14. Melissa
14
MELISSA
T he mattress beneath me shifted. I didn’t want to open my eyes because I was so damn comfortable, but I forced them open anyway.
Why was I on the couch? Since when did I have a weighted blanket ? I’d been meaning to get one since I was apparently destined to sleep alone, but I hadn’t shelled out the money yet.
Or maybe I had bought the weighted blanket on some kind of drunken add-to-cart binge.
Oh God.
The date from hell. Coming home. Way too much tequila. Asking Jason to make me come.
My head swam and a migraine pounded behind my eyes. The heat of embarrassment blazed against my skin. Or maybe that was the hot flash right before?—
Yep. I was definitely going to vomit. I wasn’t sure whether it was from the tequila or sheer mortification.
I was trapped. My head was on Jason’s chest, arm slung across his abs. His shirt had gotten pushed up at some point during the night, and we were skin to skin. My right leg was draped between his.
Jason’s arm was wrapped around my lower back, hand splayed across my butt. I was still in my dress from last night, and his other hand was?—
I curled my lips between my teeth and stifled a wanton moan as he squeezed my boob. Jason’s mop of dirty blond hair was strewn every which way. His eyes were closed, and his face was serene. He shifted, pulling me closer.
Please be a heavy sleeper. Please be a heavy sleeper, I silently begged as I peeled my leg out from between his. Jase was sporting some impressive morning wood, but I couldn’t think about that at the moment. I needed the bathroom, and I needed it STAT .
Miraculously, I slipped free without him stirring. I didn’t breathe until I tiptoed to the bathroom and locked myself inside. I slumped against the tub, thankful for the cool surface against my body.
What the absolute hell was wrong with me? The sperm donor date from hell was bad.
But was it bad enough for me to come home and get drunk with my best friend’s brother? The guy who happened to be my current roommate?
And then I begged him to give me a pity orgasm.
My stomach lurched, and I groaned, cupping my hand over my mouth.
I had asked Jason to kiss me, and he literally said no.
I would have been more appalled at my behavior, but my body decided it was the right moment to toss my cookies—er—canelés.
Thank God I didn’t have to work until tonight. I would’ve died.
I made quick work of brushing the vomit aftertaste out of my mouth and scrubbed off last night’s makeup.
I poked my head out of the bathroom door before creeping down the hall. Jase was still sound asleep on the couch. I changed into something breathable to fend off any more hangover-induced hot flashes and snuck out the door.
“Well, you look like shit,” Bridget said as I eased up onto a barstool. Hands on her hips, she eyed me discerningly. “I can’t tell if that’s the look of a good night of too much fun or a bad night of not having any fun at all.”
I didn’t bother taking my sunglasses off. “It would be the latter, and unless you want to clean puke off the bar, maybe stop yelling.”
Bridget wasn’t fazed in the slightest. “I love seeing you like this, you know.”
“Like what?”
“Imperfect.” She tossed a haughty smile my way. “It makes us mortals feel a little better when you occasionally make a bad life choice or two.”
I groaned and rested my forehead on the sticky bar top. “More like ten bad choices. Glad I can make you feel better.”
“What can I bribe you with for you to tell me about it?”
“Hair of the dog and something greasy.”
I winced, covering my ears as Bridget yelled at the cook to throw together a breakfast sandwich—extra bacon—before going to work on a Bloody Mary. Her phone buzzed as she slid me the glass.
“Are you here?”
“Huh?” I said between sips. God, I hated tomato juice.
Bridget wiggled her phone. “My brother texted me, asking if you were here.”
I looked at the two unread text messages from Jason on my phone. I shrugged. “It’s fine. You can tell him I’m here. ”
Might as well rip the Band-Aid off. If things were going to be awkward as hell, I wanted alcohol to be within arm’s reach.
Bridget eyed me curiously. “I’m gonna take a shot in the dark and say that this—” she circled her finger around my corpse-like appearance “—has something to do with him.”
“A really shitty date topped with a lot of shitty tequila to try and make me forget about said shitty date.”
She raised a single eyebrow.
“Fine,” I groaned. “And Jase may have been involved.”
To my surprise, Bridget laughed. “I’ve come to terms with the fact that, at some point, y’all would see each other naked. What happened?”
I choked on putrid tomato vodka. “Back the fuck up,” I sputtered. “Excuse me? Why the hell would that be a fact that you come to terms with?”
