Chapter 15 #2
‘I’ll have to trust you on that,’ she says, looking over at me from under her eyelashes. ‘Strictly a spectator when it comes to that sort of thing. Funny thing is, I’ve never been into sporty boys. Rowers are boring, rugger buggers are unbearable, and football players are …’
‘Football players are what?’ I ask, lowering my voice a tad.
A delicate flush colours her cheeks and chest.
‘Surprisingly intelligent and very deep thinkers,’ she replies. ‘Especially ones who study psychology.’
‘Good save.’ I chuckle as I shift against the leather bench. ‘Like, goalkeeper good.’
‘Tell me about South Carolina.’ Resting her elbows on the table, she cradles her face in her hands. ‘You’re from a town called Beaufort, you said?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
I pretend not to notice when she closes her eyes and covers her heart with her hands again.
It’s a little much, acting like a single word can melt the panties off a girl but at the same time, I can’t help but wonder how low the bar is over here.
If a guy can score by simply being polite, it might be time to re-evaluate that famous British chivalry all the girls back home seem to think is so real.
‘It’s on the water, small town, real pretty.’
‘Is that where you went to university as well?’
‘No ma—’ I stop myself just in time. ‘No. Marshall College, where Mia and I went to school before Hemden? That’s up in Columbia, about a hundred and fifty miles north.’
‘You and Mia?’
Refusing to look over at the bar, I nod.
‘That’s right.’
‘Considering the two of you aren’t friends, you’ve got a very bad case of mentionitis when it comes to her.’
‘What? No way.’ I rake my hair back from my face, scoffing as though she said something hilarious. Because she totally did. ‘Just don’t know that many people yet, is all. Good job I know you, huh?’
At last, I manage to say the right thing. Lauren leans forward looking like the cat that cleared out the entire milk section.
‘Okay, enough about her. Tell me something good.’
‘Something good?’ I rub my chin, not sure what she means. ‘Like how male penguins propose to their mates with a pebble?’
‘I was thinking something more personal but that is some of the best news I’ve ever heard.
’ She pushes her drink back and forth between her hands, the glass gliding along the wooden surface on the slip of condensation.
‘You’re playing two years of catch-up, remember?
I want to know something only the people closest to you in the whole entire world would know. ’
So much for distracting myself. What’s something only the people closest to me in the whole entire world would know? It’s my fault my brother is in a wheelchair.
‘Uh, I can make my ears move?’ I offer, demonstrating this extraordinary talent on cue but Lauren’s face flattens with disappointment.
‘If that’s the best you can do, you better be as good of a football player as they say you are.’
‘Don’t worry, I am,’ I say with certainty and pride. ‘What about you?’
‘What’s something you’d already know about me if you’d been here for the last two years?’ Her lips pull into a pout and her eyes skirt up towards the ceiling. ‘Well, I love to go out dancing.’
And she thought my answer sucked?
‘Wednesday is student night at Media. That’s why it’s so quiet in here, everyone’s probably already in town, putting back one-pound shots at the Cat and Fiddle.’
‘I know all the words in that sentence but when you put them all together like that, they did not make the slightest bit of sense.’
A hand reaches across the table and lightly punches me in the arm but when she starts explaining, something about a club and a pub and bottom shelf sambuca, my attention drifts over to Mia behind the bar.
Sitting on a barstool, hair pulled back, perfectly straight teeth cutting into her pillowy bottom lip as she turns the page on a book so big, at first I thought it was a Bible.
She’s so engrossed in whatever the hell it is, she doesn’t seem to realize she’s getting closer and closer to swiping a stack of bottles off the shelf behind her every time she turns the page.
‘She’s gonna knock ’em over,’ I mutter, unable to look away.
‘Knock what over?’ Lauren asks. ‘Who?’
Half a dozen glass bottles crash to the floor and the whole of Members erupts in a cheer. Mia immediately throws her book aside and disappears from view, ducking down behind the bar.
‘I should go help,’ I say but Lauren rests a hand on my forearm to hold me in place.
‘I’m sure she’s on top of it, you don’t want to get in the way.’
She tightens her grip on my wrist and looks at me with those big old eyes of hers. Now I’m looking closer, are they too big? Mia has big eyes but these are ridiculous, like she’s part bushbaby or something.
‘Yeah, still, I should go check. Why don’t I get us another drink?’
‘Because we’ve still got our first drinks?’
