Chapter 4
four
. . .
“She’s nervous,” Darcy says as Tanner sips the last of her drink. “She’s definitely into you.”
“You say everyone is into me.”
“That’s because you’re hot as fuck,” Darcy replies with a shrug. “But Hot Dracula definitely wants you to talk to her.”
“I dunno,” Tanner responds. When she looks over at the bar, she catches Akilah’s gaze. She blushes and turns away immediately. It’s stupidly cute. “Wait, why is she hot Dracula?”
Darcy shrugs. “She looks like she wants everyone to die, but she wants to suck your blood, and you know, she’s in all black and kinda creepy.”
Tanner laughs, her head falling back against the booth. “Shut up. She’s not creepy.”
“You would say that.” Darcy dances in her seat. They got a joint private dance earlier, and now Darcy clearly wants to go fuck her husband. Tanner could dream about getting fucked, too. She kinda just wants to see if she can get Akilah to talk to her. “You wanna eat her out so bad.”
Tanner groans. She does. It’s so undeniably true.
Darcy reaches across the table for her hand.
“And I think you should go for it. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
We both misread the way her entire body blushed when you called her hot.
The way she ran to the office to get you a top.
Babe, you know I mean this in the most loving way possible.
You need to get laid and stop working twenty-four seven, and I, for one, think you could bring hot Dracula to her knees. ”
Tanner screws up her nose. Oh, the image of her underneath her is going to plague her dreams. It could just be sex. They don’t have to date. It doesn’t have to end in marriage and a happy-ever-after. She really could just fuck her.
She sighs. “Do you want a drink?”
Darcy’s bright smile almost blinds her. “Whatever you’re having. If you need me to leave, just send a signal! I’m going to the stage.”
Tanner rolls her eyes with a smile. The club is heaving, and on her way to the bar, Tanner notes a few things that Akilah could ask whatever designer she goes with. She kindly brought them drinks, which deserves a few pointers.
There’s a quiet corner of the bar, piled high with glasses, and Tanner has no desire to push through the crowd, so she plonks herself on the stool.
She can see Darcy throwing money onto the stage from here.
She’s got at least twenty minutes before she tires.
And if she can watch Akilah work, that’s just good planning.
Instead, she sees a cute couple at the bar. Kissing more than they’re talking. Tanner doesn’t know if they’re a couple beyond tonight, but she’s envious all the same.
Tanner wants to date. Sometimes. She likes the idea of dating someone, but then the actual reality of downloading a dating app makes her want to die.
She thinks she’s hilarious, but what if she sends a joke that she only gets because she’s chronically online and someone replies with a question mark? Or worse. Lol.
She settles into her seat instead; it’s chilly because she picked somewhere near the window, but she has Akilah’s top, and she can watch Darcy under the neon lights.
She’s perfectly chill until the glasses on the bar move rapidly, and Tanner looks to find Akilah doing a fabulous job of looking anywhere but at her.
She’s tied her hair back since she came over.
Something about the way the tendons of her neck stick out is going to join the thoughts of Akilah on her back.
“What can I get you?” she asks, then she frowns. “You okay?”
Tanner throws a smile on. “Yeah.”
“Are you lying?” Akilah asks. “I can’t tell.”
Tanner screws up her nose. She looks so concerned. “I’m just tired. Can I get some shots of tequila?” She pulls her purse out.
Akilah looks mildly offended, though Tanner can’t tell if her face actually changed. “Your money is useless here.” She fills a glass of Coke and passes it to her with a straw.
Tanner laughs, leaning her elbow on the now clear bar as she looks up at her.
“Should you be drinking if you’re tired?”
“Are you worried about me?” Tanner asks.
Akilah shrugs, but the red of her cheeks gives her away even as she leaves and manages to make a round of drinks for someone else at the bar without saying a word at all.
It takes an unreasonable amount of energy, but Tanner checks on Darcy.
She smiles when she sees the woman still showering on stage with notes.
When Tanner turns back to the bar to find Akilah, she’s looking right at her, and though Tanner has been waiting for her to be there, she wasn’t expecting her palms to be flat against the bar, leaning over slightly to talk to her.
Her shoulders bulge under her black shirt.
Is it reasonable for it to be open that far?
God, her tattoos dip beyond the shadows of her shirt.
She should have taken her top just to see if the vines dip below her trouser line.
Tanner takes a deep breath as she looks at her face.
Brows furrowed slightly. Did she say something?
“Do you know you look like that?” Tanner asks instead of asking her to repeat herself, and has to explain she can’t hear her when she’s so close she could trace her tattoos with her tongue.
