12. Melissa
12
MELISSA
S ix solid hours of sleep miraculously turned me into a brand-new person. Jase was out of the apartment when I woke up, so I took my time in the shower.
And boy was it time well spent.
My vibrator helped me finish the fantasy I had playing in my head about the morning Jason watched me strip out of my scrubs and showed off his morning wood.
In fantasy land, it had ended with me bent over the coffee table, getting railed by his big dick energy and his even bigger cock.
Fantasies were always better than reality. Reality was a snarky bitch who liked to remind me that men like him didn’t go after short, stocky girls like me.
I checked my phone as I toweled off. Usually, I would have made an appointment for a blowout before going somewhere fancy for dinner. But I didn’t want to be stressed, running all over creation before heading to Beaufort.
There was a voicemail from the landline at the bar. I punched the play button while I squished curl cream into my hair and ran a wide-tooth comb through the wet strands.
“Hey, Mel. It’s me. Figured I’d call while I’m on my break. Thanks for this morning. I’m doing the Tylenol-ibuprofen routine like you told me last time. If your date with that guy tonight goes well, y’all should swing by the bar after. Drinks on me. Say hi to Jase for me.”
The voicemail ended, and I forced myself to push Bridget out of my mind as I rubbed lotion all over my body. She was at work and safe. For now, at least, I had to accept the win.
I pawed through my closet. Revanche was upscale, but since I was friends with Luca and Maddie, I could go in there in a swimsuit. They wouldn’t care.
I settled on a blue dress— cerulean, as Hannah Jane would say. It had an asymmetric neckline, nipped in at the waist, and hit just above my knees. I dried off the bathroom counter and hopped up, sitting on the edge with my feet in the sink so I could see myself in the mirror.
Short girls knew how to make do.
The front door opened and closed as I was swiping on a coat of mascara. Jason materialized in the bathroom doorway.
“What are you doing up there?” he said with a laugh, taking stock of me sitting in the sink.
“Getting ready for my date.”
“In the sink?”
“Well, the bathroom has better light than my bedroom. If I want to see myself in the mirror, it’s either sit in the sink or get a stepstool and crane over it. This is more comfortable.”
His eyes lingered on my body, sending pinpricks flooding down the back of my neck. The weight of his gaze was disarming.
I swung my legs over the edge and hopped down, smoothing out my dress .
“Sorry,” I said, scooping my cosmetic paraphernalia back into my makeup bag. “I’ll get out of your way.”
I tried to walk back to my bedroom, but Jase didn’t move out of the doorway. We stood less than an inch apart, his broad chest blocking my escape like an impenetrable stone wall.
I looked up and searched his eyes, but I didn’t find the warm olive hue that always danced with adventure. They were a deep forest green. Dark and mysterious.
Jase’s pupils were dilated, and his breathing was erratic. I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was almost certain that his fists were clenched, balled up as he stuffed them deep in his pockets.
“You look beautiful.”
I laughed. “You had me worried there for a second. You weren’t saying anything, and I thought maybe you thought the dress was hideous or something.”
The veins in his neck bulged. They weren’t protruding enough to be jugular vein distention, but it was still odd.
I twirled, giving him a full three-sixty of my cocktail dress. “Does this dress say “ wife material” or “ I can bench more than you?” ”
“Flex?”
I rolled my eyes but humored him. Giggling, I raised one arm and showed off my biceps.
I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I liked looking and feeling strong. It made me happy, but I knew my physique wasn’t what most guys went for.
They didn’t want short and stocky. They wanted Maddie and her supermodel legs or Erica with her curves. They wanted ladylike Hannah Jane or Kristin’s wide eyes and perfectly proportionate body.
Jase’s tongue darted out, wetting his lower lip as he wrapped his hand around my arm and smoothed his fingers around the valleys of muscle. Gently, he lowered my arm and wrapped his hand around my wrist.
My heart thudded in my chest. Hard.
What was happening?
It was Jason McGrath. Sure, he was all grown and sexy and Lieutenant Commander-y, but he was still Bridget’s big brother. My old next-door neighbor who alternated between being playful, teasing me, and acting like a grumpy walrus. And now, he was my roommate.
“You’re a fucking knockout, Mel,” he rasped. There was an intensity to his voice that I didn’t have time to unpack. I slipped out of the bathroom and grabbed a pair of strappy black heels off my bed. Silver studs dotted the leather panels, matching my earrings.
I grabbed my clutch off the kitchen table and looked around for my keys. Jase plucked them off the coffee table and tossed them to me without getting off the couch. “Is this a, uh, overnight date?”
