Chapter 11
Cece
Iknew Ada was loud in bed; our Euro-trip made that very clear, but right now everyone in Afterglow can hear her moaning, the headboard pounding the wall, and Jake’s nonstop filthy mouth.
“Christ, you’re so fuckin’ wet for me. You missed this, Ada? You missed takin’ my cock?”
“Yes. God. Yessss.”
“Good girl. Nuh-uh. None of that. You’re not tapping out ’til I say you can.”
I’m not much for exhibitionism, or I don’t think I am.
I’ve never had much opportunity to try it out, but there’s something undeniably hot about being so crazy about someone you don’t give a damn who hears.
My thoughts drift to Will Sharpe. I picture us upstairs, going at it while customers listen below.
A shiver runs through me. I wonder if he’s as unhinged in bed as Jake?
The thudding upstairs somehow gets louder, and I doubt it. Jake gives a shocked laugh that turns vicious. “That’s it, you sexy little bitch, all over me. That’s right. You gonna fuckin’ thank me?”
“Thank you,” Ada whimpers. “Thank you so much…”
“Louder. And say my fuckin’ name. I want everyone down there to know whose dick you’re coming on.”
“Thank you, Jake!”
“Louder. Scream it, or I swear to God, Ada—”
I sprint to the jukebox and crank the bass to maximum. The floor shudders to the beat of ‘Summertime Sadness,’ mercifully drowning out the X-rated symphony upstairs.
I look around the bar; none of the customers seem upset by the free show, but a few people have their phones out, probably recording it.
Ada won’t be happy when she ends up going viral as the woman begging Jake to keep going.
But maybe the publicity will be good: come drink in the bar where you might hear Jake Graves-Holland call a girl a sexy little bitch as he screws her!
I exhale and steal a look at the door. Davis is watching me. His hazel eyes narrow, a flicker of something strange passing over his face. I’m suddenly hyper-aware of his bare arms and massive hands…
I bet Davis is as unhinged in bed as Jake…
Heat shoots through me, and I force a smile and drop my gaze, looking for a glass, any glass, to clear. I walk to a booth on the opposite end of the room and collect an empty pint, when an airy stillness descends.
I follow the gaze of my staring patrons to find all eyes firmly trained on the All Black at the customer’s water station.
Jake’s hair is rumpled, his T-shirt is inside out. He pours himself a water and chugs it, his face set in that unreadable way of his.
I’m at his side in seconds. “Um, hi, everything okay up there?”
Jake blinks like he’s surprised to see me in my own bar. “Hey. Yeah, everything’s good.”
“Okay. How’s—”
“I’m taking Ada back to mine,” he says, swiping a hand across his mouth.
“Consensually?”
He nods, refilling his glass and draining it again.
Ada stumbles out of the stairwell. Her dress bunched at the waist, her lips swollen, and her hair a wild tangle, but she’s glowing. No, she’s radiant.
“Hi, Cece,” she says, flashing me a dazed smile. “It’s okay, I want to go with Jake.”
“Yeah, we’ve got a lot to talk about,” Jake says, eyeing my best friend like they didn’t just fuck. He strides behind the bar and grabs a tequila bottle. “I’ll send you some cash for this, Cee.”
“Um, yeah, sure,” I say faintly. “Ada—”
“I’m fine.” She reaches out a hand, and I take it and squeeze.
“You’re sure?”
“I promise.”
“Thanks, Cee. Talk soon.” Jake wraps an arm around Ada’s waist and steers her to the door. As they pass, he tilts the Cuervo away from Ada’s outstretched hand. “No. You can wait. I’m gonna pour it on your tits and watch you try to lick it off.”
Ada’s breathless laugh is the last thing I hear before the two of them vanish.
I let out a shaky exhale. “Whew.”
“He’s bloody good for her,” Aggie calls through the kitchen window. “He’ll set her right.”
“Maybe. I hope so. I hope he can at least talk her out of pipe-bombing the reunion…”
“It’s a mistake.”
I turn. Davis is leaning against the bar, studying the door Jake and Ada just disappeared through, his mouth downturned.
My stomach twists. Is he jealous?
“What’s a mistake?” I ask. “Sure, it’s early, but I’ve never seen Ada like this with anyone except Jake.”
“She hates him,” Davis says, turning to face me. “She hates everyone you guys went to school with. He’s gonna have to stop screwing her at some point, and then she’ll be furious at herself for going home with him.”
There’s a darkness in his eyes that stops my heart for a second. Does that mean he is jealous? Isn’t jealous?
“Jake never did anything to Ada at school,” I say.
“Exactly,” Davis says in an undertone.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The bar lights overhead pick out the gold in his gaze as he studies me. “Have you ever talked to Ada about what happened to her in Pukekohe?”
