AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PART ONE
A NIGHT AT THE CLUB
CHAPTER 1
If you want to get away from your parents on your twenty-first birthday, tell them you’re visiting a responsible friend. A solid pre-med friend would never help you get all slutted up and take you to a sake bar/dance club.
‘Slutted up’ wasn’t quite true. Like the good girls they were, they followed the Beyonce rules of sexy. Skimpy top or skimpy bottom, but not both.
Hence, on her twenty-first birthday, University of Chicago senior-to-be Vandy Patel wore a skin-tight, fluorescent-pink, long sleeve top with a micro mini.
And also her first thong.
That might have been violating all sorts of Tiger Mom rules, but too bad. Tiger Mom was Korean, not Indian, and honestly, Indian moms were far more intimately acquainted with tigers.
Genetics or something, right? Vandy’s med student brother Raj would know that, or her engineer sister, Aparna.
Who cared, because Vandy was ordering her first drink.
She’d worked her way to the front of the bar, and when she got there, she realized she had no idea what to order. “I want a…”
The bartender, who wore a kimono but was decidedly not Japanese, waited a couple of seconds and then turned her eyes to a different customer.
“Oh, damn it,” she swore.
“Order Ginjo,” a man next to her said.
She turned to say something back and stopped with her mouth open. White guy, green eyes, red hair past his collar. Muscles. Freckles. Worse, did he have a tattoo?
He glanced at her uncertainly. “You okay?”
“Yes-yes. I am. I just never had sake before,” she stammered. His blue suit jacket brought out light flecks in his irises.
“Why don’t we fix that?”
“I’ve never ordered before. It’s my twenty-first birthday.” Now she sounded lame.
“It’s best to buy the bottle.” He waved the bartender over and paid for a bottle of sake with two cups.
“I need two more cups,” she interrupted. “I’m here with two girlfriends.”
He nodded, and Vandy resisted smirking at the bartender.
See, hot guy in his half unbuttoned white dress shirt wanted ‘Vandy with a V, not an M.’
She grabbed the two cups the bartender set down and led him through the crowd back to the side tables. It was more difficult than she expected because the dance floor had gotten busier. Luckily, he had a solid six inches on her and shielded her from the worst of the jostling.
Anna and Tara were quite surprised by her new company.
“This is…” Vandy realized she didn’t know his name.
“Royce,” he politely supplied. “I was giving the birthday girl a hand. Is it really her birthday?”
“Of course it’s my birthday. You think I’m pretending?” Vandy said, slightly affronted.
“I can’t say since you’re a pretty girl.” Royce set out the cups on their table.
Tara, Anna’s friend from Case Western University, sniggered. “I absolutely did that at Friendly’s when I turned twelve. You got a free sundae.”
