Page 15 of Fire
Vi
ZARA HAZEL VALENTINE.
Me
I may have run into a guy I knew from college.
Vi
And…
Me
And we’re on our way to a bar.
Vi
Okay, read these words very carefully. Are you paying attention?
Me
Vi
Don’t make me full-name you again…
Me
Yes, I’m listening.
Vi
You’re single now. Act like it.
Also, I won’t be home tonight. Plan accordingly.
I stare at the screen and blink.
Does she expect me to take him home to…?
My stomach flutters with nerves, or maybe it’s anticipation? He made plenty of jokes about us hooking up in college, but that’s all they were. He never meant anything by it.
Surely, this grown-up version of Hendrix isn’t thinking that we could…
I think back to the way he blatantly checked me out in the hallway, how his eyes lingered on the curve of my hips, my bare legs, and my breasts.
Okay, so maybe it’s crossed his mind. And he did leave the party with me.
“So what bar are we actually headed to?” I ask, realizing we never really discussed specifics. I was just so relieved to leave that party—and Tanner—that I basically leaped into his car. He could be taking me anywhere.
“Only the best bar on the West Coast.”
“And that would be?”
“My family’s bar. Obviously.”
I raise my eyebrows. “You’re taking me to your family’s bar? Trying to show off, Jimi?”
He scoffs. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t call me that after I earned my first A?”