“Um, I was there?”
“But you two weren’t close, were you? Not like you are now?”
I cross my arms over the bar, mirroring his posture.
My elbows slide across the polished wood until we’re inches apart.
That familiar Davis scent drifts towards me, and I breathe through my mouth to keep from getting overwhelmed.
Everyone might have heard Ada coming like a porn star five minutes ago, but they don’t get to hear this.
“I know Ada had a hard time back then, okay?” I tell Davis. “We all did. High school’s shit for everyone.”
Davis raises an eyebrow, and I immediately regret my tone.
“Sorry. I don’t want to be a dick, but you’re acting like I can’t see what’s happening with my own best friend. And I don’t know why you’ve picked Jake of all people to have a problem with, but he likes Ada, and I love that for her.”
Davis inclines his head, but not like he agrees with me. “Maybe you don’t see things as clearly as you think you do.”
The words slice deep, and the cuts remain long after he returns to the door. Staying lodged under my skin like glass as I pour pints and chat to customers. What’s Davis seeing that I’m not?
As I turn the question in my head, an ugly thought worms in.
Why doesn’t he think Jake’s good enough for Ada?
Is it a jock thing? Does he think she’d be better off with him?
I imagine Davis and Ada happily married with a rabble of dark-haired babies, while I slowly waste away in this alcoholic playground like my godfather. My stomach lurches.
I catch Davis as he comes to the bar for a soda refill.
“I don’t want to argue about Ada and Jake,” I say. “Can’t you just trust me? He’s perfect for her. You saw the gorgeous gift he gave her.”
Davis lifts his fresh Coke Zero to his mouth. “Didn’t peg you for the type to be swayed by presents.”
“I’m not. I mean, I am. I love a present, if it means something.
” I gesture vaguely at the liquor shelf.
“If Jake bought Ada tequila or a bunch of shitty supermarket flowers, I’d have told him to kick rocks, but he sent her a first edition of her favourite book.
That’s the difference between a gift and a present.
A gift is something bigger. Not more expensive,” I say, catching the look on Davis’s face.
“It’s the meaning behind it. Showing you really know someone. ”
“Seems to go hand-in-hand with ‘expensive.’”
I roll my eyes. “You want to know what one of the best gifts I ever got was? Soap.”
“Soap?”
“Soap. I like citrus scented things. They make me happy. Anyway, this semester at uni, I was failing my pharmacology paper, living above these terrifying gang guys, and it was the middle of winter. I was miserable. Then I came home one night, and Ada had sent me a bar of orange and lemongrass soap. She was at Juilliard; she probably spent more on shipping than the soap, but the minute I used it, I felt better.”
“Because of the citrus-scent?” Davis says with a smile.
“Partly. But mostly because, even from halfway around the world, she’d found a way to tell me she was thinking of me. And every time I used the soap after that, even on really bad days, I felt good.”
Davis looks sceptical. “That’s all it takes?”
“That’s literally all it takes. When Ada gave me that soap, when Jake gave her that book, it’s like a neon sign saying, I see you.
You matter. That’s what counts. Ada’s ex?
He was a ‘presents’ guy. He rained expensive crap on her, and if he walked in here right now, you’d have to hold me back before I smashed a wine bottle over his head. ”
Davis laughs, the ink on his neck shifting. “You’re an A-plus friend, Cece Taylor.”
My stomach fizzes at the way he says my name. “Thanks.”
His face shifts. Goes serious again. “Still, whatever issue was between Ada and Jake that night with the stags? It’s still there. And he’s stupid if he thinks buying her a book and keeping her fuck-drunk is gonna fix it.”
My stomach lurches again. I’m probably hungry. “You think being in love is stupid?”
He shrugs. “I think believing people can change is stupid.”
“That’s a sad way to look at the world...”
“Doesn’t make it wrong.”
I frown. “You sound like one of the old-timers crowding up the bar at 3 p.m.”
“Feel like one sometimes.”
“You’re twenty-four! Not triple-divorced with fifteen kids!”
He smiles into his Coke Zero. “True.”
“So, why all the cynicism, Davis Sanderson?” I give his arm a gentle push, but it feels like granite, and I drop my hand. “Who broke your heart?”
He lifts his gaze. “My dad.”
I wince. “I’m so sorry.”
My words are a weak offering, but one side of his lips kicks up.
“Thanks, but don’t be. I was six when he left, but he wasn’t much of a dad anyway.
Never picked me up from school, didn’t take me to the park.
He worked a lot, but that wasn’t why he was never around.
‘Couldn’t be bothered,’ he told Mum. Then a week after I turned six, he was gone. Surprised he lasted that long.”
“Oh, Davis…”