She puts her phone down. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know. A pub?” I suggest. “Ooooh I know, we should go to karaoke bar.”
She picks up her phone again.
“If you have to ask Ryder if you’re allowed to go out for karaoke, this friendship is over,” I plainly state.
Lexi rolls her eyes at me. “I’m not asking, I’m telling. You know he worries every time I go out with you.”
There is something very wrong with that statement.
“I’m his family! And I knew you before he did. In fact, he owes me everything he has for bringing you into his life,” I point out. “Be sure to pass that on to him.”
She pats me on my shoulder. “I’ll do that. Should we start getting ready then?”
“Yep, good idea.”
Luckily I keep clothes here.
“Just karaoke right? This isn’t going to turn into one of your all-night can’t-remember-anything-the-next-day type of nights?”
I think it over. “I can neither confirm nor deny anything.”
She sighs. “I’m wearing flats then. I can’t wear heels and keep up with you, dancing until six am.”
“Flats are for quitters!” I call out as she walks into her room.
Or pregnant women.
I search her cabinet until I find the alcohol.
“Bingo!” I say as I see a bottle of tequila. The expensive kind. I find two shot glasses, which happen to be ones we got in Greece as souvenirs, rinse them, and pour in the tequila. I then take a picture of them and forward it to Ryder, with the caption:
If you’re drunk it doesn’t count as cheating.
I start laughing my ass off when I hear Lexi’s phone ring from the other room. A few minutes later she starts yelling, “Tenielle Crawford I’m going to kill you!”
I tilt my head back and drink down the tequila.
Tonight is going to be a fun night.
*****
Daniel, at least I think that was his name, was a good enough looking guy. He tries to take my hand once more, but I retract it, my other hand reaching for Lexi. There is no way I’m letting her out of my sight tonight. It’s just the two of us out, and it’s not safe for us to be wandering around alone. Even tipsy as hell—I know that. So when Daniel, some guy I just met and had one dance with, keeps trying to get me alone by pulling me away from Lexi, that’s when I start to get angry. I try and handle him, because you see the thing I’ve found with some males, especially drunk ones, is that they don’t like rejection.
“Thanks for the dance, but I have to go now,” I tell him. “It’s ladies’ night!”
He frowns, not liking the idea, but too f**king bad. I look at Lexi and then back at Daniel, too late to move out of the way as his lips come down on mine. He tastes like stale beer. I pull my hand out of Lexi’s and put all my strength into the swift kick I deliver to his nuts.
He drops.
Shaking my head, I turn to Lexi who is staring at me like I’ve grown a third head. “What? I tried being nice.”
She giggles. “Let’s go to a different club.”
Good idea.
*****
We walk back into Lexi’s house at five am, carrying our shoes in our hands.
“I really liked your rendition of that Morning Alliance song,” Lexi tells me, giggling as she opens the front door.
I smile and lean against the wall. “It was definitely one of my finer moments.”
Her phone goes off, and I know it’s Ryder. “He needs to get a life.”
“I told him I’d message him when we got in, and he’s probably wondering why I haven’t messaged,” she replies, opening the door and walking in. We were just sobering up after a long-ass fun-filled night.
It felt like old times.
Lexi starts getting busy in the kitchen, cooking bacon and eggs, while I take a quick shower and dress in my black pajamas. I walk back into the kitchen and smirk at Lexi’s red smudged lipstick around her mouth but decide not to tell her.
It’s more fun this way.
“Waiting on the bacon,” she says, sipping on some orange juice.
“How can you drink orange juice right now?” I ask her.
“Why not?”
“We drank it with vodka all night,” I say, pouring a glass of water.
Her mouth grins around the glass. “And now it’s minus the vodka.”
We both smile.
“So…” she says.
“What?” I ask as I sit down.
“Ryder told me Saxon spoke to him about you,” she says, wiggling her eyebrows.
“And you just waited until now to tell me? After all that boring shit you told me about you and Ryder?”
She pokes her tongue out at me. “Us talking about trying for a baby is not boring!”
It was to me.
“What did he say?” I ask her, trying to act casual. I make swirls with my finger on the table.
“He told Ryder he wants you. Apparently Ryder laughed and wished him good luck,” she tells me, smirking.
Ryder is such a gossip.
“I think you should give him a chance. He’s changed,” she says with hesitance.
I narrow my eyes. “Since when do we share penis?”
She laughs. “I know, that part is a little weird, but come on. It was so long ago, I can’t even remember what he looks like naked.”
Fucking phenomenal is how he looks naked.
They should make a cast of his penis and put it in sex shops for women everywhere.