He nodded and drank his beer. “You’re right. You are right.” He glanced past me to Adam. “When you kissed Adam earlier I wanted to rush over here and beat his head in.”
“Adam? It was just a friendly kiss on the cheek. I wanted to clear the air between us.”
“Logic says, ‘I know.’ Jealousy says, ‘Kill!’” He smiled then sobered up. “Look. Number one, pretty has nothing to do with anything. Just so happens I think you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. It was that which made me go into Piggly Wiggly for the second time just to see you. Something about you just makes me go nuts. Number two, I love you. I have never really loved anyone before. I thought I did, but now I know that was false. Love to me is sacred. Trust is essential. If you don’t trust me, I want you to walk away from this right now.” He meant it.
Which meant I was the douche.
I got thick, as Claire would say. “You know, I am sick of this: ‘I love you, you’re beautiful, you are the one for me, bla bla’ all the time. Can’t you just for once stop making me feel like an ass? Treat me badly so I know you have flaws like everyone else? All this goody-goody makes me nervous!”
He laughed loudly and put me in a head lock. “Either I treat you like you are priceless, or I beat the shit out of you. Your choice!” He laughed again.
“Well, when you guilt trip better than a Jewish mama, I might choose the beating!”
“Alright. I made my point. Trust me. I’ll trust you. And do you mind that I called you my girlfriend?”
“Oh ho ho! Trying to sneak that in. Make me feel bad, then throw in that little nugget!”
He laughed shamelessly and shrugged. “Davies men get what they want.”
“Oh really? I shall remember to deny you next time you want something.”
“You can try.”
I hugged him, liking the warmth of his body. Liking him near me. Hating that trusting another human being could sometimes be so damn hard. Especially when you’d been burned a few times before.
He kissed me and put his mouth to my ear, “We’ve made it past my mother. My issue. We’ve made it past your friend. Your issue. We made it past a lunatic ra**st/murderer. Our issue. What’s next?”
I whispered back, “Gladis’s party.”
We both grimaced and headed back.
Chapter Eleven
The night progressed nicely, if not over drunkenly. The party atmosphere the girls created by being in a new place, a VIP section, and all around just wanting to have fun, spread throughout the whole party. I had been worried that my crew would be the only drunken messes. Turned out we blended in. I always said open bars were dangerous!
We’d decided to burn off a little alcohol and hit the dance floor for the second time. Usually we were dance floor residents in most places, but those danged stairs were just so much work. And the free bar was so far away when we were down there.
William followed us down to dance, Adam and Brad right behind. I had a feeling the boys didn’t want to see heads rolling down the steep incline. Well, except for Brad, who seemed sweet on our little Jane. I caught her running her fingertips up his arm as she leaned in to talk. I bet she was trying to glance her cle**age off him and wasn’t close enough. She was pulling out all the tricks in quick succession, and he was falling for it just as quickly. Horniness on both parts probably explained it. Regardless, he would probably follow her around the club for the rest of the night.
We got to the top of the stairs and the boys stepped up.
“Going down?” William asked, holding out his arm.
“Me, too, Willie,” Lump said, grabbing onto his other arm. She hadn’t picked a man yet, her choice being taken. She was as picky as all hell. Too picky.
When Adam stepped up, he didn’t have to open his mouth before Flem and Claire took their sides, Claire leaning a little more heavily then she needed to. Jane got Brad all to herself. She also leaned heavily. Shameless!
When we got to the dance floor the girls let go of their support systems, except Jane, and headed to the center. We saw a couple more people from our party, including Moose and his girlfriend. William and I danced with them for a second, then William got closer and I lost sight of everyone else.
“So, Mexico, huh?” he said close to my ear.
“Uh…yeah. Not my finest moment. So I’ve been told.”
“You don’t remember any of it?”
“Not past the third shot of tequila. I meant to tell you—watch me closely when I get drunk. I sometimes need a babysitter.”
“I have permission to overprotect, now, huh?”