She wasn’t far off. In my defense, sober me wouldn’t have asked Jase to put his hand up my dress.
Bridget rolled her eyes. “Jase has been into you since the day you moved next door when we were kids. When he came back to Beaufort, I knew it was only a matter of time.”
“Jase looks at me like I’m his annoying little sister.”
She snickered. “No, he looks at me like I’m his annoying little sister because I am. He looks at you like you’re an ice cream sundae on a hot summer day.”
I narrowed my eyes on her. “What’s your angle, McGrath?”
“No angle,” she said innocently. “I just think y’all would be good together.”
“I don’t believe you. I also don’t believe that Jase has a thing for me. I’ve known him for, like, half my life. I think I would have picked up on that by now.”
She plopped a plate with hashbrowns and a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich in front of me. “This is your chance to get to know each other as adults. Why do you think I kept my mouth shut when he said he was sleeping on your couch? I’m totally Team Melson.” She paused and tried to come up with another couple name. “Jalissa? Whatever. You’re not kids anymore. You may have known him for half your life, but you don’t know the people that you are now.”
“Maybe you should take your own advice.”
Her voice quieted. It was soft, and her tone was even. Still, she sounded hopeful. “I can’t let myself think about Chase right now. And he isn’t too keen on talking to me since this—” she lifted her hand and flashed her engagement ring “—happened.” Bridget blew out a breath. “It’s for the best. Chase coming around right now could fuck everything up.”
I didn’t disagree with her there. Kyle had been abusing her for years. Fucking years . Ever since she first came to me for help, I’d been begging her to leave. This was the closest she had ever come. I didn’t want to spook her.
“Enough about me,” she said dismissively. “What happened last night that has you looking like the Grim Reaper this morning?”
“I had a shitty date that involved Luca sneaking me out the employee entrance of Revanche. So, I came home and got drunk with the help of your brother.”
She wrinkled her nose. “That’s it?”
Picking at the hashbrowns I didn’t really have an appetite for, I said, “And then I basically threw myself at him and begged him to give me an orgasm.”
She snickered. “And did he?”
“Best one I’ve ever had,” I mumbled.
“Jase always was a gentleman.” She smirked before pointing a finger at me. “I’m cool with y’all banging, but I don’t want details.”
“We’re not banging. ”
“Yet.”
“I asked him to kiss me, and he said no. Like, straight up. N-O. And I can’t even be mad about the pity orgasm because it was fantastic!” I stared hard at my breakfast sandwich. “Can’t really misread those signals, even if I was thirty sheets to the wind.”
I shoved my food away. Any and all appetite that I had disappeared at the thought of being with Jase. Not because I didn’t want to be with him, but because I couldn’t lie to him.
“Things are complicated enough with him staying at my place,” I said softly. “If he finds out that I knew about your… situation… he would never forgive me.” I met her look of contrition. “No one would forgive me for hiding it.”
I couldn’t forgive myself for enabling it, but I couldn’t push Bridget away, either. If I did, she would have nowhere to run.
Bridget didn’t bother arguing with me. We both knew exactly how the poker club would react.
“And that’s why none of them are ever going to find out. In a few weeks, we’re going to march that file into the Havelock police department and be done with it.”
“ Weeks ?” I hissed. “Bee, you said you were leaving him soon .”
“I need more time. Kyle was supposed to go to some conference in Raleigh, but it got rescheduled. They moved venues or something. Now it’s in Charlotte, which is fine by me. It means he’s further away when we file the report. I need him out of the house for a few days so I can get out and get settled somewhere else.”
“I don’t like it.”
“I don’t like it either, but it’s the best option for me.”
I didn’t waste my breath on the argument that sooner was better than later. Her mind was made up. It was Bridget’s way or the highway.
I took a measly bite and washed it down with god-awful tomato juice. Bridget swapped my half-gone Bloody Mary with a glass of water.
“Jase will never know,” she reassured me. “So, if my opinion counts for anything, enjoy the drunken orgasm and go get more. Sober ones, I mean.”
“Talking about Jase with you is just weird,” I mumbled over a bite of bacon and egg. “There’s another guy I was talking to that wants to go out next week. Maybe the third time’s the charm.”
Bridget shook her head and went about her side work. “Maybe you should stop going out with complete losers.”
“Maybe it’s just not in the cards for me.”
“What?” She reared back. “What’s not in the cards?”
