He was up the other end. He’d just finished serving someone else but he came straight over.
“What can I do for you, pretty lady?”
“Two of your best beers and two shots of tequila, with lemon and salt; we’re slamming them.”
“Coming right up.” He gave me a broad sidelong smile, flirting a little, but I wasn’t interested tonight. Tonight was all about giving my new friend, and official knight in shining armor, Jason, a good time.
When the bar tender set the tequila shots down in front of us, I picked one up and gave it to Jason.
He looked at it and then at the quartered lemon and salt pot. “What are they for?”
“Don’t tell me you’ve never in your life slammed tequila?”
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head.
“Jason Macinlay, you seriously need to live a bit more.”
“That’s what I’m meant to be doing here isn’t it? That’s why you planned all this.”
“I planned all this so we could have some fun. I’ll pay for these and then I’m gonna teach you how to drink tequila slammers.” I handed the barman my money and he gave me a wink, obviously inwardly laughing over Jason’s naivety. I made a face at him. He laughed as I turned back to Jason.
“I guess I’m going to be the clown tonight.”
“You’re not. Okay, what you do is put some salt on the side of your hand first, like this…” I showed him and he copied, with a concentration frown marking his forehead.
I wanted to laugh. He did look funny, and puzzled, I seriously couldn’t believe he’d got to twenty-two and never drunk tequila shots. But then I’d been drinking long before the legal age.
“Then take a piece of lemon.”
He smiled, and copied me again.
“So now you lick the salt, drink the tequila and then suck the lemon; easy.”
I picked up my shot glass, licked the salt off with one sweep of my tongue, downed the tequila in one, and then sucked on the quarter lemon, grinning at him and meeting his questioning, smiling brown gaze, with the lemon still between my teeth.
His eyebrows lifted. “You’re mad.” But as he said it he picked up his shot glass then licking the salt, he drank the tequila and made a face a moment before sucking the lemon. His gorgeous face was all screwed up when he put the sour lemon down.
I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him and the night had only just begun. Sister… Sister… Sister…
“I’m not sure I liked it.”
I laughed. “It’s not a drink to like, it’s a drink to get drunk on and have fun with. Anyway now you can have your beer while the tequila starts running through your veins and making you relax.”
His smile lifted. He looked seriously sexy tonight. He’d worn a dark navy shirt with really thin white stripes breaking it up in places. The dark color set off his eyes and his long black eyelashes.
He’d had his hair cut too, and it was short and cut close to his nape and behind his ears and I really wanted to run my hands over it. I’d been itching to touch it ever since he’d picked me up from work.
He probably thought I hadn’t noticed, but I’d noticed.
He sipped from his bottle of beer, his legs splayed as he sat on the bar stool, with his feet on a rung and his elbow on the bar.
His facial features were as cleanly defined as his body, his jaw, his chin, his nose, all chiseled masculine definition and fresh, clean nice guy looks. Not marred by anger or bitterness, or obsession, as the faces of the older men I’d been with were. I wondered what he’d be like in ten-years-time, at thirty-two. That was the kind of age of the men I usually went for. He’d probably have kids with Lindy and look harrowed and beaten down by life.
I climbed up to sit on a bar stool, inelegantly, and picked up my beer.
He gave me another sweet smile. “You don’t drink the beer much back at my apartment. I thought you’d have picked something else.”
“Na, I just don’t drink much unless I go out, I’m an all or nothing kinda girl.” That was too true. I had a tendency toward addictions. It was all part of my nature.
He smiled again. “So, have you been here often?”
“Fishing again, Jason Macinlay…” I laughed. He was forever trying to draw out little snippets of my past. I rarely answered. I didn’t wanna talk about the past, only the here and now.
He moved his beer to clink against mine. “Cheers for this suggestion, and here’s to a great night.” I recognized his intent, to shove aside his conversation with Lindy and his worries about home and work. I think I heard him make some comment complaining about the asshole he worked for every day. I knew he didn’t really like his current life.
I knocked my beer against his in return. “And to letting our hair down.”
He flashed me a grin, “Well yours anyway…”
“What are you gonna let down then, Jason?” I pushed, joking with him. “Your guard?”
“My guard?”
“Yeah, no being-on-your-best-behavior, no looking out for me like some guardian-angel, and no holding back.”
He grinned again and shook his head.
“You’re relaxing tonight, and that’s an order, I want you so drunk you’re thinking about nothing but the moment––”
“And how I’m going to peel myself off the sidewalk…”
“Ha, ha, very funny. You’re gonna enjoy it, wait and see.”
He sipped his beer, then smiled.
He didn’t look convinced.
“I need the ladies’ room, I’ll be back in a moment.”
“Yeah.” I lifted my beer saluting her as she climbed off the stool, a little awkwardly. I smiled to myself as I watched her walk away, my gaze instinctively dropping to her ass. The red dress hugged it perfectly. Then I thought of Lindy and looked up and realized half the guys sitting at the bar were also watching Rach’s ass.
Dammit. I felt trapped in a dilemma tonight––devil versus deep blue sea scenario again. I wasn’t in the right mood to simply forget everything and enjoy myself. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t want to let Lindy down, but… But I didn’t think I could keep doing this anymore. Something had to break. It wasn’t working. Either I gave up and simply went home and lived the life Lindy wanted me to live, or… Or I called it all off and carried on trying to work out how I fitted in to New York.
I sighed, then remembered Rach and remembered how I’d found her, only a little less than a fortnight ago, and realized if I didn’t cheer up I