“Just from myself, yeah. When drunk.”
“Hmmm.”
He slid his leg between mine. I felt his lips against my ear lobe and his hands slip down to my butt, pulling me into him.
“You do look beautiful. Did I tell you?”
“Nope. Thanks. You’re okay, I guess. You know, if being hot is your thing.”
He chuckled and nibbled down my neck.
“Your friends are fun. I see now why Candace wasn’t enough.”
“Yeah, they bring more than their boyfriends to a party. Speaking of which, where is she?”
William smirked into my neck. “Waiting until her boyfriend is available to come to the party.”
“See?”
“You’d come without me?”
“And have, yeah. I’ve had practice, since the guys before you never got me there.”
It took him a moment to realize I was no longer talking about a party. He chuckled, hunger lighting up his eyes.
“Mind in the gutter. Anyway, what do your friends think of me? Good or bad?” William leaned back so he could read my face.
“Horrible. Pretty boy suck-up with a mommy complex.”
“Not going to get a straight answer out of you am I?”
“No, sir. Too turned on for seriousness.”
“Hmmm.”
He pulled me into him a little harder, increasing the friction of our groins, moving his h*ps and his body perfectly to both mine and the music. We weren't concerned about spectators so we let our dancing get more familiar, him touching me, me running my hands over him. We were showing off for each other as well as dancing.
It wasn't until I was pushed aside by Flem that I remembered my surroundings. She danced up close to me with William at her back, then turned to face him and did the same. Then she turned herself in a circle, grabbed my hand, and led me to where the other girls were, where we all danced together without a care in the world. Guys encircled us with a perimeter. Moose's girlfriend and her friends were pushed in with us, and we made them at home. Soon more girls pushed into the fray.
We were surrounded by our whole party, then some, when I stopped. I was a sweaty, nasty mess. I needed air, which in this place, simply meant I needed to leave the dance floor.
I tapped Lump and Jane and nodded upwards. They passed it on, sweaty faces, one and all. I saw William, who was a world away on the opposite side of the dance floor, exiting out his side with Adam in tow. Meeting point: stairs.
As I pushed past the row of sweaty man-bodies, I felt a hand cup my ass and squeeze. I jumped at the same time I heard Jane squeak and saw that someone was grabbing at her breast. Instinct was to freak out, scream and possibly cry, all the while covering myself and waiting for help. But this was a club, and these boys were young morons. This sort of behavior happened, unfortunately, and the best way to handle it was to stay calm, and let Lump take care of it. If Lump wasn’t there, create a huge ruckus to attract the bouncers. Otherwise, kick some ass and get the hell out of there.
I yelled for Lump and pushed at the red faced dumb-ass in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jane throw an elbow. The guy that grabbed my butt was now trying to push against me, his hands working their way up my legs. I couldn't get myself turned around to shove him off, and fought with a different guy that was trying to dance with me from my front, so I loudly asked Lump what the status was. I was not intending for the yuck-up behind me to get a proper feel up my dress. My foot would connect with a room full of balls before that happened.
I saw William struggling to get in, and realized he would not think this was standard practice. Especially with my history. If I didn't want to have to kick someone in the balls, I really didn't want to have to bail him out of prison for kicking someone in the head.
I gave the guy in front of me a good shove, no longer waiting for Lump-the-Hero. I helped Jane push hers off, then we tried to confront the idiot wanting to cop a feel. Lump was with us a second later, a guy rolling around on the ground in her wake. The guy behind me was ripped away, a loud grunt sounding before he hit the deck. Lump wiped her hands on her dress. Apparently the offending moron had been sweaty. Gross.
The great thing about a girl kicking the shit out of some trashy guy was that everyone applauded and no one got in trouble. Especially when that someone was as efficient at it as Lump was.
We pushed through the rest of the crowd, running smack into the wall of William, Adam and Moose. Lump pushed Jane and I away and starting pushing and turning the boys. One minute Adam was charging past her, the next he was walking the other direction, his eyes scrunched up in confusion, with no idea how he got there.
