Page 15 of Never Date A Player
Our waitress thunks the first of three glasses on the table. “Kamikazes from the gentlemen two tables over.”
My head tracks the descent of each shot. “More?” Definitely slurring. “You’re gonna have to carry me out, and it’s won’t be pretty. Both of you are shorter.”
Mira and Nessa exchange a look and smile. Nessa giggles.
My mouth fills with acid and Chambord as I eye the potent beverage in my hand. “I don’t know if I can do another.” Have I uttered those words in my life?
“Oh, come on. Don’t be a weakass.” Mira seems almost sober, but she can’t be. She’s had as much to drink as I have.
“I’ll do another if you do,” Nessa says.
How does she do it? Something’s not right here. “Nessa, you’re so little, I could bench-press you… if I bench-pressed… or went to the gym. Gym’s not my thing. I’d rather run or hike—be outside, as long as there aren’t bugs… or mountain lions… Wait—what were we talking about? Oh yeah, another shot. K—but we have to take an Uber home. I can’t drive.”
Mira shoves a drink at me. Didn’t I just pound one? What happened to hers? Is that two in front of me? “I arranged for someone to pick us up,” she says.
Nessa and I look at each other, then Mira. “You did?” we say in unison.
“Who?” Nessa asks.
“Don’t worry about it. I called a few minutes ago when I went to the bathroom. They’ll be here soon. That is, unless you guys want to stay and party?” She eyes me.
I’m not the one whipping my hair around, flagging men. I’ve had too much to drink, and I lost track of my best friend. Speaking of… “You guys see Cali anywhere?”
Nessa shakes her head. Mira gazes away, as if she might help me look, but her focus settles instead on the entrance of the club.
No way am I leaving without Cali. I reach for my phone to call her and see a text. It’s from Cali and she says she’s getting a ride from a coworker.
I guess that’s okay. At least she knows her driver. I have no idea who Mira finagled to pick us up.
Two guys in designer jeans, black T-shirts, and shiny blazers walk toward us. I’m freaking praying they’re not our ride. They each have short hair, and paired with the club jackets, they’re like twinsies, though one is distinctly better looking than the other.
Nessa giggles. “Mira, your suitors are on their way. Guess they got tired of waiting for an invitation.”
Nessa is sloshed. She’s a giggler drunk.
Mira flashes the men a flirty smile. “How do you know they’re coming for me?”
The men look to be around forty, and even if I’m being conservative, a twenty-year age gap is a bit pervy.
“Oh, I have a hunch.” Nessa nudges me in the ribs and I catch myself before I fall out of the booth. “Besides, they’re staring at you.”
The creepers take each of us in. The one with thinning hair, a tan line on his ring finger, and white loafers that clash spectacularly with his midnight-blue blazer, slides in beside Mira. “Mind if we join you?”
I shrink in my seat, attempting to hide, but the cute creeper with blond hair, beard stubble, and laugh lines around his eyes squishes in next to me. He’s on my left, and Nessa and Mira block me on the right.
Cute Creeper’s cologne is so strong my eyes water. The scent combined with too much alcohol causes nausea to roil through my stomach. “Mira, when’s our ride coming?”
“In a minute.” She leans on her forearms, thrusting her small, pert breasts into White Loafers’s vision. His gaze homes in like a laser.
Cute Creeper chats my ear off for the next ten minutes. I get by with minimal articulation, managing to breathe out of my mouth instead of my nose, until he decides to touch me.
He runs his fingers through my hair. “How is your hair so shiny?”
Eeew. I take a slow, steady breath, the cologne assaulting my senses because I forgot to breath out of my mouth, and try to ignore the hand making another pass at my scalp?—
Mira looks past our table, a smug expression crossing her face. “Our ride is here.”
I lean to the side, attempting to disentangle Cute Creeper’s fingers, and glance at the entrance. Lewis’s gaze flickers between me and Cute Creeper, his nostrils flaring.
