temp, probably,” Bianca says.
“They’re looking for a new girl,” Mila says, and we all look at her.
“What? Brynn and I are friends.”
Friends.Right. I know they worked together, but Brynn and Mila are not friends as far as I know. Brynn doesn’t have any real friends.
We watch as they do their dance, a two song routine. But as they transition from one song to the next, Brynn steps to the edge of the ring so a couple guys with fists full of dollar bills can shove them in her shorts. One guy makes a show of giving her a hundred-dollar bill, and she blows him a kiss. When she turns to walk back to the center of the ring, she rolls her ankle.
“Oh shit!” Andrew says. The girls all hover over her, but Brynn swats them away with a forced smile that is more of a grimace. Then the medic who is on site for the fighters hops onto thestage. He helps Brynn out of the ring, leaving the other girls standing there awkwardly as song two,Tipsyby J-Kwon, starts to play.
“They don’t know what to do without their queen bee,” Andrew says with amusement in his voice as he reaches for his drink.
“That’s because she’s the lead dancer,” Mila says, and I turn to look at her. But Mila stands up, and before I can ask where she is going, she dashes off towards the ring.
“Where’s she going?” Andrew asks.
“I don’t–” I shake my head, and then Bianca gasps and smiles.
“She’s going to dance,” she points.
Sure enough, Mila is ducking through the ropes and taking front and center. A moment later, she falls into step, executing the routine as if she knows it by heart, as if she’s done it a hundred times before.
“What the hell?” Andrew asks.
“Get it girl!” Bianca shouts.
What the hellis right. All I can do is watch as she leads the other girls in the dance, smoking Brynn at her own routine.
Andrew leans in close enough that only I can hear him. “Sexy waitress, sexy maid, sexy fake girlfriend and now…sexy dancer. Who knew?” he nudges me.
