Chapter 11
Ryan
I already knew I had no idea what I was doing, but it really set in one shower later, once I got into the club alongside Brooklyn, the music making my head rattle as we pushed through one room after another to get to the promised alternative section, where I’d never seen so many tattoos or so many heads of brightly colored hair in one place in my life.
“Wow,” I said, sticking close to her side. Brooklyn grinned my way.
“Don’t tell me you’re new to clubbing in general.”
“I’ve done it before, but, uh, I was twenty-one and a little drunk. What do I… do?”
She laughed, eyes sparkling at me. “Do I have to teach you how to flirt, Ryan?”
She’d been teaching me plenty about that already. I hadn’t realized how little… spark, chemistry, flirtation there had been between me and Shane until I was here. Brooklyn and I had already flirted more than Shane and I ever had, and I was getting addicted. I huffed. “It’s just… I don’t know how to… with a girl… like, how do you even start it? Do you just walk up and say hi, are you gay? ”
She snorted. “We might want to try something subtler,” she said, guiding me past the crowds and towards the bar. I caught a good number of people looking our way, although I assumed most of them were looking at Brooklyn, who was—well, she looked good.
I felt generic in a little black dress, while Brooklyn was here with loose ripped jeans and combat boots, a fitted crop top that didn’t cover much more than her sports bra had, and with a few swipes of mascara and an expertly done smoky eye, she looked… I didn’t know why I was being coy. She was blazingly hot.
“Approaching a girl’s no different from approaching a guy,” she said, once we’d gotten to the bar and she’d ordered a couple of drinks for us. “Still the same idea. Try to find something about them that catches your attention, an outfit or a tattoo or their hair, say hi and express what you like about their style, their energy, whatever. You have an easy bonus here, because everyone’s a tourist, so you can ask how long they’ve been here, where they’re from, what they’ve been doing here and what they’re hoping to do, easy conversation starters. Go in without expectations and see where it goes—you’ll have some swings and misses, and that’s a good thing, help you filter out the ones you actually don’t want to talk to. Don’t go in trying to make them like you, just go in trying to learn enough about them to figure out if you like them. Even for a casual fling, you don’t want it to be with someone whose energy you don’t like. Ask questions, establish common ground, express interest clearly but without pushing.”
“Uh-huh…” I nodded, blinking fast.
“If it goes well, they might ask you if you want to get out of here, head somewhere else. It’s okay to say yes if you want to, just text me if you do so I know what’s happening and who you’re going with, so I can make sure you’re okay. It’s also okay to say no if you’re not feeling it. If you are feeling it, you can also ask them if they want to get out and head somewhere else. Don’t make it weird if they say no. And finally…” She relaxed against the bar, arms spread out over the bar surface on either side as the bartender set our drinks down, calling Brooklyn by name while handing her drink over. She took the drink with a sweet smile his way and sipped it, turning back to me. “Don’t settle for someone just because she’s interested. Respect yourself.”
“This is a lot to take in.”
“It’s just flirting. Not something I can really explain. But all evidence suggests to me that you’re damn good at it.”
I felt my face flame up, and part of me wondered if I could just… she clearly liked a casual hookup. And I was wondering more and more if she might have actually been interested in me. I didn’t doubt for a second she’d show me exactly what a woman could do.
But—I guess it boiled down to that I was scared of rejection. She and her friends were the only good things on this trip now, and I didn’t want to ruin it by asking her to… to… take me to bed? Was I really out here fantasizing about Brooklyn fucking me right after my boyfriend had tried to cheat on me with her?
Shane and I had less and less in common since my career change, but apparently being desperately horny for Brooklyn Sterling was one point we were united on.
I relaxed against the bar with her, trying to look casual. “Try not to flirt with me while you’re telling me to go flirt with someone else.”
She wasn’t through with me, because she winked. “Been trying not to flirt with you this whole time, Ryan.”
“Ah… uh…” That didn’t bode well on my flirting game. She laughed, nodding to the room.
“So? Any girls in here catch your eye?”
