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“Gin. Skip the tonic.”
* * *
"Hey, you’re hot,” I said to the first hot guy I found in the crowd after downing half my drink.
Seth Reeves with a smiley face on his nametag raised an amused eyebrow down at me and was about to give me what surely was a fantastic pickup line, but I had no time for that.
“Come with me.” I grabbed his wrist and dragged him behind me through chatting couples until I found Ellis with a new beer—a Stella—and a new girl, also a Stella. Damn. My boy knew how to play the game, didn’t he?
“Hey, Ellis,” I said, pushing Seth forward as I wobbled only ever so slightly in my heels. “Ellis, look at how hot this guy is. Do you see how hot he is?”
Ellis ignored Seth and his obvious embarrassment and slung his arm over Stella with a heart on her nametag. “Tessa, have you seen this woman?” He smiled at me. “She’s very beautiful, isn’t she?”
“I’m going home with Seth,” I said.
“Actually,” Seth said, speaking to me for the first time, “I think I’m just going to go to the bar.” He pulled his hand from mine and turned in the direction of the bar, then glanced at Stella.
“Um, I’ll go with you,” Stella slipped from under Ellis’s arm and disappeared after Seth, leaving Ellis and I alone.
We stared at each other, glaring and silent, before we each turned around with a frustrated huff and marched in the opposite direction. Well,Imarched in the opposite direction until I realized I was moving away from the bar. I ignored Ellis as he ordered another beer next to me.
“I know,” the bartender said, all but rolling his eyes at me. “Gin. A double. No tonic.”
I grinned. “You got it, babe.” Then I burped, and didn’t even care.
* * *
"Five,” I announced as I bumped shoulders with Ellis. The bump made me wobbly. “Numbers, not drinks,” I clarified when I swayed.
He just grinned and gave me a wink. “Six. Numbersanddrinks.” He passed me by, headed toward a busty brunette.
Damn it.
Wiggling the top of my dress down a smidge and tugging up the bottom a smidge and a half, I went back to work.
“Nine,” Ellis said casually twenty minutes later as he slid a twenty toward the pretty bartender.
I grabbed my drink and stretched onto my tiptoes to lean over and whisper in his ear, “Ten.”
Maybe it was an hour later, maybe it was three, but I soon found myself standing on one side of an almost empty conference hall. Ellis stood on the other.
“Sixteen,” I called past the staff packing up the dirty glasses and table clothes.
Ellis nodded, clearly impressed. “Seems we have a little bit of a problem then,” he said as he started to walk toward me.
I raised an eyebrow and stepped one foot in front of the other, matching his every step. Well, no, not really. I’d stopped ordering drinks after four, but still, I wobbled. At least I wasn’t seeing two of Ellis. That was a good sign. “And what would that be, Ellis, dear?” I asked.
"Well, Tessa,dear, my final total happens to be exactly sixteen, as well.”
We continued to move closer toward one another. We were now no more than three feet away.
“It seems we are deadlocked then,” I said, watching my best friend intently.
“Unless you concede.”
I spit out a laugh as we stopped chest to chest. “Concede?” I exclaimed. “Why in the world would I concede?Youshould concede.” I poked at his chest and he smirked, smiling so fucking charmingly down at me that I wanted to murder him right then and there.
“You know you can’t beat me at this game, Tessa Stewart,” he said, tipping his head closer to mine. “Just admit defeat.”