I grabbed William, pleading that I was alright. It wasn’t the time for a flashback.
Moose was held back by his girlfriend and Jane working together. Adam was blinking down at Lump, who was still trying to get him to walk away.
William’s face cleared a little, seeing I was okay. He allowed me to turn him, his anger kept in check by strength of will and reason. Also by Moose clapping him on the back and saying next time they’d be quicker.
Whatever worked.
Adam and Lump didn’t move. They were having a stare down. I could see Adam was really pissed off that a girl man-handled him.
She was glaring back, mad that he was so dense and wouldn't just do as instructed. It was unusual for a man to stand up to her, as odd as that sounded. She was usually so laid back that when she did assert her stead-fast, bull-headed, do-as-you-are-told side, guys and gals alike, old or young, it didn’t matter, usually reacted exactly as she meant them to. Her friends included. It took a lot to rile her, but when she was, she usually had infallible logic. Ass backwards, sometimes, so I thought, but she’d gotten me out of plenty of sticky situations so I didn’t question.
Adam looked over her shoulder and saw that the dude was looking around him for whoever attacked him. That would have been Lump’s guy. He looked straight at Adam, who reacted by quickly moving Lump out of the line of fire. Wrong move. Icould see the anger creeping up from her toes, tensing every muscle as it passed to her eyes, which shot venom.
This was starting to be a good show.
"This is the wrong time to have a battle of the wills." William said, reading my mind but coming up with a different conclusion.
I could hear Moose chuckling. “About time a girl finally called him out.”
“Yeah, but he's gonna end up outside fighting,” William responded.
“Hell, that’d be fun, too. I’m sure there'll be enough to go around!”
Boys!
Lump was now pulling Adam's hand to try and get him to leave the dance floor. She was a strong woman with a lot of training, and she was using her leverage to get him off balance. Adam was an even stronger man, though, used to bulls and horses and God knew what. He wouldn't budge.
His head bent down intimately, looking deep into her eyes, and said something.
She jolted back, hand coming to her chest like a chick. After stared at him for a moment, she flung his hand away and stomped off the dance floor.
Apparently Adam hadn’t whispered sweet nothings.
He turned back to the joker, stared at him a second longer, all his muscles taught with tension, daring action, before calmly turning and following us off the dance floor. He'd pissed her off just to assert his manliness. Whadda douche!
Men really knew how to ruin a good time. If penises weren’t so fun, I’d have the whole lot of ‘em removed.
Lump reached us in a cloud of red. Without an upward glance, she swooshed past and away toward the front entryway. She’d get herself a beer, hang out for a while and calm down, then be good as gold. She knew how to get herself back to her happy place, and preferred to do it alone.
The next person to pass in a whirl, though a much less impressive one because he wasn’t wearing a flowing dress, was Adam. He watched Lump go with calculating eyes, but he didn’t follow. Instead, he met Claire and Flem at the stairs and held out his arms. They were happier to grab on than to ask what happened, and away they went.
“Well,” I said to those around me, "that was eventful.”
Moose laughed. “You sure got colorful friends. I’ll say that much. Shouldn’t you go check on…what’s her name? Lump?”
He knew her name! He was just hamming it up for his girlfriend!
And by the look on her face, and how she followed Lump with her head, she knew it. Big mistake Moose!
“Now for the hardest part,” Jane said, looking for Brad.
The stairs.
A few drinks later the girls settled around a table with a fresh round. Lump had cooled off and was back to indifference on the whole affair. She was never angry for long. We filled in Flem and Claire both of which would have loved to see the whole thing.
Flem, straightforward as always, asked, "So... what did he say that pissed you off?"
Lump shook her head with a scowl. "Asshole. I was just trying to help, right? I was just trying to cool the whole thing down and move on."
We nodded empathetically. Yes of course. Naturally you weren't trying to control him. Obviously.