12. Libby #2
Tink’s eyes meet mine as I approach. I don’t actually hate the woman. She’s beautiful, witty, and kind. I’m just super jealous of the body she was born with, and possibly, just a tiny bit, of the man she married.
This club can take about three hundred or so people before the regulators start sniffing around for fire violations, and right now, there’s only about a hundred and fifty total, on both levels. About thirty of those are up here, twenty or so in the booths, which leaves the remaining ten at the bar.
I slide onto an empty stool beside the guy I’ve been sent to watch, and bring my glass of water up to sip.
“Hey there, Tate.” Tink steps forward and slaps a napkin down by my hand so I can use it as a coaster. “Need a refill?”
“Nah.” I set my glass down and take a look around. “How is everything?”
She purses her lips and glances to my right when the man sniffles and bumps my shoulder with his.
“It’s going okay. We’ve had to eject a few too many people tonight.
There might be a full moon or something.
I dunno what kinda crazy is in the air, but it’s sending me insane.
Aaron here is about ready to pull up stumps and head out. He’s had enough.”
“Not finished,” he slurs. Swinging around with exaggerated movements, his head lolls on his shoulders until our eyes meet.
“My divorce is going to court on Monday. My wife is a fuckin’ bitchhhhh .
” He lets the word roll off his tongue as his eyes swivel.
“She’s the one that cheated, right? She’s fucking my brother.
But now she thinks she can take my kids and make me pay alimony?
Nah…” He turns away and repeats on an obnoxious slur, “ Nahhhhh . It’s not going down like that.
Ya know they have online forums for this shit?
” His eyes come back around to meet mine.
Tink still has to work, so she steps away when called, but her eyes remain on me and my man.
Aaron is oblivious. “I looked online, since she was always doing that when we had the babies. She found moms to talk to about baby shit and room decorations. Well I found a forum for dads who are always getting fucked over in divorce. I know my rights!”
I’m unsure if he knows I’m a cop yet, despite the fact we met when he was arrested for attempted assault on the very wife he loathes, and he’s so spaced out right now, I’m left wondering what drugs those dad forums encouraged him to take.
Alex said Tink cut his alcohol off hours ago, which means there’s more at play, and something other than rum in his blood.
I settle in for a bit, thinking he might literally go to sleep if he sits long enough.
As I settle, I do the thing I do in every room I’m in – I let my eyes wander the space to scout out the exits and the people inside.
More than a hundred people downstairs, thirty up.
Many of the tall tables are occupied, and ten of the twelve booths are filled with couples.
Every single booth shows a pair of sexy heels and long legs, but the bodies attached are hidden by whoever their date is.
Broad backs, strong arms, some have ink, some have shirtsleeves all the way down to their wrists.
The drinks around here are constantly replenished, as long as the customer isn’t messy.
Each table is a mini paradise for the couples while they flirt or talk business, and they leave me with a feeling of loneliness.
I never get to date guys that bring me to one of those booths.
In fact, I never get to date guys that do much of anything except try to grab my body before the appetizers have been served.
This town is pretty slim pickings when it comes to eligible non-fuckwits, and being in law enforcement makes it that much harder.
Or easier, I guess.
These people are on dating websites just like the rest of us thirty-somethings who want to meet someone. But where they have to trust the bio that each user puts up, I can skip through the bullshit and just run their names through the computers at work.
Legal? Not really. But I’ve saved myself from having to eat a meal with men who’ve been charged for bad things in the past. I let many blips pass; speeding ticket, parking violations, even fighting in the street, I’ve been known to shrug about.
But then you find the guys who’ve repeatedly sent other women to the emergency room. Men who’ve served short stints of time for violence. Men who’ve done time for drug-related charges.
I’ve saved myself the effort of finding out once he’s already begun groping.
But because this town is small, and the dating pool is shallow, I continue to end up in Drake’s bed as a way to feel something .
And now I sit beside a man whose bio will pop up in those dating apps soon, he will have forgotten to mention the time he was arrested for nearly beating his wife’s brains open with a baseball bat, he’ll say how his life has gone to shit and it’s entirely her fault.
Perhaps he’ll blame all women, the way some women hate all men because of the actions of their ex.
Tink moves from one end of the bar to the other, doing her job and filling drinks, while the man beside me – Aaron – murmurs his hate for bitches . Other servers take orders from those in the booths, they come back to the bar and fill those orders, and then they deliver the drinks to each table.
