Colin leans toward my ear whispering, “Mindy has been a hookup off and on for the past year. Not sure how this is going to go.”
I look over at Ava, seeing her confidenceplummet by the second.Damnit.Jane’s eyeing me back, biting her lip with the same thoughts I’m having. Why the hell couldn’t this chick have shown up earlier when we were all dancing and having fun and we could’ve distracted her?! Seriously bad timing. Ava gulps down more of her margarita as we all watch the horror show of Mark basically salivating over Mindy’s boobs in his face. I mean, I get it, but at the same time, I’m disappointed. Maybe if we’d had more time for them to talk and hit it off more before this happened, things would be going differently.
“I’ll have to chat with you in a bit, Mindy. I’m here with friends.”
My ears perk at this. I feel somewhat hopeful. He’s not being straight up rude, and if we can sway things, we might still have a shot at this. My thoughts crumble when she leans down and brushes her lips across the corner of his mouth before making a show of brushing those boobs up against his arm. Ava’s not going to want to even try at this point.
“Later, babe,” Mindy coos in his ear and takes off with a sneaky smile.
Bitch…There’s no way she didn’t just see him dancing with Ava. She purposely came over here to stir shit. Colin eyes Mark, then me, then Ava. We’re both thinking the same thing. Tonight’s shot is done for.Thanks a lot, Mindy.
Ava is trying to mask her disappointment, but it’s not working very well. Thankfully, some fun music picks back up, so Jane and I escape with her to the floor to cheer her up.
???
Colin
Mark looks back at me with a wicked smirk after Mindy walks away from the table, disappearing into the throng of bodies. Garrett and the girls are dragging Ava back onto the dance floor, margaritas in hand.
“Can you believe those tits? That surgeon did a fantastic job.”
Trystan and I shake our heads at each other. Mark is completely oblivious to the situation.
“You realize less than ten minutes ago, you were dancing with and attempting to hit on Ava? A pair of titties flash in your line of sight, and what? It all just goes poof?” Trystan chastises him for me, and Mark has the good sense to look a little sheepish.
“This right here is a perfect example of why you can’t keep a steady girlfriend. Your eyes just wander wherever they please, and you don’t take a minute to think about anyone or anything else that’s not your dick.” Mark sits back against his chair, crossing his arms across his chest, a bit taken aback by my littleoutburst. Damn, if he knew what Ava’s been through, he might have considered her feelings a bit more. I wish I had known so that I could’ve explained things better to the guys. “She went through hell with her ex-fiancè. She was really nervous to come out tonight because that son of a bitch took it upon himself to make her feel like she was nothing more than a boring prude. He legit called her that. So, please tell me how openly slobbering over some chick’s boobs made Ava feel more confident in her own skin tonight after you were just hitting on her? She likely feels insignificant. She sure as hell doesn’t feel interesting to you right now.”
Mark curses under his breath, finally feeling like the asshole he just behaved like.Good.
“I’ll try to make up for it.”
“I probably wouldn’t bother tonight. She’s probably thinking what a manwhore you are right now.”
“Is that really how I come off to everyone?”
We both nod.
“Manwhore, playboy, womanizer, rake, player, ladies’ man, skirt-chaser… I’m sure there’s many other names for it.” Trystan adds, hiding his smile behind his glass of draft beer.
“Joy…” Mark rolls his eyes, our scolding seeping in.
The girls and Garrett choose that moment to come back.
“So, the ladies are going to head out and go back to Sydney’s place for the night,” Garrett announces, a finality to his tone that tells Mark he totally fucked up. I look up and glare at him, letting him know how unhappy I am about my sleeping arrangements getting “unarranged”.
“Oh, shit. Mark, you better start kissing ass. You’re gonna be beer bitch for a while, I gather.” Trystan slings back his last swallow and stands, a “you’re fucked” laugh escaping his lips.
“Among other things. You. Owe. Me,” I grit between frustrated teeth. Tonight was going to be so good…Key word iswas.
“I’m sorry, man. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Trystan, Mark…” Sydney steps into our little area, grabbing my hand to tug me away and say goodnight.Fucking Mark!
“Oooh, she used your name. She’s not happy with you either,” Trystan taunts, leaning in to hug Sydney before walking off to say goodnight to the others.
“Damnit…” Mark mutters under his breath, running fingers through his hair before following Trystan.
“I’m sorry about the change in sleeping arrangements.” She looks up at me, a wistful gleam showing me how sorry she really is, but I get it. Tonight wasn’t easy for Ava, and Mark just made things that much worse in her head. She needs her girlfriends.