Ugh—I needed someone else. Something else. Anyone else. I scanned the crowd and found my eyes fall on a girl with a leather jacket and tall boots, a tattoo on the side of her neck, bright-red hair and a lip piercing. If she didn’t like women, the world was going to stop turning. “Her? Red hair, leather jacket…”
“Huh. That’s your type?”
“I dunno.” She was just the first woman I’d picked out as probably being attracted to women. She was pretty, sure, and logically my brain registered that she had a perfect face shape in profile, lips like an artwork, but… emotionally, the best thing I could pull up in support of her was that her style kind of reminded me of Brooklyn’s. “I guess so,” I said, and Brooklyn elbowed me playfully.
“Well, what are you waiting for, then? Go say hi. Tell her you’ve never been with a girl and you want someone to show you what it’s like. Just… not as the first thing you say.” She winked.
Ugh. I needed her to stop winking at me. And to start wearing a real shirt! How the hell was I supposed to flirt with another woman when she was out here like… like… like that?
“All right, all right. I’m going. Try not to spend the whole time just thinking of me.”
“I will. Take it or leave it.”
Dammit, there was no getting past her. I took my drink from the bartender and walked towards the girl in question, feeling like I’d forgotten how to move my body and use words. The girl was by herself—should have been an easy in. And yet I felt like the weight of the world was up against me.
I’d done this kind of thing before—going up to strangers and introducing myself to ask questions and get to know them. I just had to see it as an interview with a potential lead. I let out a long breath before I slipped in next to her, catching her eye with a smile. She returned the smile, eyes gleaming. Light eyes. Like Brooklyn’s. Christ, I wasn’t supposed to be thinking of her right now.
“Hey there,” I said. “Do you mind if I stand here a bit, try not to get trampled on the floor for a second?”
“Have at it.” She had a deep voice, a little raspy. “Cute dress.”
“Thanks. It was on clearance at Zara.” I tugged at the hem a little. “It’s not exactly the style of the place here, but it was the best I had. You’re clearly much more… suited.”
She grinned, leaning against the wall. “Getting out of your comfort zone?”
“You could say that. What’s your name?”
“Carmen. And you?”
“Ryan.”
“Nice to meet you, Ryan. What’s prompted you to get out of your comfort zone?”
I didn’t know why the hell I told the truth. “My boyfriend cheated on me as soon as we arrived for vacation with my family, so I dumped him, my family took his side, and now I’m off to explore my repressed sexuality.”
She whistled low. “Hell of a story. Guess I’m glad you’re… bouncing back?”
“Yeah, well—it’s thanks to Brooklyn.” God, I wasn’t supposed to be talking about Brooklyn. “She’s, uh—she’s actually the one he tried to cheat with,” I said, trying to explain as if that made it better—I just didn’t want it sitting out there like Brooklyn was just some hot girl I couldn’t stop thinking about. So I dug my grave further. “She found out he had a girlfriend, so she came and told me about it, and, uh… well, she’s been kind of looking after me. Let me stay the night at her place instead of staying with my ex. She’s a regular here, so she, uh… she took me here.” I normally knew how to talk to strangers. I seemed to have lost that ability.
Carmen grinned, staring wordlessly at me for some time, before, lightly, she said, “So Brooklyn’s showing you how to hook up with a girl.”
“It’s not like that.” I mean, it was. I just wasn’t supposed to be leading like that. I wasn’t trying to go up to a girl in a club and say hey, wanna fuck like some kind of creep. Though I guess it was what I was after… ostensibly? I didn’t want to sleep with Carmen. The thought felt gross. “I just told her, you know… I never really got the chance to be with a woman in my regular life, so while I was on vacation… I mean, I guess the answer’s yes, it is like that.”
“Girl, you want to sleep with Brooklyn. Just say it with your chest.”
I put a hand to my forehead, leaning against the wall with her, groaning. “I thought I’d be able to do this better.”
“You’re cute, but I’m not looking to be someone’s distraction. She’s straight?”
“She’s very definitely not.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Not interested in you?”