I giggled. “Really? You can’t just ask me if I plan on going home with him?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t want to make it weird.”
“Sex is a normal, healthy adult function. It’s not weird.” I double-checked that I hadn’t missed my debit card and driver’s license when I switched out my purse earlier.
“You don’t have to make it sound so clinical, ” he groused as he shifted on the couch.
“Don’t wait up!” I called over my shoulder as I headed toward the door.
“I’ll have pizza and beer on standby.”
I laughed, flashing my middle finger at him as I closed the door.
Justin was chattering about the Blue Marlin Tournament while I perused the dessert menu. I was stuffed, but Maddie was debuting the new summer dessert selections, and I wasn’t about to pass that up.
I was trying to figure out what a canelé was when Luca strutted over to our table, decked out in a trim burgundy suit, caramel-colored tie, and silk pocket square. His hair was slicked back, and he looked every bit the dashing restaurateur.
It was almost weird to see him in suits. Sure, that was how he had dressed on the regular when he first moved to Beaufort years ago, but I had more accustomed to seeing him in jeans and t-shirts for poker night.
“Hey folks.” He grinned. “How’s it going over here?”
Justin gave him a polite nod. “Great. The food was fantastic.”
“Glad to hear it.”
I smiled across the table to my date. “Justin, this is my friend, Luca DeRossi. He’s the owner. Luca, this is Justin Harding.”
Luca reached out and shook Justin’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you. Any friend of Mel’s is a friend of mine.” He backed away from the table, pointing at the dessert menu in my hand. “Your meal’s on the house, so make sure you grab something off the dessert menu. Maddie will kill me if you leave without trying something.”
I argued with him for a moment, telling him he didn’t have to comp our meal, but Luca insisted. The server appeared as soon as Luca departed and took our order for dessert and drinks.
I took a chance on Maddie’s canelés with rum gelato. Justin went with the citrus granita.
“So,” I said, relaxing back in my chair as I sipped on my glass of red wine. “This has been really fun! I’m so glad we got together tonight. ”
It had been. Justin was a pretty good conversationalist. It wasn’t love at first sight, but I didn’t need it to be. I just needed one solid first date where I didn’t send the guy to the hospital before the entrees arrived.
I may or may not have been holding my breath through the appetizers we shared.
He laughed and sipped his water. “I was a little intimidated when we matched on the app, but only because you looked perfect on paper. I’ve been on so many dates where the lady is nothing like what she put in her profile.” He gave me a cheesy smile. “But you were as awesome as promised.”
I laughed through my sigh of relief. “You had me worried there for a minute.” Dessert came, and I groaned in delight as the server slid a plate with two caramel-ridged cakes. A quenelle of rum gelato sat in a bed of toffee and cacao nib crumbles.
“Oh my God,” I moaned as I took a bite. “You’re seriously missing out. I swear Maddie is a magician. This is incredible.”
He picked at his tall martini glass of granita. It looked like a fancy citrus slushie. “I’ll let you have at it. I don’t wanna try to sneak a bite and have you take my hand off. Besides, I’m not big into things with alcohol.”
I giggled. “Fair.” I took another bite and hummed happily. I had noticed that he didn’t drink. Not that it bothered me, I respected boundaries. I was curious why, but that wasn’t exactly a proper first date conversation.
“Besides,” he said, between bites of granita. “This is great. And it has a ton of vitamin C.”
“So, you said you’re really into a healthy lifestyle. Do you go to any gyms around here? I do CrossFit at the club in Beaufort.”
He nodded. “I have a membership to a big box gym in Morehead City. I try to get out there at least four times a week, but it’s more about a healthy diet for me. What I put into my body is more important than trying to work it off. Gotta keep the sperm count up. Protect my swimmers.”
I nearly choked on my gelato, but I kept my composure and laughed it off. “Uh-huh.”
“Vitamin C is vital for healthy sperm.”
“Oh,” I laughed nervously. “I, uh, I guess I didn’t know that.”
He shrugged casually. “I eat a ton of citrus. Gotta make sure I’m maxing out my recommended daily allowance. No supplements either. Au naturale all the way.”
I pursed my lips and nodded. Bodily fluids didn’t faze me, but it wasn’t my dinner topic of choice. “So, you said you work in healthcare,” I said, desperate to direct the conversation away from his baby batter. “Where, um, where do you work?”
“I work for the fertility clinic in Morehead City.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Are you an RN? Or in admin?”
