Chapter 2
THE STAMINA OF A YOUNGER MAN
SHARI
We're still singing Daydreamer as we sway away from the stage, and a group of people walking past us wearing various shades of neon t-shirts join in until we're all basically screaming the lyrics at each other.
Jenna Hendricks was incredible, and the sixteen-year-old inside me is absolutely buzzing that we got to see her perform live!
Jaime and Max are walking – or rather stumbling – ahead of Elle and me as we walk arm-in-arm towards the fairground rides.
Elle loves these deathtraps and has convinced the two drunkards in front of us to go on some rides with her.
I'm only a bit tipsy so I'm still a firm fuck no.
The bright flashing lights and carnival music blaring from the speakers is enough to fill me with horror as the operators dance on their various platforms, shouting to try and attract more patrons.
“I haven’t had a chance to ask you today, have you heard from Ivan lately?” I turn my head to look at Elle.
“Nope!” she quips. “It’s been blissfully quiet on the ex-husband front this month. But let’s not say his name again, just in case it summons him like the demon he is.”
I bark a laugh and wrap my arm around her shoulders to give her a squeeze. Ivan going to prison for embezzlement was the best thing to happen to Elle and the kids, as it ended up fast-tracking the divorce. Otherwise, I can only imagine that dickhead would have dragged it out as long as possible.
The girls choose their first ticket to hell and I stand back to video them as they get buckled in. It's a circular, spinning, swinging monstrosity and I feel dizzy just looking at it. Since most people are making their way to the carpark, there are no queues, so they get strapped in straight away.
As the ride starts and I hear Max start screaming, “Why the fuck did I agree to this?!” I feel a presence just behind me.
I spin around and come face-to-neck with Brad.
His eyes twinkle in the flashing lights and his smirk makes an appearance as I crane my neck to look up at him because he's standing so close.
At five-foot-nine I'm fairly tall for a woman, but Brad still towers over me by at least five or six inches.
He's exactly the kind of guy I'd have had a huge crush on at school; he's got the whole nineties curtains thing going on and I am into it. Still.
A wave of heat flushes through me and my mouth goes dry. “Hi,” I squeak, eloquently.
That smirk grows as he brazenly tucks an errant strand of hair that's come loose from my braid behind my ear, and once again that now-familiar smell of coconut warms my senses. There’s a note of something woodsy underneath, but I can’t put my finger on the exact scent.
“Hey, I was hoping I'd find you before you left,” he rumbles. His voice and the small contact from his fingers elicit a full body shiver from me. Of course he notices, and his eyes flare. In this light they appear more green, almost like polished jade.
I clear my throat. “I’m surprised to see you away from the bar. Don't you guys have to clean up before you're done for the night?”
“We did most of the cleanup during Jenna's set. Hardly anyone came to the bar once she started. Plus, I covered for one of the guys last night, so he's doing the last bit so I could come find you.”
“You were specifically looking for me?” I ask, bewildered.
“Pretty sure I just said that. Twice, in fact,” he chuckles.
“But...why?”
Before he answers, I hear a very drunken, “Get it, Shari!” coming from behind me. I look over my shoulder to see that the ride has ended and my friends are swerving their way over to us. Brad laughs as I shake my head. They really are a sight.
Jaime nearly trips over herself in her fight to get to us, but Brad catches her arm before she can faceplant in the dirt.
“Oh man, you're strong,” she says wide-eyed, clumsily trying to wipe her dark hair back from her ice-blue eyes. Turning to me, she absolutely does not whisper, “Shari, I know I said he's a child, but you should fuck him. I bet he's dynamite in the sack!”
Seriously. Just kill me.
Elle and Max reach us as she basically shouts the words, and Max in all her inebriated glory also does not whisper behind her hand, “Ooh yes, you should shag the manboy! He's really hot and he definitely wants you.”
Elle is nearly folded over in laughter as I pray for the earth to swallow me whole.
I can't even look at Brad until I hear him full on belly laughing.
Good god, he is divine. His head is thrown back, his Adam's apple is bobbing, dimples have appeared in both cheeks, and I might die a little when he throws his arm around my shoulders and states, “You should listen to your friends, Shari. They're very wise.”
I can't speak. I can barely breathe. I'm not usually this easily stupefied, but it's been a long, long time since I've had the undivided attention of such an attractive guy.
