Chapter 7
I’m squished between a grumpy Anders and a brooding Jules in the back seat of Gabe’s car. Anders is in town for the weekend, so Gabe decided we all need to go try the new paintball course that just opened up a town over.
Gabe is in the front seat, babbling on, but all I can think about are the places I’m pressed against Anders.
He’s changed since moving to New York.
The car swerves and my hands instinctively jut out, grabbing for something to keep me steady. Which ends up being Anders’ hand. Which he immediately yanks out of my grasp.
“Oh, shit! Sorry about that,” Gabe says before jumping back into his story.
“Let’s go out tonight, bitches!” I yell as I throw the door to the apartment open.
I know I probably look like a mad woman. I’m off kilter and I don’t like it. I swear Anders was giving me sex eyes at coffee this morning, but I can’t even begin to analyze that so I’ve decided going out would be a much better alternative. “Who’s with me?!”
“It’s Tuesday…” Luci has stopped dancing and turned down the volume on “Sucker” by the Jonas Brothers, an apt song for how I’m feeling, actually. Riz sits at the dining table, looking up from the textbook she was studying.
“You want to go out on a Tuesday?” she asks. “Is everything okay?”
“Absolutely. And I do not want to talk about it. But I do want to go to Louie”s and drown my sorrows.” I pause. “No. Not my sorrows. My completely indifferent feelings.”
“I guess we’re going out tonight!” I can always count on Luci to indulge my whims.
The smell of stale alcohol and bad decisions greets us an hour later when we walk into Louie’s, our local dive bar, owned by one of my favorite people. I wore my I want to feel like hot shit dress even though it’s fucking cold outside.
“Shots?” I call over my shoulder as I head toward the bar.
“Yes please! We’ll find a table!” Luci drags Riz off in the opposite direction.
Walking up to the bar, I motion for Louie himself and order three vodka shots. Louie narrows his eyes me skeptically but obliges, knowing he’ll get the full story later.
As I turn back toward the seating area to scan for Luci and Riz, I see him. He’s at the other end of the bar, sipping on something aggressively manly. Whiskey maybe? Out of the corner of my eye I can see when he makes the decision to come over.
Bingo.
That’s exactly why I wore this dress.
He saunters up to me and I find myself inexplicably disappointed when the first words out of this guy’s mouth are “Hello, gorgeous,” instead of “Hey, Baby Bardot.”
Because for some damn reason, no one makes me feel the way Anders makes me feel. But I’m desperate, and probably slightly unhinged, so I keep this going.
“Hey, handsome… if that’s your real name,” I joke.
“It’s Brady.” His eyes also crinkle at the corners and I want to be turned on by that, but it’s not the right kind of crinkle. “What’s your name? Unless it actually is ‘gorgeous’?” He’s playing along. That’s cute.
I huff a laugh and stick my hand out. I know it makes my boobs look good because he chances a glance down before taking my hand. “It’s Bex.”
“Bex. I like that.” Doesn’t matter if he likes it or not, but okay. “What brings you out on a Tuesday night?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Brady.”
He smirks. “Fair enough. Does someone really need a reason to go out and have a drink? Though, running into a beautiful woman certainly doesn’t hurt.” So he’s here to find someone to take home. I don’t blame him—that’s partially what I was hoping I would find tonight too. Along with maybe some clarity at the bottom of a shot glass.
I give him a smile. “No, I guess it doesn’t hurt.”
Louie returns with three shots and I open my mouth to invite Brady back to our table when a dark head of hair catches my eye, sitting at the table with Luci and Riz.
Fucking Gabriel is here because of course he is.
I give a tighter smile this time. “Well it was nice to meet you, Brady, but the bane of my existence just showed up so I need to go now.”
He furrows his brow. “Anything I can do to help?”
“Reverse time and make sure I’m born into a different family?” I shrug helplessly.
“I’m flattered that you think I’m capable of that…” Fuck, Gabe’s getting closer.
“Yeah, mhmm. Bye now.”
But it’s too late. Gabe has spotted us and is walking over. Maybe if I take all three of these shots…
“Put down the shots, Bexy,” Gabe warns. Damn.
Gabe reaches out a hand to Brady. “Nice to meet you, I’m the big brother. And she has two more that can be here within the next five minutes if necessary.”
I wince as Brady reroutes the hand that was going to shake Gabe’s, instead moving it up in surrender.
“Hey, man, no harm no foul, right?” To give him credit, Brady looks slightly taken aback. Gabe doesn’t look it, but he’s the softest teddy bear of a man. He wouldn’t hurt a fly, let alone this grown ass man, but his gym-toned muscles tell a different story. Kill me now.
Gabe looks him up and down. “Right…” His arm slings around my shoulders. “Let’s go, Bexy. Nice to meet you, man.” That last part was directed at Brady.
I give him a small wave, shot in hand, as my brother and I head over to the table where my so-called friends are giggling at the show Gabe just put on.
