Page 41 of All for Love

MERCEDES

Ellora was going to owe me forever because of this. I was all for doing a friend a favor, but she’d been on one amazing date with Josh—even if my experience of the first double date hadn’t been that—and they could’ve come out alone tonight.

She’d begged me to come, though. Apparently, Josh was really worried about his friend who was lonely and rather isolated. I wasn’t surprised, but I was annoyed that his loneliness and isolation had now seemingly become my problem.

According to Ellora, Josh had also said that Ben had enjoyed bowling with me and that he wanted to see me again. I didn’t know about that, but Josh had sworn Ben was a good guy who was just a little bit awkward around women he found attractive.

I didn’t know about that either.

At the end of the day, I’d decided to give it one last shot for Ellora’s sake. They wanted to double date, and so, we’d have one more.

As we walked into the rough and tumble venue where one of Ellora’s favorite bands was playing, however, I started rethinking my decisions in life. The music in the club was overwhelmingly loud, the crowd was packed in like sardines, and it smelled like booze and body odor.

Someone bumped into me and I tensed my muscles, catching myself before I went flying into Ben. He reached out to catch me anyway, his arm wrapping around my waist as he shot me a smug grin. Rock music pulsated through my chest, threatening to take over control of my heartbeat, but it gave me an excuse to shimmy away from him under the pretense of dancing my way to the bar.

This wasn’t my scene at all, but I was trying to be a good sport for Ellora, and that started with not scrubbing myself with sanitizer where he’d touched me. After dragging in a deep breath, I spun toward my friend and held out my hand for her to dance with me.

She smiled, winked at Josh, and then took it, raising our hands high above our heads as we shimmied and swayed our way to the bar. The music was too loud to have any real conversation, so after we went through the obligatory cash-waving war to get our drinks, we slowly made our way closer to the stage.

I closed my eyes, sipping my drink and trying to get into the music while Ellora lived her best life. She was jumping up and down, dipping over to wave her hair and grinning like a loon. The band wasn’t even playing yet, but my friend and the guy I knew she was hoping would be her boyfriend soon were already having a blast.

The strobing red, green, and blue lights dimmed a while later and the music faded as a man ran onto the stage to hoots and hollers from the crowd. He, like everyone else—myself included—was covered in a thin layer of shiny sweat as he grinned and grabbed the mic that had been set up for the band.

“Are you guys ready for Iron Rush?” he yelled into it, bending at the waist as if he’d put everything he’d had into those words.

The audience went wild. Ellora screamed at my sides, her hands in the air as Josh cupped his around his mouth, letting out a hoot of his own. Ben clapped mildly, not at all excited to see these guys as far as I could tell. When he saw me looking at him, he smirked and I turned my head forward.

I was really trying with this guy, but no matter what I did, he just kept creeping me out. I sighed, trying to get into the spirit of things. The band wasn’t bad, the atmosphere was electric, and I was here with my best friend.

All that had to count for something, and I was determined to make the best of it. The emcee set the microphone back in its cradle, then ran off the stage while swinging his arm toward the backstage area.

Cheers rang out, but for the rest, the club had quieted, anticipation thickening the air. When the first bars of their latest hit started playing over the speakers, everyone around me lost it. They screamed, they jumped, they waved, and when the band finally ran out onstage just as the cymbals crashed, I was pretty sure some people had fainted.

Grabbing onto that energy, I sidled up close to Ellora and grabbed her hand, holding tight as the lead singer scooped up the mic as he ran and brought it to his mouth without skipping a beat. The drummer slid into his seat and produced a pair of sticks just as the singer started belting out the first line, and the guitarists appeared seemingly out of thin air, already holding their instruments.

My friend knew every word to every song, and having listened to them with her so often, I knew enough of the lyrics to get away with singing along. For the duration of the show, I sang, I danced, and I laughed with Ellora and Josh while Ben stood with his hands in his pockets, surveying the scene around him like he was doing a study on alien lifeforms.

A pang of pity fizzed through me. Clearly, he was uncomfortable and maybe Josh was right. Maybe he was just awkward.

Deciding to give him one more chance to prove that my gut had been wrong and that he wasn’t, in fact, a red-flag, alarm-bell guy, I left Ellora to jump around with Josh and smiled at Ben, extending my hand. Surprise flickered across his features as he regarded it. Then he grinned back at me and smacked his palm into mine.

My skin stung under his and an unpleasant shiver traveled down my arm, but I was going to see this through. My intention had only been to hold his hand for a minute, maybe raise it and then release it to clap along to the crowd, but now that he had a grip on me, he seemed disinclined to let go.

Ellora flashed me an encouraging smile and I shot a forced one back at her before turning my gaze to the stage once more while hopping around with Ben’s fingers like a vise around my own. It was uncomfortable as hell, but I was giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, none of those benefits helped me much. In fact, my doubts only grew the longer he held my hand in his clammy palm. The show continued, and eventually, he had pressed his front to my back and I could feel the length of his mediocre erection pressing into the base of my spine.

Aaaand I’m tapping out.Gingerly putting my hands on his forearms around my waist, I pulled them away and took a big step forward, making it completely obvious that I was not interested in being pressed up against him.

Ben moved with me, though. Not a minute later, he wrapped his arms around my waist again, and this time, I looked at him over my shoulder and shook my head as I stepped away again. Ellora was in Josh’s arms, her head tipped back and her arms around his neck, and he kissed her deeply.

By the looks of things, the kiss was getting hot and heavy, and sure enough, the lead singer had barely set the mic back in its cradle at the end of the show when she pried herself away from Josh and pressed her thumb against my ear as she leaned in.

“Do you mind if I take him home now?” she shouted above the din of the chanting, cheering crowd. “We can stay if—”

“No,” I said immediately. “Go have some fun. I’ll be fine.”

She squealed as she tossed her arms around my neck and gave me a quick hug. “Be safe! I’ll call you tomorrow.”