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I pulled my hands away from his face, grabbed my drink and reached across the table to tap my glass firmly against Gabe’s. “Congratulations.”
He smiled at me uncertainly. “Ahh, I’m gonna go with…thank you?”
“He has nice eyes. Soulful,” I said to Ally, my tone matter-of-fact.
Ally rolled her eyes. “Have another shot, why don’t you. You too, Emma and Lucy.”
“Well, if you insist.” I passed Emma her glass, counted down and knocked mine back. Snuggling into Matt, I sighed with pleasure when he put his arm around me. Ally and Lucy where both watching us through narrowed eyes, but I honestly didn’t care one bit.
I frowned when I saw Ally slide a beer across the table to Jake, who was sitting back in his stool, arms crossed across his chest, staring at the table. I caught Gabe’s low “Allegra,” saw Ally jut her chin out belligerently and hold Gabe’s gaze for the longest moment before looking from Gabe to Jake and back again, then pull the beer back. I turned to Matt, placed my hand on his cheek, leaned close to whisper in his ear. “What’s going on? I’m so confused.”
“Tell you later.”
I leaned back, looked into his eyes, saw the tension there, tried to get my brain to compute, then gave up and rested my head on his shoulder. I slid my hand down to his chest, resting it over his heart, closing my eyes happily as I felt the strong beat underneath my palm. Toying with the top button of his shirt, I frowned when he reached up and grabbed my hand and pulled it away, clasping it in his on the table.
“Careful, Matt, she gets frisky.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“I’m allowed to grope him. We’re banging,” I announced, raising my head to look at everyone. The table had gone dead silent and they were all staring at me and Matt. Oh, right. The rule. I’d just broken the rule. That’s why they were all staring at me. Oops.
“Are you now?” Ally asked, her eyes sparkling.
“Yep.”
She reached across the table and rubbed my hand. “This is great news.”
“Is it?” I asked uncertainly. Shit, what was that rule? We weren’t supposed to tell anyone. Crap. Turning to Matt, I said, “Sorry.” It felt good and made me happy, so why be so weird and secretive about it? It made no sense.
“Don’t worry about it, Zara. Like I said, it’s your rule.”
Too many rules. I couldn’t keep up. “Okay.” I let my head fall back on Matt’s shoulder, thought for a moment maybe I should apologize again, or explain…or something. But it all seemed like a bit too much effort for the frazzled speech center in my brain, so I stayed as I was, allowed my whole body to relax. Matt’s arm around me, holding me up, felt so good. And he smelled so good. Maybe I could just have a little nap…
Then the first chords of The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” filled the air, making me sit bolt upright. “I love this song!” I jumped off the stool, grabbed Ally’s hand. “Let’s go! Come on Emma! You too, Lucy!”
CHAPTER20
Matt
Ileaned my forearms on the table as I watched the girls flock to the dance floor. I wasn’t sure that Zara was going to be very happy with herself tomorrow morning when she woke up, realizing what she’d just done. I felt bad for her sake, but for myself, I didn’t mind in the slightest. We were two otherwise unattached consenting adults having a good time, and I wasn’t in the least bit ashamed of that. Jake got up, slapped me on the shoulder, said a terse, “Congrats,” and walked off.
“He’s struggling a bit?”
Gabe shrugged. “I think so, yeah. It’s hard for him seeing so much of Emma, maybe. But he’ll never admit it. You know what he’s like.”
“Yeah.”
Gabe heaved a sigh, drank some Coke. There wasn’t too much to add to that, so we sat in comfortable silence for a while. “So, Zara, huh?”
Zara. “Yep.”
“She’s awesome.”
“She is.” I sipped my Coke, forced myself to stop watching Zara, laughing joyously as Ally spun her around to the music. “It’s just casual,” I added, for no reason in particular.
“Sure, if you say so.”
“It is,” I insisted.