“Marriage. Kids. Frequent sex. Everyone’s settling down, and it makes me think that maybe I’m just meant to be single.”
“You’re just oblivious to the good man right in front of you because you’re stubborn.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Pot.” I pointed to her and then to myself. “Meet kettle.”
“You deserve to be with someone who makes you happy,” Bridget said as she grabbed a damp bar towel out of a bucket of sanitizer. “We both do.”
A coy smile quirked at the corner of her mouth as she looked past me toward the windows that faced the parking lot.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And if my brother makes you happy, then don’t waste any time fighting what is right in front of you. If my blessing is what you’re looking for, you have it.”
I picked at the paper straw wrapper, tearing it into little bits. Did I think Jase was attractive? Hell yeah—who didn’t? Did I have the occasional fantasy about him? Absolutely. Still, I rarely let myself think about Jason McGrath any way other than as the boy next door.
“I don’t know. ”
“I do know.”
I tossed the wrapper down. “It’s not a good idea.”
Bridget snorted. “And why the hell not?”
“Because you and I are best friends! If Jase and I were to get into a fight, you would have to pick between your brother and me.”
She shook her head. “No dice. I’d pick you every time. Jase can be more stubborn than me, which means he’s usually wrong.” Bridget stared me down as I swirled my straw around the ice cubes in my glass.
Last night was a one-off. A fluke. A drunken mistake. It wasn’t like Hannah Jane and Isaac’s one-night-stand turned forever love.
He refused to kiss me. How else was I supposed to take that?
Jase pitied me and played along. I guess it was better than being rejected on all counts, but it stung.
The angel on my shoulder body slammed the devil, giving me a chance to think about how blissful it felt to wake up in Jason’s arms.
He had hugged me millions of times, but not once had it ever felt like that .
Intimate. Peaceful. Tender. Protected.
“You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?” Bridget had a sly smile on her lips as she teased me.
Before I could think of a snarky retort, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. My skin prickled. Electrified air buzzed around us as the door wobbled open, then screeched as it slammed shut. A shadow fell over the bar as Jase slid onto the stool beside me.
“Morning, Goose.”
So, we were back to the way things were. Proof that last night had been one massive, drunken fuck-up.
No longer his baby girl. I was back to Goose.
I put on my best poker face but kept my focus on the glass of water in front of me. “Morning, flyboy. ”
Jase eyed me up and down, his mossy gaze looking for any sign of weakness like a heat-seeking missile. “You snuck out on me this morning.”
Bridget rolled her lips, biting back a smile. I shot her a look sharper than a seven-gauge needle. Luckily, she got the hint.
“I gotta run to the back to grab some stuff.” She looked between us. “Y’all holler if you need anything.” With a wiggle of her eyebrows, she darted into the storeroom.
Jase dropped a red Gatorade in front of me.
I groaned in delight as I twisted the cap off. “You’re the best.”
He sat beside me, drinking out of a blue one. His was already half-gone. “Figured you’d be feeling as shitty as I do.” He winced as the sun reflected off the liquor bottles, blinding us. “How much did we drink last night?”
“Too much.”
He pressed his fingertips into his eyes. “Nice sunglasses.”
I was far too hungover to take them off. “I feel like there’s a bowling ball rolling around in my head. I’m never drinking tequila again.”
He snickered and gulped down a respectable amount of artificially colored electrolytes. “You still up for going to the airfield with me today?”
“Huh?”
Jase’s eyebrows knitted together, and he cocked his head, looking at me. “You don’t remember talking about going to see Pops at the airfield today?”
I leaned forward and rested my temple on the Gatorade cap. “God, how shitfaced did we get?”
I had no recollection of talking about going to the airfield. Maybe he brought it up after I went back to drinking straight from the bottle .
After he wouldn’t kiss me, then proceeded to give me the best orgasm of my life.
Jase strangled his bottle. “How much of last night do you remember?”
“Not much,” I half-lied as I sat up and massaged my temples. I hopped off the barstool and stifled the urge to hurl. “I should probably go home and sleep it off. I’ve gotta work tonight.” I fished out some cash to cover my tab and tip Bee. I tucked the bills under my glass and grabbed the Gatorade. “Thanks for this.”
“Hey, Mel—” Jase spun around, calling out my name as I opened the door.
“Yeah?”
He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. Finally, he nodded and muttered, “Sleep well.”