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“A little.” I force a playful laugh as I shuffle my feet.
“Are you still working at the coffee shop?” she asks, gracefully changing the subject.
“Fuck no.” That was, like…four jobs ago, but I don’t include that part. “I mean…no, I’m working as a handyman at the moment.”
“Oh, that’s good!” she says with enthusiasm.
“What about you?” I ask because it sounds like the right thing to say to further the conversation.
“I’m still working at the gym, although my boyfriend and I broke up. You met him at that party too.”
“Oh,” I say, my brow furrowing as I try to remember. But nothing is coming up. There’s a good chance I was high.
When I glance up, she’s staring at me with a loaded gaze. I swallow as I realize she’s flirting with me. And she probably shared that part about her breaking up with her boyfriend for a reason.
I force a smile as I stare at her, realizing this is exactly the kind of girl I might have tried to hook up with. It would have been easy, too. A quick hookup and maybe a little fling, but it would have inevitably ended in an ugly breakup and her hating my guts.
“Are you…seeing anyone?” she asks, casually sipping on her drink.
“Um…no,” I stammer, because, technically, no one is supposed to know about me and Maggie.
All of a sudden, I look up and find Maggie’s blue eyes in the crowd. She’s staring at me, but clearly trying not to be obvious about it. As she glances away, I wish she would just look at me again because I clearly do not know how I’m supposed to act right now.
Then I get a wicked idea. I am a brat, after all.
Knowing Maggie is watching, I look back at Caitlin with a smoldering, half-smile that she immediately matches with her own.
“So…you work at a gym, huh? I bet you get hit on all the time.” I shoot her a subtle wink, and she lets out a loud giggle that I know can be heard all the way across the yard. In my periphery, I notice Maggie’s head snap up, staring in our direction.
“I do not,” Caitlin replies with a laugh.
“No? I don’t believe it.”
“You’re bad,” she says, blushing as she curls her hair behind her ear.
While Caitlin goes into some story about the gym, I stop paying attention, glancing at Maggie every chance I get. She’s deep in conversation with someone I don’t know, her fingers delicately resting on her lips as she smiles at them, and I can tell how restless she is. Her eyes dance back and forth between me and the person talking to her.
I want to send her over the edge, so when Caitlin finishes her story, lifting her drink to her lips, I reach out and brush her hair out of her face, turning on the charm with my eyes. She pauses, gazing up at my face as she bites her bottom lip.
“Want to get out of here? Go for a walk or something?” she asks.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Maggie moving across the yard in a fury toward the house, and as she disappears through the door, I turn back toward Caitlin.
“I’m sorry. Will you excuse me?”
I don’t even bother waiting for her response before I’m rushing after Maggie. The house is quiet when I close the door behind me, and I bolt through the kitchen toward the bathroom. Before I even get a chance to look for her, I feel a tight grip around my forearm, as I’m being hauled into the bathroom, the door slamming behind me.
She presses her hand against my chest and shoves me against the wall. She’s pissed and it gives me a strange sense of satisfaction knowing I got her attention.
“Who was that?”
“What?” I ask.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Charlie’s cousin. She remembered me,” I whisper.
Her hand is firm against my chest and in the private space, I’m desperate to touch her. One kiss, one touch, or anything I can get. We only have a minute before we have to go back to the party or risk being found together, which makes this moment even more charged.
