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The strobe lights in the club made my head ache slightly. I’d drank a couple of martinis before coming out to downtown Seattle with my friends, and I was well on my way to tipsy.
I looked at the drink menu, gasping at the prices.
Addie, my best friend, gave me a look, her eyes wide.
“We’re never coming to this place again,” she whispered.
I nodded, laughing. The drinks were twenty bucks a piece. Based on my entertainment budget for the week, I might be able to afford one drink before going over.
It was our friend, Sylvia’s birthday, and she had expensive taste, so that was why we were out at such an upscale, ritzy club. Personally, I would have preferred a dive bar with billiards, burgers and brew.
But it wasn’t my birthday.
I smiled over at Sylvia, wearing a tiara, and three sheets to the wind already.
“Who’s buying my next drink?” she asked, too loudly, and I winced.
“I will,” I said, almost mournfully. I guess I wouldn’t be having a drink myself after all.
The server brought over Sylvia’s drink, as well as drinks for the other girls at the table as I idly looked around the club.
People were packed in there like sardines, particularly on the dance floor, but even at the tables, it felt claustrophobic.
“We should get to the dance floor before it’s too full,” Sylvia whined, chugging her drink. She stood up, and the rest of us followed her.
I wasn’t much of a dancer, but I didn’t really have to be when the club was that busy. The only move I could really do was shimmying my hips back and forth, packed in with my girlfriends.
Sylvia had met a man who seemed enamored with her, and she was soaking up the attention. Sylvia was the one among us who loved to party and flirt the most, and I grinned at her, happy that she was having a good time on her birthday and on the dance floor.
Addie came bopping up to me with a big smile, placing her hands on my hips and moving them back and forth. I started to actually have fun, despite my headache. It’d been so long since I’d really been out anywhere, I had basically hidden myself away after the breakup.
“Hello, beautiful,” a man’s voice murmured behind me as he slid by, almost touching me but not quite.
I turned, a grimace on my face. It was a much older balding guy who might have been handsome a decade ago. I inwardly groaned. Why was it that the type of men that always seemed to hit on me weren’t, well, my type ?
“Hi,” I said flatly, not making eye contact, hoping he’d take the hint, but he just kept dancing behind me. Addie rolled her eyes, also having a guy she didn’t seem particularly interested in dancing behind her.
“Let’s go to the bar,” she suggested in a loud whisper so I could hear over the music. At this point, the lights and thebooming music were on a fast track to making my headache almost unbearable.
“Excuse me,” I said, moving toward the bar to get a glass of water, hoping it would help my headache. Addie followed me, panting from the exertion and heat from the dance floor.
I wasn’t interested in being hit on, even if the guy had been gorgeous. I’d had my heart broken not that long ago and I was still licking my wounds. I wasn’t ready to start dating yet.
As I approached the bar, I noticed a man standing there alone with a beer in his hand, looking at me.
Shit.For a brief moment, I thought it was Toby, my ex.
It wasn’t him, though. This man had blue eyes instead of green, and instead of Toby’s light brown hair, his was more of a dirty blonde. He had several drinks around him at the bar, as if he were buying a round for a whole table and my eyes widened. The drinks there were so expensive, Adam had plenty of money, I supposed.
Adam.
I felt goosebumps pop up along my skin, remembering how he’d flirted with me in the kitchen that night on Christmas Eve, the way Toby had dropped me off at home afterwards, irritated and distant, taking off without giving me a kiss goodbye.
Looking back, I should have known what would happen. If we could only live in hindsight.
I remembered the afternoon it all went down quite well. Toby and I had been together over a year and were talking about buying rings and starting a life together. I’d come home early and was looking forward to spending some extra time with him.
I had walked into our home with a smile, happy to have the afternoon off so that I could spend it with Toby. I tossed my keys into the bowl on the entryway table and headed further into the house.