It’s on one of those laps that my eyes follow a beer and a tall glass of something bubbly all the way to a booth with long legs and insanely high heels.
The man’s back has been shielding her since I walked in.
He’s one of the men whose sleeves go all the way to his wrists, but when their drinks arrive, he pulls back and watches the server set the glasses down.
Halfway through taking a sip of my water, I choke and sputter as my eyes focus on who owns that broad back.
Theodore Griffin is on a date, and it’s insane how much that annoys me.
He was so fucking insistent on taking me to bed, but so soon after my denials, he’s out with someone else? It shouldn’t bother me. It should almost be a relief to know he’s over that small infatuation and has moved on.
Even if it annoys me that someone else’s legs are almost as long as my body.
Even if it bothers me that her legs are thin and beautiful, and mine…
are not. Mine are short and stocky, and despite the fact I’ve worked hard for a twelve-percent body fat ratio, I still don’t have the coveted thigh gap that other women do.
Fuck his date and her thigh gap.
I try to turn away from the couple, I beg myself to stop staring, but I toss a cube of ice into my mouth and crunch, and mere seconds later, his head comes up as though he knows he’s being watched.
He studies the club outside his booth for a moment with furrowed brows, but he must feel the heat, because his eyes come to me as though he knew exactly where to find me.
I sit at the bar beside an asshole, sipping what appears to be vodka on the rocks, and my eyes lock with Theo Griffin’s while he’s on a date with someone else.
Why the hell does this scenario annoy me?
“Hey there, stranger.”
I swing my gaze around, which seems to annoy Griffin more than my sitting beside Aaron does, and smile at Drake’s cheerful voice.
He stands behind me, effectively placing his body between me and Aaron, and presses a noisy – dare I say, juicy – kiss on my cheek.
“You look… thoughtful,” he chuckles. He’s in full uniform and makes Aaron sit taller just by being here.
I turn on my stool completely so my back presses against the bar and my elbows rest on top. “Hey there, handsome. You here to arrest me?”
He snorts. “I mean, technically this is my jurisdiction right now. I’m in uniform and you most certainly are not.
” He moves in closer, and despite the fact this kind of arrogance in any other man would annoy me, his only makes me laugh as he runs a fingertip along my thigh.
“I’m off shift in an hour. Wanna get married? ”
I bark out a laugh and pull him in for a fast side hug. “I swear, I hate men like you.”
He presses a hand to his chest. “You wound me.”
“And yet, you’re still here, and you’re smiling.”
“It’s because you’re so pretty,” he counters.
“Don’t get married,” Aaron slurs. “Don’t do it, man. She’ll fuck your brother and you’ll lose your job.”
Drake’s lips twitch with laughter as he pulls back to catch sight of the drunk man. “I don’t have a brother. But I have father; do you think that’ll work?”
“She’ll fuck anyone with a cock. They alllllll do.”
“You’re offering me your father now, Drake? Geez Louise, I’ve met your old man, and I’m just saying, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”
He snorts. “Don’t say it, Tate. Don’t you fucking s–”
I shrug. “I’d fuck him.”
“No!” He throws his head back on a dramatic howl, but his chest jumps with laughter. “You’re sick! I’d never fuck a girl in the same room as my father. I’d especially never fuck the same girl my father is fucking.”
“You become redundant,” Aaron slurs. “You won’t be in the same room, man. You’ll be too busy in divorce court, fighting to keep your house, and she’ll be fucking your daddy, hoping to keep your inheritance when the old fart dies.”
Scrunching his nose, Drake lifts a thumb and pokes it in Aaron’s direction. “I feel like maybe he’s trying to tell us something.”
This is why I love Drake. This is why I want to keep him around forever; because he’s funny, and he never makes things weird.
“Drake, honey, this is Aaron, and he’s a pal of mine. I think it’s time for him to go home now.” Standing, I leave my clutch on the bar for a moment and move into the space Drake was in as he backs up. “Mr. Scanlon, it’s time for you to go home.”
He tries to swat me away.
“Mr. Scanlon?” I guess Drake is Alex’s intended backup, and since he’s here, I figure it’s time to go. “Mr. Scanlon.” I grab his car keys and plop them in Drake’s hand as I take Aaron’s arm. “You were cut off hours ago. It’s time for bed.”
“I said no!” He swats me away and accidentally smacks my arm hard enough to have Drake’s brows lifting. “Leave me be, woman. I am done letting females ,” he says the word as though it’s a swear, “boss me around. Go sit somewhere else. I was here first.”