“I don’t… know.” I fussed with the drink in my hands. “She’s definitely out of my league. And it feels a little weird that my boyfriend tried to sleep with her and now I want to, uh…”
I didn’t know what temperature my face was. Someone needed to tell the physicists, because I think I could have jumpstarted nuclear fusion. Carmen grinned wider, clearly having the time of her life with this. I think she was enjoying my breakdown over nothing more than she ever would have enjoyed hooking up with me. “And now you want to sleep with her?”
“Well.”
She laughed. “Shy, huh? Not repressing your sexuality anymore probably goes hand in hand with sleeping with women. Kind of the whole deal.”
“I’ve just been a bit… proper, maybe. For quite some time.”
“Is Brooklyn here?”
I answered her question with a glance across the club, to where I got a stomach-stabbing spike of jealousy seeing Brooklyn at the bar laughing it up with a tall, cute blonde who I suddenly despised with every fiber of my being. “She’s, uh,” I managed to say. “She’s the one with the dark bob, crop top… over with the blonde girl.”
“Shit, I can see why you want to try hooking up with a girl when she’s the one around.”
Jealousy spike number two. This was… unbecoming of me. I wanted to go pick up Brooklyn and carry her out of here. Still, I sighed with a lopsided smile at Carmen, relaxing back against the wall. “You see what I mean.”
She looked me over. “Don’t count yourself out, though. You’re not too bad to look at, yourself.”
“I don’t think I’m hideous, but I’m certainly not Brooklyn Sterling.”
She laughed. “Ah, you’re such a lesbian.”
“I’m bisexual.”
“You’re such a sapphic. You can have literally the hottest girl in the world look at a woman and be like oh, shit, she’s too pretty for me. She’s hot, but I’m pretty sure she’s so out of your league to you because you’re into her. Bet you she feels the same way about you. It’s just a vacation. Can’t hurt to ask, right?”
“Brooklyn took me here to help me hook up with a girl, not… not the other way around.”
She grinned. “Yeah, well, you’re looking across the floor like you want to have that blonde girl’s guts for garters as long as she keeps talking to Brooklyn, so I think it’s settled science that you want to fuck Brooklyn. Go try it out.”
“She and her friend are, like… the only people I have around here,” I mumbled. “I wouldn’t be able to look her in the eye if she turned me down.”
“Yeah, you would. Sounds like Brooklyn’s a professional. If she’s a regular here, she’s probably turned down girls a million times and knows how to not freak out or make it awkward. Worst case scenario is that she says no and makes a note what your type is and helps you find a girl like her. Best case scenario, of course, is that she makes you absolutely lose your fucking mind in bed tonight.”
I busied myself with a long sip of my drink, trying not to think of Brooklyn, uh, well, making me lose my fucking mind in bed. The problem was just that trying not to think of something inevitably made you think of it, so, well—I thought of Brooklyn in bed. I felt a little quivery in my stomach at the thought, and not at all in a bad way. “You’re very forward,” I said.
She laughed. “Ah, what the hell, you know? We all know what we’re here for. You want to get laid. Specifically with her. No sense beating around the bush. Now go get your girl.”
“She’s—” I gestured vaguely in Brooklyn’s direction. “She’s busy with another girl right now.”
“Yeah, because you won’t make it clear what you want. C’mon, I’m invested in your story now. Don’t let me down.”
Well, I didn’t want to let her down. Ugh. Dammit. I hated that the blonde girl talking to her should have been my reason not to approach Brooklyn but was instead ninety percent of the reason I felt like I needed to march across this club right now and walk Brooklyn out of here.
When I got back across the club to Brooklyn, she turned to me with a curious smile, setting her empty glass down. “Didn’t pan out?”
“Nah, not this time,” I said, trying to keep it light. “She was sweet, though, just… I dunno, wasn’t feeling it.”
“That’s your gut speaking. I’m glad you listened to it. It’s almost always right. So, onto the next one?” she said, a teasing tone in her voice that I didn’t want to try working out the meaning of, and I shrugged.
“Feel like I exerted myself a lot more than I did. I’ll just stand over here for a bit before I get back to it. Unless you, ah, you and your friend want some time alone? I can leave you to it.”