“I was hoping to get laid tonight,” I bite out as we weave through the tables.
Gabe visibly recoils, like I knew he would. “Ew. I do not need to hear that.”
“Hear what?” Luci asks as Gabe slides into the booth next to her and I sit next to Riz.
“That Bex wanted to get laid tonight,” he repeats, making a gagging motion.
If Riz had anything in her mouth, it would have been the perfect spit take. Gabe might not know this, but Luci and Riz are fully aware that I don’t sleep with someone casually. I have nothing against it, per se, but you know, things have been ten times better when I’m in a relationship. Or when I just take care of it myself. Definitely not to the thought of red hair sliding through my fingers.
Luci, God bless her, has zero filter and I stare in horror as she says, “But Bex, what about your crush…”—she catches my death glare a second too late—“…ing headache?” she tries to amend, blue eyes wide with apology.
But Gabe has already perked up. “Bexy has a crush? Do tell!” He places his elbows on the table and rests his face in his hands like this is the best news he’s heard all week.
“How about our shots?!” Riz jumps in. She hands one to Luci and we cheers before hitting the bottom of the glass on the table and throwing it back. Riz arches her eyebrow and turns toward Gabe. “Another round! On you, right, Gabriel?”
He looks skeptical before Luci touches his forearm. “Please?” she asks, and I want to be drunk enough not to think about how her plea is what convinces him to go get more shots for us.
As soon as he’s out of earshot, Riz turns to me. “What the fuck is going on?”
Fuck.
“Nothing.”
“Try again.”
“Fine. Coffee this morning with Anders was a lot and I’m hoping if I drink enough tonight, I’ll wake up and it’ll be graduation already.” Bleak, but true. “Happy?”
Luci is obviously not thrilled with that answer. She pouts and asks, “Why did he want to get coffee?”
“He offered to TA a different section.”
“Holy shit,” Riz whispers. “Why?”
“He said something about making me more comfortable because he knows I make it my life’s mission to avoid him, which is ridiculous.”
Silence.
“I know! And I thought I was being more subtle than that.”
Apparently, I mistook their silence as astonishment on my behalf, because Riz and Luci both outright laugh. “There’s nothing subtle about you when it comes to that man. But we’ll talk more about it later.” Luci nods toward Gabe, who is making his way back to our table with four shots this time.
“Bottoms up, ladies!” He passes out a shot to each of us.
“Bex sure would like her bottom up…” Luci comments, cutting her eyes sideways to gauge Gabe’s reaction. It registers a split second later and we actually do get a spit take this time as he spews his vodka shot across the table.
“Awww. Can’t hold your alcohol, Gabey?” I mock.
His head hits the table. “Remind me again why I came out tonight.”
That’s a good point. “Why did you come out tonight? It’s a Tuesday, as everyone keeps reminding me.”
“I don’t know. Anders wasn’t home and you know I get lonely,” he groans. He’s such an extrovert. “I decided to come down for a drink, then I saw Luci and Riz, then they pointed me to you getting hit on at the bar.” They both have the decency to look guilty when I glare at them.
But I’m stuck on one part of what Gabe said. “Anders isn’t home?”
“There’s that subtlety we know and love,” Riz guffaws.
Thankfully Gabe doesn’t give much attention to that comment. “He’s at some rehearsal for something. Who knows.”
Okay, I can handle that. Shaking my head, I try to convince myself that I don’t care. I have no feelings about how Anders spends his evenings.
“But… speaking of crushes,” Gabe continues, oblivious to my internal struggle. “I think Anders is fucking someone.”
I choke on my water.
“He’s been acting so weird lately,” he continues. “I mean he hasn’t dated anyone since moving back for grad school, at least not seriously. He used to fuck anything that could walk so this self-imposed celibacy was a bit of a shock, but makes sense considering…” Gabe trails off. Considering what?! I want to scream.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this. I guess I’m just happy for him; he deserves something good coming his way.” He laughs to himself then, proving that he has the emotional capacity of a twelve year old. “Heh, coming…”
Gabe finishes his monologue as my friends and I sit in stunned silence. I don’t know how to process all of the information he just gave me. And my plan to not think about Anders tonight is going quite terribly.
Riz recovers the quickest, leaning in. “Who do you think he’s fucking?”
Oh shit. My face gets really hot with that question.
“No idea. Like I said, he’s being all weird and secretive. Wait!” He points his finger at me and my stomach falls out of my ass. “Bex, maybe you can find out now that you’re in class with him. I bet it’s that chick that’s always his scene partner.”
I can’t do this. “Can we not talk about Anders’ love life? And I definitely do not want to talk about that freaking class, either.”
“Fine, Bexy. We’ll talk about something else. Luce, you ready for your last semester of undergrad?” And with that the conversation blissfully moves on, but my thoughts are still stuck on trying to figure out who Anders’ scene partner is.
I need another shot.