I makeit a few hours before I cave.
I waited to see if she would, but she seems to be over whatever infatuation she had since she got what she wanted. That irks me a bit, makes me want to fight for her attention even more now, and how fucked up is that? I was so preoccupied with the EJ and Saltzy shit that it was easy to ignore her presence, but hours have passed, and now it’s all I can focus on.
I take the seat next to her while Fork plays beer pong. It’s been a long day, and Canadians love to drink. We’ll be here for hours yet.
She looks pretty, if you were wondering, because of course she does. Why wouldn’t she look mouth watering the morning after I decide we can never cross that line again? That would be too easy.
She’s wearing this baby pink sun dress that hugs her body in all the right places. That colour on her is fucking criminal. I’ll never get over it. She has these stylish gold clips holding back pieces of her blonde hair. It lets me see her whole face, which is a bonus. I’m fond of that face.
We fucked up last night. We shouldn’t have done what we did, and I think we both know that. But still, here I fucking am.
“Wedding Date,” is all she says, her eyes never leaving the beer pong table.
I lean forward on my elbows, bringing my drink to my mouth. “Plus One.”
A smile pulls at her mouth, but she still doesn’t look at me. We sit like that for a while, in silence. It’s not comfortable, but it isn’t the worst. I am trying not to think about Saltzy or that someone hit him. I haven’t felt a surge of anger like that in a long time. If Forker hadn’t jumped up, it would have probably been me. But my instinct to save Forker from a charge trumps my instinct to hit people, I guess.
EJ and Wyatt are both still here, but they haven’t spoken a word to each other. EJ is the most muted version of himself that I’ve ever seen. He hasn’t had a single drink. He just sits at the table and sulks. Eventually, Lemmy takes pity on him and joins him. She seems to get him talking, and she actually manages to bring a bit of colour back in his face after half an hour by his side.
Wyatt is still glowering at the world.
Saltzy decided to go back to the hotel before the boys got here. We told everyone he had a hangover and wasn’t feeling well. He refused to let Wyatt go with him, so Caulfield is in a piss-poor mood. He won’t even look in EJ’s direction, and I think it’s slowly killing him.
“Did you have a good night at the wedding?” I ask, after the silence stretches through to minutes.
“Nothing too memorable,” Ari says with a little shrug. I have to focus to keep the smirk off my face. What a little troublemaker. “What about you?”
That’s when she finally looks at me. Glances over her shoulder to meet my eyes, mischief and chaos dancing in herown. She somehow schools her expression into utter neutrality when she says that to me. Like we didn’t do what we did.
I glance sideways at her, studying her face carefully. “I have developed a new preference for The Goo Goo Dolls.”
She cocks a brow. “Oh?”
“And public bathrooms.”
Her mouth twitches upward. “I feel like there’s a story there.”
My eyes fall to her mouth because I’m a fucking idiot. “There might be.”
She smiles, wide and pretty, and then rips her attention from me to focus back on the game. I almost groan at the lack of contact, at the minimal amount of flirting. I didn’t think hooking up with her would have her wantinglessof me. That isn’t how this usually goes, but I should be thrilled. A normal person would be. It’s what I wanted.
We fucked up and I said we wouldn’t do it again. Mentally. To myself. All night.
I glance up at the beer pong table, convinced that all the boys, including Fork, have their attention glued to the game. I move to stand, but I slide my hand under her mountain of hair first, gliding my palm up her neck. She shivers under my touch and it ignites that same fucking need in me that I have been fighting to get over.
I lean down until my mouth is by her ear. “It’s not happening again, sweetheart.”
I stand, taking a sip of my drink, and push my chair back into the table. She tosses her hair over her shoulder, peering up at me like she did when she was on her knees. She blinks innocently.
“We’ll see.”
And I hate the way I feel triumphant after that, like I put myself back into the very game I wanted out of.
“Hey.”
EJ’s face falls, like he wasn’t expecting anyone to be here. When he realizes that it’s just me, he clears his throat and moves to skirt past me, letting me into the bathroom.
I can’t take that look on his face anymore. I reach up and stop him with a hand on his chest.
