Page 40 of Elusion

Gavin’s finishing up his meet-and-greet when I look over. He gives me an approval nod. For some reason, his acknowledgment of how attractive the girl I’m working desperately not to screw things up with doesn’t help my current situation.

Aware that any attempt to talk to Callie will lead to incoherency, I concentrate on my water glass. Conversations occur around me, and I engage only when necessary. All my focus centers on not gawking at the beautiful girl sitting next to me.

The ice cubes melt. I check the time. A quarter to ten. Almost there.

Benji kicks the chair next to me before sitting down. His arm hooks around my neck, his expression anything but friendly. “Let’s go talk or kick your ass or whatever.”

At first, I’m not sure what he means, but my eyes dart to Callie, her jaw set. Fuck. How long has she been upset with me? Benji doesn’t give me time to find out before removing me from the chair. He, less than gently, escorts me through the crowd to the hall leading to the men’s room.

He pushes me in and slams my shoulders against a wall. “I remember warning you that I’d kick your ass if you fucked this up.”

I shake my head at how severely he’s misreading the situation, but he’s not done yet.

“Birthday or not. Drunk or not. I’m not letting you treat Calico like this.”

I shove him off. “I’m far from drunk.” I spread my feet shoulder-width apart and extend my arm out before touching my nose. The grout lines on the tile assist me in further proving my sobriety, and I walk heel to toe to the opposite wall and back. “See? Sober as a questionable judge.”

“Then I really see no reason not to kick your ass. What the hell are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” I admit.

“Well, figure it out. She bailed on whatever she had going on to be here.”

“That’s the problem. I need her tonotbe here. I want her here, but I can’t be with her. Not until tomorrow…” I abandon my impossible-to-follow rambling.

Benji slaps his hands on my shoulders and surprises me when he jostles me around. “When did you hit zero, man?” His question only adds to my confusion, and he chuckles. “The other day, on the drive home, Calico said all this was to sleep with her.”

“She what?”

“I told her it might have started out that way, but you were about five seconds away from admitting you wanted to be with her.”

“You what?”

The longest five seconds in the history of the world. Callie’s question about whether I want more. Both she and Benji knew the answer before I figured it out. She’s been waiting for me to catch up, and then I act like she doesn’t matter when she shows up.

Tool of the Year Award goes to Jordan Waters.

Thank you for coming, everyone. Please drive safe.

“Yeah, Benj, I screwed up. I’ve convinced myself, if I tell her how I feel before the deadline, I’ll change my mind about wanting to be with her and bail.”

Benji grips my jaw with one hand, squeezing my cheeks together. “Why does the girl you’ve been trying to trick into sleeping with you have more faith in you than you do in yourself?”

“Because I always sheem tolet eryone down and uin errhing,” I say.

Benji’s still smashing my face, but he seems to get the point. “Then do better.” He tosses my head to the side and taps my cheek. “It’s time to man up, son.”

The guy has found his calling as a life coach or something. I nod as he walks away and take a deep, centering breath. It does nothing to prepare me for what I need to do now—trust myself—but it’s time to do it anyway.

Callie’s nowhere around when I return. I glance around the bar for her.

“Waters,” Johnny shouts over the noise from the other side of the table. “Did you tell your girl what I said about her ass or what?”

I shake my head. “I would never repeat such a crude comment to someone.”

“Well, you must have done something.” Gavin offers me a beer, but I push it away. “She left.”

“What?” My eyes snap to the empty chair-back, previously occupied by Callie’s coat.

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