“Fine, I’ll have a Moscow mule, please.”
I gave her a pointed look that said, You better not just disappear on me. She was definitely going to hear it from me as it had been her idea for us to come down to LA for the weekend to have a break. We’d rented an Airbnb and gone shopping in San Francisco at the Westfield Mall for some new outfits to wear. I’d even gone to the hairdresser to get a blowout, even though my naturally curly hair had a mind of its own. We’d planned to go driving around the Hollywood Hills and then to Beverly Hills to look at stars’ homes. Then we were going to go to Santa Monica and Venice Beach to check out the piers. We weren’t going to swim, though, because you didn’t get a seventy-five-dollar blowout just to wash it out with a dunk in the water.
We’d planned to write at some coffee shops and check out bookstores and then have a fun night out dancing and flirting with wannabe actors. I should have known that everything had sounded too good to be true. We’d left Oakland in my car and driven down the I-5 singing Ed Sheeran and Rihanna songs, ignoring the bad drivers who sped past us to only have to slow down when they hit the inevitable traffic that flooded the interstate between the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
Everything had been great until we’d arrived at the Airbnb and realized that we only had one actual bedroom and the other bed was a couch with a foldout mattress in the living room. We’d flipped a coin for the bedroom and I’d won.
I had taken a shower and when I’d come out of the bathroom, Alexa was standing there with a guilty but excited look on her face. She’d told me that she’d downloaded Tinder and had matched with several guys and that one had already asked her to meet up. When she’d asked if I minded her meeting him for a quick bite and drink before we went to the club, I hadn’t been happy, but what could I say? The fact that she’d taken hours on the date and now was flitting off with some new man minutes after she’d arrived at the club had me fuming. I didn’t see the point of even being here if all she’d wanted was to hook up with some guy. What sort of girl’s trip started and ended with a hookup?
“Okay,” she said, and she disappeared to another side of the bar with Jackson Camden leading the way, his hand on her back. I pursed my lips and stifled a sigh as I saw her looking up at him with a winning flirtatious smile.
“So, what happens between the two people left behind when their best friends leave them to go and hook up?” Oracle whispered into my ear as I continued to watch Alexa and Jackson walk away into the flashing lights.
“They haven’t left us to hook up.” I looked up at him, annoyed at the smug look on his face.
“Are you jealous?” There was a smirk on his face.
“Jealous about what?”
“That Jackson ditched you as soon as your friend arrived?”
“He didn’t ditch me,” I said, but then I thought about the situation. He had been flirting with me initially, but as soon as he’d seen Alexa, he’d moved on. That should have made me jealous, but frankly, I was too annoyed to care. Yes, Jackson Camden was hot, but he wasn’t really my type. He seemed too out there for me.
“Aww, okay. Yeah, that’s you walking to the VIP section with him to have some champagne on the house.” Oracle nodded. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“You really are an asshole, aren’t you?”
“Am I?” He cocked his head to the side and smiled, the light never catching his eyes. “I don’t know about that. How’s about we make the most out of tonight and have a little fun?”
“Are you joking?” I almost laughed at the look on his face. “Do you really think that I’m going anywhere with you?”
“We can cut the crap,” he said as he moved closer to me, his lips almost next to mine as he stared into my eyes. “I know you know who I am. You’d have to live under a rock to not know. Let’s stop playing games and just cut to the chase.”
“Does that normally work for you?” I licked my lips nervously as I spoke back to him. I couldn’t lie to myself. He was sexy and his blue eyes seemed to be looking directly into my soul. I’d never been so close to a man this handsome before and it made me nervous. If I was a different kind of girl, I’d definitely say yes to going back to his place for one night. I mean, how many people got to say they hooked up with a huge star?
But then again, this was Oracle Lion, so probably a lot of women.
“Do most women accept my offer of a hookup?” He chuckled as if the question I’d asked him was a joke. “Let’s just say most women don’t even wait for me to offer, it usually comes from them … Do you know how many panties I’ve been given?”
“And you like that?” I said disdainfully. He really was a pig. “You just take them home with you.”
“I don’t take anyone to my home,” he said, his lips thin. “I’m not inviting you to my home.”