“Are you ladies glamping here tonight or are you headed home?”
“We're glamping, trying to even leave the carpark would probably take a couple hours and ain't nobody got the patience for that!” Jaime punctuates with a poke to Brad's chest. “Damn, you really are just all kinds of firm, hey? Even if you are a baby.”
“Forgive my friends, they've forgotten how to internalise their thoughts.”
Brad just smiles down at me, arm still around my shoulders.
“There's nothing to forgive. I find the honesty refreshing, but just to clarify, I am definitely not a baby. With that in mind, I was looking for you to ask if you ladies would like to join me and my mates in the staff campsite for drinks and snacks and to hang out?”
“In! What food do you have? I want Asian street food, we missed out earlier and I'm not happy about it. Also, does anyone have a guitar? We could have a sing along!” Max claps. Gotta love a drunken Malaysian. Food and karaoke are the only things that matter.
“We can grab any food you like now and take it back with us, and yes, one of the guys has a guitar. We even have a fire pit we can sing around.”
This garners some whoop whoops from the girls and we make our way around the food trucks to gather our bounty.
“It's nearly two in the morning and I really need us to be on the road by nine, guys. I'm headed to bed.” Elle has to pick up her kids from her parents’ house before lunch tomorrow – which is nearly a two hour drive from here – and she still has to drop us all off since she decided to be our designated driver.
Luckily, we all live pretty close to each other.
“Yeah, I'll come with, I'm knackered! Max, wake up. We're going back to the tent. How does she always manage to sleep anywhere and everywhere? It's like a superpower,” Jaime says as she prods sleeping beauty.
I reluctantly pull my arm from around Brad's neck and make to stand from his lap where I've been perched for the last half hour.
He dragged me to sit there when I came back from my last toilet break and I'm not upset about it.
I am upset to be leaving him, though. I didn't even get to sneak in a cheeky snog!
“Wait, do you have to go?” he stops me from standing with the arm he has wrapped across my lap.
“Umm, yes?” My head's only a little fuzzy from the alcohol, but I'm not really sure why he's asking.
“What if,” he clears his throat and tries again.
“What if you stayed with me tonight? I'm not sharing a tent with anyone so you could stay. In my tent. With me.” His fingers twitch against my thigh and I could swear that faint blush is back on his cheeks.
It's hard to tell with the orange glow of the fire pit crackling in front of us, but his obvious nerves are endearing nonetheless.
“I—”
“Yes! She'd love to stay the night with you, wouldn't you, Shari?” Jaime's voice interrupts whatever I was about to say. Because I'm not even sure what my answer was going to be at this point.
“What?” My head snaps towards her. “But...but you guys are going back to the tent and we need to be up early and—”
“Brad, can you give us a minute? We'll bring her right back,” Jaime yells as she hauls me off his lap and starts dragging me away. I'm distantly aware of his friends and colleagues watching us with rapt attention.
“Guys, this is insane. I can't believe you're encouraging this! We haven't even kissed, what if it sucks? What if I sleep with him and he thinks I'm bad at it? And then I'm stuck in this campsite and have to do the walk of shame at the ass crack of dawn. No, I'm coming with you now.”
“Shazaaaaam!” Max drawls the nickname she gave me when we were seven. “He's so hot, though. You should do it. Do him.”
“But he's so young! Dude, I haven't been anywhere near his league in, in,” I huff, waving my arms around, “probably in as long as he's been alive!”
“Because you're out of his league! Not the other way around. Don't you downplay yourself Shari Thea Jones,” Jaime wags her finger in my face, dangerously close to poking me in the eye.
“Shazaaaaam!!” Max blurts again, making me chuckle. She's going to have such a bad head tomorrow.
“Shari, babe, what if you don't do this and regret not having a dirty fling with the hot young bartender for the rest of your life?” Elle's reasoning stops my spiralling panic.
If anyone knows regret, it's my beautiful blonde bestie.
She chose the wrong man for the right reasons, and I know she'll always wonder what if for so many scenarios.
“Live a little, you've been through enough.
Let yourself have this. Just make sure you're back at the tent well before nine tomorrow, or today, I guess, and we're good.”
Max nods along slowly and Jaime must see my decision in my eyes because she promptly starts marching me backwards towards the fire pit and deposits me back in Brad's lap.