Sixteen
Zamir
"You know, guys don'tlike when girls wear that much makeup. Natural is so much better," a guy who needed some manners said as he eyed Sofia, and I narrowed my eyes. Nolan grabbed my hand before I could give the guy a good talking-to, and shook his head.
Sofia, on the other hand, smirked as she leaned over the counter, her smoky eyeshadow making her eyes pop. "Well, I wear makeup for myself and women, and if it keeps pests like you away, then that's a bonus, isn't it?"
The man watched her with a stupefied look, then turned red, mumbled something that sounded an awful lot like, "Fuck you, bitch," and stalked away.
Sofia grinned at Nolan, who shook his head. I, on the other hand, was thoroughly impressed.
Closing the distance between us, I grabbed her hands and squeezed lightly, careful of her fragile human bones. "You're awesome. Can we be friends?"
A delighted laugh spilled from her lips, and she nodded, her eyes flicking from me to Nolan. "I can see now how you managed to get him to take multiple days off in a week," she joked, and Nolan rolled his eyes, then turned away, as if he wanted no part of this conversation.
"I have my ways," I said with a chuckle, and she shot me a knowing look.
"I'd love to be friends, Zamir. This one always rejects my invites, but maybe you can change his mind. A few friends and I are going camping this weekend. We do stuff like that often. Would you like to come?"
I blinked, surprised by the invite. And why did Nolan say no?
I glanced back at him, brow raised, and he shrugged. "Whatever you want."
"Damn, I gotta get myself a mate," Sofia mumbled, and my gaze snapped back to hers.
"You know about mates?"
She smiled. "My stepdad's a shifter. Anyway, what do you think? Camping?"
"It sounds like fun." It did sound like fun. From my childhood, the thing I'd missed the most—other than my father when he wasn't trying to feed me—was living out in nature. While the Forest was similar, we still had houses and all the necessities, so it wasn't the same.
"Awesome! Give me your number, and I'll text you the details."
We swapped numbers, and then Sofia went back to work as I stood leaning against the counter, and watched the crowd bustle around. The view from back here was much different, and I wondered if I'd be able to convince Nolan to dance with me at some point.
He checked in with me between taking orders and serving drinks, and I liked watching him work.
When we first got together, Nolan had told me he'd cut himself off from people because he couldn't handle losing another person he cared about, and yet I didn't think he had. Not truly.
He shared a closeness with Sofia that went further than a simple boss/employee relationship, and he'd spent a few minutes chatting with the bouncer—a shifter dude I now suspected was Sofia's stepdad—when we first got here. He'd chosen a profession that involved meeting and chatting with new people every day.
Nolan was as far from being cut off, and he simply didn't see it. It was sweet, in a way. His heart was too big for him to keep it closed, and while I didn't doubt his many losses hadn't hurt, I also knew he was stronger than he believed himself to be.
"Can I buy you a drink?"
I blinked, then realized the man seated on the stool across the counter had said that to me. He smiled at me, all charming and bright, and I raised a brow at him. "You're asking me?"
"You are the hottest man around, so yeah," he said, and I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut, unsure how to respond.
It turned out I didn't need to answer him at all because Nolan swooped in—wasn't he at the other end of the counter when I last looked up?—and slid his arm around my waist, turning me so my back was to the flirty human. With his other hand, he tilted my chin up, then placed a long, claiming kiss on my lips. My legs went shaky as I clung to him and kissed back, as the loud music, the people's voices, the scent of sweat and peanuts andthe sharp tang of alcohol disappeared into nothingness until all I could feel, hear, smell, and touch was Nolan.
When we separated, it took me a moment to remember where we were. I slid my fingers through my hair as Nolan stepped back, winked at me, and went over to serve a different customer. I glanced over at Sofia. Her face was red, her lips pressed together in a thin line, and for a moment I wondered if she was flustered by our display, but then she cracked up, and I realized she'd been trying to hold back her laughter.
"Oh my God," she gasped out as she bent over, clutching the counter with one hand, her belly with the other as she tried to catch her breath. "I've never ever seen Nolan act like that."
I smiled, sheepish, and discovered the man who'd been flirting with me had quietly slid away at some point. "Uh..."
Sofia shook her head, then stood up straight, her smile softening. "I'm glad. Nolan's been alone for way too long. You're good for him."