Brooklyn grinned, looking between me and the blonde girl before—Brooklyn stepped closer to her side, putting a hand on her back, and I felt it like a punch to the gut. “You don’t need to leave,” she laughed. “Cici is a sweetheart.”
Cici was my worst enemy. I forced a smile her way. “Hi—sorry if I’m getting in the way of anything. It’s nice to meet you.” My voice came out as pointed as I felt, which was infinitely more than I should have been right now. Cici laughed, tossing a perfect lock of stupid blonde hair over her shoulder.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” she said, her voice deep and warm. So that was Brooklyn’s type, not my stupid airy voice I’d tried to fix so people would take me more seriously. Ugh. “So you’re Brooklyn’s friend?”
“Best friend, mm-hm,” I said playfully, trying to give her a casual smile that hid my murderous intent. I don’t think it worked. “We just met and now she can’t carry on without me.”
Brooklyn smiled wider at me. I couldn’t read that playful look on her features. “She’s a great friend,” she said, not taking her eyes off me. “So, what didn’t you like about the redhead?”
Who? Oh. Right. I shrugged. “Just didn’t click. It’s natural, right? Or can you not help clicking with everybody you see?”
Brooklyn laughed lightly, a glance Cici’s way. My throat felt tight, and it only got worse when she said, “I click with a girl pretty easily…”
I forced a smile, standing up taller. I wanted to throw up. Partly because I was jealous and partly because I hated how jealous I was. “Going to at least wait until I turn away to start flirting with another girl?”
“When I’m this irresistible?” Cici said, and I hated her.
“Don’t worry,” Brooklyn said. “I’m not shy. Unless you’re getting jealous?”
I raised my eyebrows high in an attempt at casual, probably the worst attempt at anything. “Jealous? No… Cici’s pretty, but she’s not really my type.”
Cici laughed—a short, sharp laugh, and then she hung her head, bursting out in laughter. “Relax, honey,” she said. “I’m not stealing your girl. Brooklyn and I are old friends.”
“Oh—” I felt my face burn, suddenly dizzy, and Brooklyn rolled her eyes with an exasperated smile, elbowing Cici in the side.
“Busting my cover. I was enjoying seeing how jealous she got.”
“I wasn’t—” Oh, god, I was going to die. Cici grinned my way.
“Brooklyn was talking about you,” she said, her voice low, as she pushed past Brooklyn towards the other end of the bar. “Okay, BB, I should probably clock in. Have fun.”
“Uh…” My head was spinning. Right. Cici was just… one of her bartender friends. I shot Brooklyn a look once Cici was gone. “You pull that with everybody?”
She smiled wider, leaning back against the bar. “So, Cici’s not your type?”
“She’s… I’m not flirting with her,” I said. She flashed white teeth in a grin.
“You figured out your type, then.”
Oh, god, she had me laid out like a map. I flushed furiously, looking away. “I wasn’t… uh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“No, I should be the one to apologize. I just couldn’t help it. A little revenge.”
“Revenge?” I raised my eyebrows at her, thrown off enough that I forgot to be embarrassed. Her smile turned into something dangerous, a glint in her eyes, and my stomach dropped out when she swiped her tongue quickly over one corner of her lips.
“I was a little jealous watching you chat with the redhead.”
“Oh…” I felt my face burn, my breath suddenly short. Brooklyn smiled wider, eyes searching me, before she pushed off from the bar, holding a hand out towards me.
“Club’s a place to dance,” she said. “Join me?”
Oh, god, she wanted me too. Oh, Jesus. My heart took off beating a mile a minute, suddenly back to what Carmen had said about the best-case scenario. Was that—were we on a countdown tonight until she was—
I wasn’t scared of getting what I wanted. I pushed out a breath, and I took her hand. “Never been much of a dancer,” I said, stepping close to her. “If you want to show me…”
She bit her lip, a flash there in her eyes. “I’ll show you all you like,” she said, her voice low and husky, and it gave me chills in every part of my body.
Fuck me, I was doing this.