Pulling my arm away, I get up from the table anyway and head over to the bar. Leaning over, I see Mia on her hands and knees, picking up the larger pieces of glass and dropping them in a trashcan.
‘Hey. Need a hand?’
She looks up at me, her eyes rimmed red.
‘Don’t come back here, you’ll cut yourself,’ she says, brandishing a giant shard of glass.
‘Can you not wave that thing in my face?’ I hold up my hands in surrender but she doesn’t drop her weapon. ‘I’m trying to help.’
‘I don’t need help.’
‘Do you have a dustpan or a broom or something? Lemme sweep while you clean up the spill.’
‘I said I don’t need your help!’
Kneeling in a pile of broken glass, Meyers looks up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks and the fire of one thousand fucking suns burning into me.
‘Yeah, looks like you’re doing great,’ I say as I back away. ‘At least let me grab some paper towels or something.’
‘Over there.’ She sniffs and nods to a fresh roll at the other end of the bar. ‘I was prepared.’
With a grimace, teeth bared, I toss the roll her way and she catches it without moving. ‘Not your first spill?’
‘Not my first spill today.’
‘Didn’t you say you were expecting help?’
‘Help that didn’t come,’ she confirms, wiping her face with the first piece, then spreading out paper towels on the floor. ‘It’s only my second shift and I think I’m already in negative pay.’
‘Shit, Mia, your book!’
I point at the thick-ass novel on the floor behind her but it’s too late. By the time she grabs it and lifts it out of the mess, the pages are soaked through.
‘Perfect.’ She attempts to flip through the soggy pages but they’re all gummed together with a toxic combination of vodka, gin and tequila. ‘Just perfect. Like I wasn’t having enough trouble with the damn thing already. It’s not going to make any more sense now.’
And to wrap it all up in a perfect bow, she sinks back onto the floor, puts her hand down and immediately slices open her palm on a piece of glass.
I jump into captain mode, hopping over the bar and crunching glass under the soles of my boots as I grab her wrist to move her hand into the light.
There’s no glass in the cut, but ruby red blood is already spilling down her wrist. She’s staring at it like she’s never seen blood before, but I have.
Too much. In a flash, I’m right back there, Bre’s forehead busted open, Chris unconscious as I drag him out of the Jeep on the side of the road.
‘Damn it, that looks deep. We gotta get you to a doctor.’
‘I can’t leave the bar, I’m the only one here,’ she says, pulling her hand away. ‘It’s not as bad as it looks.’
‘If you’re trying to prove how tough you are, you can quit it, you already turned green. Do you want to bleed out in the middle of a bar on the third day of school or do you want to come with me?’
‘My folks would kill me,’ she murmurs. ‘I’m not supposed to be in a bar.’
A laugh hacks its way out of me as I press a bundle of paper towels to her hand, cleaning up the worst of the blood. It doesn’t look as bad as I first thought but I sure would feel better if she’d let a doctor take a look at it.
‘Evening, Mia. Sorry I’m late, rowing club ran— Christ on a bike, what is happening here?’
A freaking ginormous dude with white blond hair walks in through the back door and stops dead in front of us.
‘Anders,’ Mia looks up at him with big, wet eyes, ‘I’m sorry, I was—’
‘It was my fault, I distracted her,’ I cut in. ‘You okay to take over here if I take her to the medical centre?’
The Nordic giant nods. ‘Yes, totally, get over there before they close and you have to spend all night in A & E.’
‘It’s really not that bad, I don’t need a doctor,’ Mia continues to protest, even as Anders reaches down to help me pull her up to her feet. ‘I don’t want to leave you here on your own.’
‘Then please stay and bleed all over our four customers,’ he replies. ‘Go. Now. That’s an order.’
He releases her into my arms and she slumps against me, accepting her fate. I’m already walking Mia across the dancefloor when she stops short.
‘What about your date?’ she asks, panicked. ‘You can’t just leave.’
‘It’s not a …’ I start to say, turning my head to see the deserted booth. Well, even if it was, it sure as shit isn’t now. ‘Let’s go.’ I put an arm around her shoulders and guide her towards the door. ‘I don’t need you bleeding on these boots. They’re suede.’
‘I’ll do my best.’ She raises her hand above her heart and swallows hard. ‘You’re pretty great in a crisis.’
‘Thanks,’ I say through gritted teeth. ‘Let’s get you to the doc.’
She truly has no idea.