“Oh, no—I’m a sperm donor.” He leaned back in his chair, grinning as he spread his knees and motioned to his crotchal region suggestively. “Gotta do my part to give back to the community. Only the best for the next generation.”
Oh my God. My dessert threatened to make a reappearance.
“Every test and evaluation I’ve ever had concluded that my swimmers are some of the strongest that science has ever seen.”
“What evaluations ?”
“There was a listing on CraigsList. They said they were testing semen samples to see who had the most superior sperm. So, I filled a Tupperware container and sent it in for testing.”
“I’m sorry,” I sputtered. “You what ?”
“Okay,” he smiled. “Just between us, it wasn’t brand-name Tupperware. It was a plastic lunch meat container that I washed. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Am I right?”
As if that was the problem .
“So, you mailed your… sample .” I took a long drink of wine. “To a stranger from the internet?”
“I mean, they really just wanted the application sent in, but why tell when you can show?”
This guy needed a psych evaluation STAT .
He kept going. “I take my job seriously. I eat right, stay in shape, and never masturbate. Can’t waste any future children on self-pleasure. The more times I donate, the stronger the next generation will be.”
The neon red exit sign was calling my name. How had this date gone so well and then down the crapper in the blink of an eye?
Justin was still waxing poetic about the genetic superiority of his sperm. Just as I tuned back into the conversation, he upped the ante.
“So, when I saw your profile, and we matched, I knew it was destiny. You obviously share the same commitment to personal health as I do. Can you imagine how strong our genetics would be together ? We could breed a whole generation of superheroes. The next time we go out, we should get blood work done to see where you’re at with your numbers.”
“Not really what I meant when I said I want children in the future,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?”
“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom,” I lied as I grabbed my clutch and teetered on my heels, darting to the other side of the restaurant. I looked over to make sure Justin wasn’t watching me, but thank goodness he wasn’t.
He was talking to his dick like it was a puppy. Who’s a good boy?
“Oh my God. What a nightmare,” I groaned, shaking my head as I slipped through a door marked Employees Only .
The bright fluorescent lights in the kitchen were a drastic change from the ambient mood lighting in the dining room.
Luca was behind one of the stations, checking plates before handing them to servers. I stuck out like a sore thumb in my blue dress and heels among the sea of white chef coats and hats.
“Mel?” Luca asked. “You okay?”
“My date is a semen-obsessed psychopath. Can I leave out the back?”
He dropped what he was doing and pulled someone off a prep station to take over. “Follow me.”
Luca led me through the kitchen and down a set of stairs. The smell of garlic, searing steaks, and herbs, morphed into vanilla, sugar, and fresh-baked bread. Maddie stood, resolute, as she barked out orders to the pastry team. They whirled around her in perfectly organized chaos.
“Mel!” she squealed, her demeanor completely changing as soon as Luca and I came down the stairs. “I didn’t know you were coming for dinner tonight. Did you get dessert? Let me pack something up for you.”
I held up my hand and stopped her. “Canelés are my new obsession. Also, your husband is helping me sneak out.”
Maddie cringed. “Another bad date?”
I rolled my eyes. “You people act like I’m cursed or something.”
“I mean, at this point… Maybe see a priest? I think you can get holy water online.”
“I’m not cursed. The internet is just filled with psychopaths who think their jizz is the key to saving the world.”
Maddie reared back and wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Oh God.”
“C’mon,” Luca said, putting his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get you out before he realizes you’re not in the bathroom. Is Jason at your place? ”
I nodded.
“Good. Does that creep know where you live?”
“Nope.”
Luca cracked a smile as he led me out the emergency exit and walked me to my car. “Good. Then I don’t have to call in the cavalry.”
Steve and Chase were the least of my worries. Jason was going to give me hell about this one.
By the time I made it home, disgust had turned into rage. I stomped up the flights of stairs to my apartment. As I put the key in the lock, all I wanted was to forget every creepy thing that pervert said. I shoved the door open and stormed through the living room.
Jase was seated on the couch with a slice of pizza hanging halfway between the box and his open mouth. His eyes tracked me as I fumed all the way to the kitchen and hopped up onto the countertop.
I reached into the cabinet, past my tubs of protein powder, and grabbed a bottle of tequila.
I didn’t bother with a shot glass. I didn’t even grab a cup from the cabinet. I flicked the top off and knocked back a long pull from the bottle.
Jose Cuervo never let me down, and I was counting on him to turn this night around. Or at least to make me forget it all.