Page 54 of Reignite

“Angelina, I’ve convinced her. Nessie’s coming to the club for BBW night this evening. It’s her birthday.”

“Danica?” I don’t know who I was expecting to be on the phone.

“You have to make sure Cade is there to meet her.” Dani was way too giddy for the butt-crack of dawn.

“I do?”

“Yes, he’s been sulking since he broke it off with Lizzie. He hasn’t been coming to the club half as often as he used to. But if you come tonight, no way he can stay away.”

Oh, right. Danica was becoming a kinky matchmaker. “I was planning on coming in tonight anyway.”

“Sweet. I can hardly wait. I think these two are going to hit it off from the get go.”

I fumbled for the covers wanting to pull them over my head. Sink back into oblivion for a little while longer.

Go on.

Move on.

“Jim is picking me up tonight to bring me. I guess I can ask Cade to meet me there.”

“That would be perfect. See you tonight.”

It was nice and all that Dani was having fun dragging this friend of hers into the kink scene. Was she avoiding her own love life by interfering with others'? Probably, and it sounded like a great plan to me.

I dressed that night in a little black dress. It was understated compared to what I usually wore to the club, but infinitely dressier than the SpongeBob pajama pants I’d been wearing for weeks. I added some black leather heels with silver spikes across the toe to spice it up.

I let my hair fall around my shoulders and kept my make-up to mascara and some lip gloss. Even that felt heavy after months of nothing.

“Angelina?” Jim called my name from the living room. Hewas right on time to pick me up. Unfortunately. But I guess that’s why I asked him to come in the first place.

He rushed into the bedroom and looked around, even checked my closet. A pang of heartache threatened me with tears. I saw so much of Gray in those actions.

“Your front door was unlocked. Scared the shit out of me.”

“Sorry.” My mind just wasn’t bothered by stuff like that anymore.

He escorted me to his car and held the door open for me. “Doll. You look great. Very sophisticated.”

More sophisticated than dirty yellow pajamas. “You’re being nice.”

He shook his head at me. “That’s not how I earned the nickname Jackass, so no. I’m not. You do look good.”

I guess I’d take the compliment.

“Ready?”

“No. Let’s go anyway. Cade will be waiting.”

I did my best to hide the hyperventilating and the pound pound pounding of my heart as we walked into the club. Jim wasn’t dumb though, and poured me a drink as soon as we hit the bar. A pretty young waitress I didn’t recognize brought it over.

Jim introduced us. “Angelina, this is Amanda. She’s our new waitress. Works the floor mostly.”

I nodded and tried to smile. It might have come across more as a grimace. I wasn’t sure. My face wasn’t used to much besides a sad face these days. “Nice to meet you, Amanda. Welcome to Devils and Angels.”

“Thanks. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the job.” She set the glass in front of me and I stared at it for far too long.

Gray had taken a liking to a local distillery called Peach Street. He’d had Jim keep a bottle of their finest just for him behind the bar. Looked to me like no one else had touched it. I guess it was mine now.

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