“So, where do you propose we have this hot sex then?”
“Well, I didn’t say it would be sex, and I certainly didn’t say it would be hot, but I like the way your mind thinks.” He bit down on his lower lip and his mouth moved closer to my ear. “If you want to invite me back to your place to show you how hot it could be, let me know.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Well, then what do two people who have been ditched by their friends do?” he asked and his hand moved to my hair and started stroking it back behind my ear.
His warm fingers on my skin felt nice, but as I looked at his face, I could see a distant look in his expression. I could have been anyone at that moment. I meant absolutely nothing to him. I could tell that I was just another woman to him. I was upset at that, but what was I expecting? That after ten minutes of chatting, I’d be special to him?
“They go home and relax in a big comfy bed,” I said matter-of-factly.
A part of me was annoyed with Alexa—we hadn’t had a girl’s night out in ages—but the other part of me was quite happy and excited for her. If she was going to ditch me, I’m glad it was to be with a hottie like Jackson. He looked like the sort of guy that could show her a good time, and she was in need of one of them.
Both of us had been in a rut recently; our love lives were almost nonexistent, jobs and school weren’t satisfying, and at twenty-eight years of age, we were both at a bit of a standstill. That’s why we’d decided on this super fun weekend away, and I supposed this would help her, even if it didn’t help me, but oh well, I’d have plenty of fun in the Airbnb. I would enjoy watching Netflix and eating greasy pizza that I’d order from some online food delivery place.
“Oh, is that an invite or a hint for an invite?” I felt Oracle’s hand on the small of my back.
I gave him a look of distaste and stepped away. “Neither.” I stared at him for a few seconds and then grinned at the complete and utter confusion that had crossed his face. “I meant, we go back to our individual places and sleep in our individual beds.”
“Alone?” His brows furrowed.
“Yes, alone,” I said slowly and then just in case he didn’t understand. “I’m not hooking up with you, Oracle Lion.”
“But let’s be real here, did I ask you to, Prickly Piper?”
He gave me a disarming smile, and I just stared at his handsome face for a few seconds. I could understand why he was so popular. But I also knew I wasn’t his type. He went for sleek, skinny blondes who hung on his every word. I was five eight, with curves, a stomach that had never seen a six-pack, long black curly hair, and a mouth that lived to challenge everything he’d ever thought about women.
“No, you didn’t, but I assumed that was the purpose of you trying to garner an invitation back to my hotel room.”
“Hotel room?” He blinked. “You don’t live in LA?”
“No.” I laughed. “I’m based in Northern California.”
“Oh?” He smiled briefly as he nodded to himself. I wondered what he was thinking about and what he’d been agreeing with himself about. “Are you going to say where?”
“No.” I shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“You don’t like me, do you?” He seemed genuinely interested in my answer.
“I don’t know you. I don’t feel any way about you.”
“You don’t fancy me?”
“Fancy you? What are you, English?”
“Actually, yes.” He grinned. “My mom is English. Well, kind of.”
“Oh.”
I hadn’t known that, but I couldn’t express surprise because then I’d be admitting that I knew who he was in the first place. And what did he mean by kind of? How could you “kind of” be English?
“But don’t change the subject. Don’t you fancy me?” He stepped closer to me and I felt a warm feeling curling in my belly as I waited for him to touch me. The anticipation was killing me, and I knew that I was all over the place in my mind and in my heart; I told myself that I didn’t want him to touch me, but my whole body was anticipating it.
“You’re handsome, if that’s what you’re asking, but you know that. I’m just not interested in whatever you have to offer.” I grabbed the glass that was in his hand and downed all of it. It was so uncharacteristic of me and I think I shocked both him and myself. “And with that, I think I’m going to head home.”
“Do you want a ride?”
Oracle looked gobsmacked at my words and I wanted to laugh. I couldn’t seriously be the first woman to turn down his advances, could I?
“Nope, no, nein.” I shook my head and looked around the club to see if I could see Alexa.
