Page 93 of A Little Bit Uncertain

“Sounds good. If we weren’t short-staffed by three tonight, I’d leave and come with you now, but I can’t. I’m going to take you up on that drink, though. I can’t believe you just walked up to my fucking bar at midnight. What are the chances?”

We had a chuckle about it, but before we moved on, Mikey had one more thing to say.

“I really missed you, Donovan. Some of my best memories have you in them, man.”

“Same, Mikey. We’ll reminisce over them when we grab that drink, and you can fill Audra in on all the stories,” Donovan said, and I didn’t miss the sparkle in his eye.

“If you want, but we want her to continue to like you, though, right?”

And we all laughed. They exchanged hugs, confirmed their phone numbers were the same, and we waltzed into the club. I had so many questions.

“That had to be one of your travel group guys. He called you Van and knew about Tommy,” I stated when we were out of earshot.

“Yeah, it was.”

“But he works construction during the day and bounces at night?”

He read between the lines of my question. “I assure you, he has more money than I do. He has his reasons for doing it.”

“How did you know he was here? Do you feel okay after seeing him? That had to be a lot, Van.”

“No, I didn’t know, but I feel surprisingly good. The plan was to pay the bouncer to get us in quickly, but I saw him a mile away.”

I squeezed Donovan’s hand in support, but had to stop the conversation because it became hard to focus on all the things going on in the club. The beat was pulsing so loudly that the floor was vibrating, the lights went from sexy glow at the bar to party on the dance floor, and there were sweaty people in every direction you looked doing their thing. Even though we had just wrapped up our umpteenth romp in the sheets, or more specifically, on the couch, the club sure set the mood. Donovan put his hand on my bare back, which lit me on fire, and led me towards the VIP lounge. After I told Jules we were going, her friend put us on the VIP list. When we walked up, we found Jules sitting on Nathan’s lap, laughing and sipping some drink. They were here with some of his friends, but there was a mix of men and women in their crew.

“Audra!” Jules squealed when she saw me, hopping up to hug me, clearly buzzed. “I’m glad that you’re feeling better,” she said, then leaned close to my ear. “By the looks of the glow, a whole lot better.”

Donovan came up and wrapped her in a hug. “Thank you, Juliette. I owe you for saving my ass. I’m sorry for interrupting your event like that. Congratulations on your award. By the way, I didn’t realize the party was celebrating you. Imagine my surprise when I saw your photo in the front of the room!”

“It wasn’t just me, don’t worry. I’m just happy I was in New York and at the same restaurant. Pretty sure the chances of that happening are less than winning the lottery or something.”

Just then, Nathan appeared behind Jules and waved to me. I crossed to him and threw my arms around him.

“You will never know how much I appreciated you tonight. Thank you. You deserve all the good things in the world for being such a great human, Nathan.”

“Oh, fear not, he’ll be appreciated later,” Jules flirted.

Nathan winked at Jules and turned back to Donovan. “Were you the guy who caused all the ruckus tonight?”

Donovan laughed because I explained what happened at the bar with Nathan on our walk over. How he initially came up to hit on me, but instead comforted me and answered my psycho questions, and then exchanged numbers with Jules after she pushed him to do it.

“Well, my parents sure did, but it has all been remedied. Thanks for not being a douchebag, man,” Donovan held out his hand. “I’m Donovan Wright.”

“Nathan Thorston.”

Nathan shook Donovan’s outstretched hand. “I’ve got three younger sisters. Audra here looked like she needed some older brother-type love when I got a closer look. Glad to hear it’s been straightened out. Plus, I think I should be thanking you,” he said as he put his arm around Juliette’s shoulder, and she danced in place. “We have bottles all over these tables. Please help yourself to whatever you want. The DJ tonight is great.”

With that, Donovan and I went to mix a drink. It’d been a very long time since I’d been at a late-night bar that felt like this. The four of us sat together for a short bit and tried to chit-chat, but it wasn’t the type of place for that. And when Donovan put his large hand on my thigh, it became hard to concentrate on any conversation at all. When I looked up, Big Mike was walking towards us with McKenna in tow.

“Everything okay?” Donovan asked Mike, looking confused.

“Yeah. She was solo, and I didn’t want her trying to make her way back here alone. It’s late, people are drunk, your sister is too short, and she’s a pretty gal. I gotta run. Just wanted to make sure she made it with minimal harassment.” He turned to McKenna, “Good seeing you, Mackey Mae.”

“Thanks, Mikey,” Donovan and I called at him.

McKenna ran over and hugged me with such force that the drink almost fell out of my hand.

“I’m so sorry, Audra.” She didn’t even say hello to Donovan. “This is all my fault. I made him come. Even when he knew Evelyn was coming, and they have a really fucked up history, he still came because I begged. And then I didn’t stick up for you at dinner, I just … I am so, so sorry.” She looked at the ground, discouraged.