Page 38 of All for Love

“Uh, you too.” I briefly touched my palm to his, getting the creeps before I quickly dropped it back to my side. Still, this was for Ellora, so I couldn’t just make a run for it. Instead, I shifted awkwardly on my feet and stuffed my hands into the back pockets of my jeans. “How are you?”

“Fine. What do you do for a living?”

Wow. What a conversationalist.

“I organize things.” I deliberately kept my answer vague. The less he knew about me, the better. Those brown eyes dragged down the length of my body and back up again. I doubted he’d heard a word I’d said anyway.

“That’s nice. I’m in engineering. Plumbing design.”

That means he works with shit, right?“Oh. That must be interesting.”

Ellora and Josh finally turned back to us and I smiled when she introduced me to him. He returned my smile, then pointed at the bar. “Can we get you girls a drink?”

“Please.” Ellora took his arm with a giggle when he offered it to her and left me alone with Ben once more.

He didn’t even try to pretend that he was in on getting us girls a drink, instead staring at me in that creepy way of his until Josh and Ellora returned with a pitcher of beer and four Solo cups. From the bar, we made our way to the counter to grab some shoes. While we were putting them on, Ellora sat next to me and leaned over.

“Sooooo,” she purred excitedly, her eyes shining with happy light as she looked at me. “What’s he like?”

“Uh, I don’t really know yet. How’s Josh?”

“He’s awesome,” she said dreamily, letting out a soft sigh. “We hit it off when we talked before, but we’re really hitting it off tonight. He’s so great. And hot. Don’t you think he’s hot?”

Well, he’s no Kody either.“So hot. I’m happy for you. Go do your thing. Ben and I will be right behind you.”

As it turned out, Ben stuck right behind me all night, his stubby fingers creeping down my arm as he mansplained bowling with his crotch pressed up against my ass. “Let me show you how to do it. You’re holding the ball all wrong. Your hips need to be like this.”

He planted his free hand on my hip, roughly shoving it forward before smirking at me. “There. Like that. Now pull back.”

His hand on my arm snaked down until his palm covered the back of my hand. Then he gripped so tight it hurt and yanked back. “And release.”

The ball went flying, hit the lane with a slight wobble, and then rolled directly into the gutter. Ben let out a disappointed sigh. “You’ll get it next time. We can win this thing yet.”

We weren’t going to win this thing if he kept finding excuses to get close and touch my ass, but try as I might, I couldn’t dislodge him. “I, uh, I’ve done this before. Why don’t you let me try by myself?”

He gave his head a dismissive shake. “That’s okay. I’ll show you how.”

Josh and Ellora were killing it, and Ben kept getting more and more hard-handed with me with every turn I took. My beer was disappearing fast, my sips turning into gulps, and when I watched the last droplets of the pitcher drip into my cup after I’d drained it again, I held it up.

“I’ll get the next round.” Heaven knew, I needed a drink to put up with this guy. “Be right back.”

Ellora whispered something that made Josh grin and nod. Then she hurried to catch up with me, stars in her eyes as she wrapped her arm around mine. “Shit. I think I may just be falling in love. He’s great. Isn’t he so great? How’re things going with you two? Any chance this is the guy who’s going to get you over Kody?”

“None,” I said firmly. “Not that I have to get over Kody because I don’t have feelings for him. He’s not my ex. We’ve never dated and we never will.”

“Methink the lady doth—”

“Oh, shut it,” I groaned, giggling as I squeezed her arm. “Ben is so gross, but I’m here for you and I’m going to be a good sport. Now let’s go get that beer so you can get back to him.”

She shot me an apologetic smile, her nose scrunching up as she glanced back at them over her shoulder. “He is gross, isn’t he? I’m sorry. I was really hoping that he’d be as great as his friend.”

“So was I, but it’s fine. Just have fun. I can take a night of bowling with a creep if it means I get to stand up with you at your wedding someday soon.”

She laughed. “We’ll have to see about that, but if it happens, you know you’re my maid of honor.”

We reached the bar and she told me more about Josh while we waited for service and our pitcher to be refilled, but while I was listening, I also couldn’t help thinking about Kody. Wondering if he could bowl and what a date with him might be like.

At this point, I knew I was being pathetic, but the vagina wanted who she wanted. I was still refusing to acknowledge that my heart was involved at all, but the more I foolishly longed for him to walk through those doors and sweep me off my feet, the more certain I became that there was more to it than just what my vagina wanted.

Now I just had to figure out how to stop it. I didn’t have the first clue as to how to go about doing that, but I did know that Ben wasn’t the answer.