Page 57 of Love Bank
I handed the alcohol off, minus one longneck beer, in the heap with all the other bottles collected from eager partygoers. I’d learned it was an unspoken rule around here that alcohol was your ticket into a group bonfire.
Titus waved wildly from across the fire, his long arms making a spectacle of his hello. I swiveled my head but didn’t see Lucy anywhere. Titus walked around the fire quickly, clapping me on the back, a big grin on his face.
“Hey, bro. Glad you could make it.”
“Almost didn’t recognize you over there, what with the wind rippling through your long hair. Thought there was a new girl in town.” I nudged him with my elbow, knowing he’d take my teasing in the spirit it was intended.
“That’s cold, man. I invite you into my circle of friends and what do you do? Make fun of an innovator. Mark my words, the mullet is coming back in style. I’m leading the way and you’ll be nothing but a follower.” Titus was smiling, but there was a determined gleam in his eye that made me think he was serious underneath all the bluster.
I shrugged and pulled my black and gray flannel tighter around me. The sweat from earlier was definitely gone, leaving me cold out in the late night chill.
“Okay, man, I’ll take your word for it.” I leaned closer, dropping my voice. “You got any married friends around here you can introduce me to?”
Titus pulled back, his face crunched up comically. “Uh, no. Well, I mean, Principal Ratchet is married and he’s pretty chill, but he married one of his former students, so I don’t know if he can really offer sound advice, you know what I mean?”
I had taken a sip of beer while Titus answered me in a vain attempt to appear laid-back when I felt anything but calm. Principal Ratchet’s situation made me almost choke.
“He married a former student?”
Titus crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, dude. It was hella shady at the time, but they’ve been married two years now. Looks like it’s gonna work out for ’em.” His face cleared and he looked back at me, confusion and curiosity winning out over manners. “Why do you want a married person? You thinking of getting married or something?”
I choked again, putting my beer bottle down on the concrete ring edging the bonfire for safety’s sake. “Jesus. Warn a guy before you ask those kind of questions. No, I’m not getting married. Just wanted some girl advice from someone who wasn’t a jackass.”
Titus dropped his arms and stepped back, his mouth agape. I could hear Rip chuckling behind me in his low-slung chair.
“What the fuck, man? You need girl advice, I got you.”
“Oh, really? All these fine-ass women around and not one of them is spoken for. Then how come you ain’t tapping Amelia or Lenora or even Hazel yet, huh?”
Out of nowhere Rip kicked the back of my knee, nearly toppling me. Only a pussy took a guy out with a damn knee kick while still lounging in a beach chair. I regained my footing and spun to glare at him. He glared right back.
“Careful with your mouth, newbie.”
I put my hands up, not intending to start a fight. “No offense. Both of you. I just don’t think asking for advice from you two, who are determined to remain single despite gorgeous women all around you, is a good strategy. That’s all.”
Rip made a wide arc in the air with his empty beer bottle. “It’s not that we don’t know what we’re doing and that’s why we’re single. We’re just waiting for the right time to make our move. There’s wisdom in waiting, my friend.”
I thought there was wisdom in not letting Rip have anything else to drink tonight. Time to placate and move on from this conversation. But first, I had to get one last shot in. “Okay, gotcha. Just as long as that waiting doesn’t turn into letting another man slide right in and steal her out from under your nose.”
Rip pinned me with a glare that could have turned me to ash had I not been used to massive attitude from hardened criminals over the years.
Titus clapped me on the back again, taking my attention away from Rip. “Look, you want help wooing Lucille, we’ll help you. I got ideas, man. Just call me the Idea Man.”
He waggled his eyebrows and I groaned inside. I didn’t want one-liners to get in Lucy’s pants. I was in there already. I wanted into her brain and her heart. I wanted to be the first thing she thought of in the morning and the last person she touched before she fell asleep at night. I wanted all her sass and every laugh wrenched out of her when she was trying to be serious. I wanted a million little augments with her, just to talk to her a little longer. I wanted to see her try to stare down a seagull before running scared and hiring a retired cat for protection. She was crazy and I wanted all that crazy for myself.
A collective cheer went up from the crowd. I blinked, pulling myself from my daydreams again, only to see the object of my desire sauntering into the group, flanked by her new friends. Lucy had on a ripped pair of blue jeans, tighter than good health and circulation called for, a black tank top, and hoop earrings. Her eyes sparkled as she laughed with her friends. She was happy. Then she scanned the crowd, pausing on me. A little wink and she’d moved on, accepting a beer and toasting her friends.
“Oh, man, you got it bad, brother.” Titus whacked me on the back and walked away, laughing like the jackass he was. Fucker in a mullet was laughing atme? That shit was messed up.
Amelia walked by and gave me a saucy smile. “How goes it, City Boy?”
I pretended to take offense by glaring at her. She just tilted her head back and laughed, moving on to find a beer in the messy pile.
Then everything faded into the background as Lucy was next to me, her blonde hair brushing against me as she leaned close. A small whiff of her perfume hit me and I wanted to be anywhere but here. I needed her naked and spread out in front of me, begging for me to contort her into another position while I plunged into her soft body like the lovesick fool I’d become.
“Warden. How’s it hangin’?” Lucy popped her hip and bumped me.
She was adorable when she was trying to play it cool.