Akilah raises an eyebrow. Oh, fuck. “Like what?” Her voice is still low enough to send shockwaves between her legs. Tanner wants to know what she sounds like when her voice is shot and whether she’s talkative in bed.
She’s polite enough not to bring it up right now, as Tanner waves her hand vaguely in her direction—the bar. Somewhere to get her to stop staring right at her. “Like everyone at this bar wants you.”
Akilah looks at the bar, the drinks, and then back to her. She swallows, completing another order.
“Everyone?”
Tanner smiles softly, her straw tucked between her teeth.
Akilah goes to the other end of the bar, and Tanner watches her work.
It’s utterly fascinating. Tanner’s sure she hasn’t spoken at all.
Occasionally, she leans forward, and a customer repeats themselves, usually with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.
Often, she looks over at her, and Tanner smiles. Akilah doesn’t smile back, but she doesn’t glare at her. Sometimes, she holds her gaze for more than two seconds. She’s always the first to look away.
“Babe!” Tanner looks over at Darcy, bounding over. Red cheeks and a look that suggests she sent her husband a filthy message. “Hi!” she says to Akilah, who just looks at her, then starts another order.
“How was your dance?”
Darcy moans. “So hot.”
“So hot you wanna go home?” Tanner asks with a raised eyebrow. Of course, she will go with her. Taxis are safe, but Darcy is drunker than she is.
Darcy giggles. “Do you mind? I have sent an unreasonable message.”
“How bad?” Tanner asks as she tries to get Akilah’s attention. Darcy pulls her phone out, huddling over it as she shows her an outrageous nude photo.
“Holy fuck!”
Darcy cackles. “So, you get it right?”
“Yeah, girl. I got it. Gimme a sec.” When she turns, Akilah is right there.
“Oh, hi.”
She nods, avoiding eye contact. “Are you going home?”
“Uhm, yeah.”
She nods again. The thing is. Tanner doesn’t want to go. She wants to stay, but she doesn’t know how to tell Akilah that without sounding like a loser who thinks they might make out later because Akilah looked at her for three uninterrupted seconds.
“Mart’s outside,” Darcy says with a skip to her step.
“Martin came to get you?” Oh. So, she’d be safe. Tanner could stay. If she were wanted, she could stay.
“Yeah. You wanna stay?”
Tanner thinks about it. She’s freezing cold, Akilah is working, and even when she’s right in front of her, she doesn’t talk.
“I can drop you home,” Akilah says, not looking at her. Darcy drops a kiss to her cheek, knows that Tanner will stay and whispers that she’ll text her when she gets home. “If you want that.”
Tanner pulls her lip between her teeth. “Will you talk to me?”
Akilah takes a deep breath through her nose. It makes Tanner smile. “Am I not right now?”
Tanner hums, swinging her legs back and forth on the stool. Akilah is nice, even if she clearly doesn’t want to be.
“Can I help behind the bar yet?”
“No, just sit right here.”
Tanner pouts. “Okay.”
“I won’t be able to concentrate if you’re behind here.” Akilah looks up at her, the ghost of a smile on her lips. Tanner’s going to think about making her break for the rest of the night. “So, don’t go anywhere.”
And she doesn’t. She sits, and she draws, and she watches Akilah with barely concealed lust as she serves people with mild disdain. It’s maybe the most fun she’s ever had without taking her clothes off.
She stuffs the drawings into her bag and tries to keep Akilah’s attention off the fact that she’s in her top when they walk out of the club.
The air is damp and chilly at three a.m., but Tanner feels positively giddy as Akilah shyly points out her car.
It’s exactly what Tanner expected, despite having no prior thoughts about automobiles. Creaky, warm and held together with duct tape.
“I’m not paying a monthly fee for a fancy car when Betty has never failed me.”
Tanner laughs. “I like her.”
“You seem easy to please.”
Tanner chews on her lip. With the four words Akilah has spoken to her, she knows she’s not trying to be rude. The words hit her square in the gut regardless.
“I’m not hard to please, that’s true.”
“Why not?”
She watches the streetlamps filter through the trees as she looks out of the window. “I’m too much for a lot of people, and I have some torturous abandonment issues. Being easy and agreeable used to keep people around, and I dunno. It just stuck. Besides, I really do like most things.”
She can feel Akilah looking at her. “Well, people can go ahead and find less.”
Tanner smiles, though it’s more at the company than the conversation.
“Sorry if we made you uncomfortable with the whole knees thing,” Tanner says. “You looked like you might die.”