She was nowhere in sight, and I wasn’t just going to stand around waiting for her. She could do what she wanted with Jackson. I wasn’t going to be some fool who just waited around on her. She was a big girl and could take care of herself. She’d already wasted enough of my time this evening, and I wasn’t going to allow her to waste any more of it. I’d speak to her in the morning about how much she’d disappointed me, but for now, I was out.
“Well, I would say it was nice meeting you, but …” Oracle stared at me for a few seconds, and I laughed loudly.
“Same. I would say it but it wouldn’t be true, would it?” I lifted my hand and gave him a small wave. “See ya!”
I turned around and exited the club as quickly and gracefully as I could, with my head held up. I could feel his eyes on me as I left and I so badly wanted to look back to see if he was staring at me, but I didn’t want to give him that satisfaction.
As I made my way through the crowds of people waiting to get into the club, disappointment hit me. Maybe I had made a mistake. Maybe I should have accepted his offer. My life was in a rut and I needed a change and it wasn’t like I didn’t think he was hot as hell.
I sighed as I walked toward Santa Monica Boulevard so that I could catch an Uber in a less packed area. It didn’t matter now. I had already left the club, and it wasn’t like he’d come running after me. I laughed at that thought. Imagine if he had come running out after me; while that would have seemed romantic in a movie, it would have been creepy in real life. So creepy. And at least I’d left having rejected him. I’d taken him down a peg or two, and that made me feel good. He was way too cocky for his own good. Way too cocky.
Just because he was a hot movie star didn’t mean he could just get anyone he wanted.
3
Oracle
Of course, I’d known Piper was the woman from the cupcake shop as soon as I’d seen her chatting with Jackson. She’d stepped up her game tonight, wearing a slinky tight dress that left nothing to the imagination. As soon as I’d seen her there, smiling and laughing, I’d grown hard and perhaps a little jealous of Jackson. I’d been happy when she’d dismissed him, though I’d been surprised that she’d given me such a frosty reception. She’d been so open and sweet in the cupcake store. But then that had been when she’d thought I was someone else. Now she’d met me as Oracle, she hadn’t seemed as carefree and warm. In retrospect, she’d had quite a bit of an attitude toward me.
Now the woman with the blazing brown eyes was sprinting out of the club as she fled from me. I was amused at her obvious lie about not knowing who I was. I’d seen the way her eyes had widened as she’d seen me for the first time. She’d known who I was. I knew that for a fact. What surprised me was that she had pretended not to know me and then had dismissed my offer of getting to know her better. Women never dismissed me. Normally, they were all over me.
Piper was a bit of an anomaly. She had been dressed up for a night on the town and had looked stunning with her long black wavy locks and deep brown eyes. Many of the men in the club had noticed her just as Jackson and I had, but she’d seemed oblivious to all of us.
There had been genuine shock and pleasure on her face when Jackson had spoken to her. And what looked like awe. An awe she hadn’t expressed when she’d noticed me. I had to admit that I was a bit pissed off that she’d blatantly dismissed me, even when her friend had almost jumped into Jackson’s arms. It seemed to me that Piper was a woman who very much needed a good fucking to loosen her up. I’d have been willing to take on the job, but obviously, she didn’t know a good time when it presented itself. Not that I cared. She was insignificant in my world and life. I’d never see her again, and I’d most probably never think of her again, either. I looked around the club to see if I could spy Jackson anywhere or if I should leave, but before I had time to make my move to peruse the club, two redheads approached me.
“Oracle Lion, is that you?” The tall one with the big green eyes touched my shoulder. “I can’t believe it’s really you!”
“Who else would I be?” I said blinking at her, no smile on my face.
“You’re funny.” The other one had an eager smile on her slightly chubby face as she looked up at me. “Oracle Lion, who knew you were so funny?”
“Obviously, not I,” I said and withheld a sigh as they both burst out laughing. “But apparently to you two, I’m the next Chris Rock or Richard Pryor.”
“Richard who?” the tall redhead said, confused.
“You know who, Cindy. The guy who owns that airline and that private island.”
“Richard Branson?” I looked around the room, annoyed. On most nights, I didn’t care how dumb and ditzy the women were that I slept with, but I wasn’t in the mood right now. I needed to find Jackson and see if he was still with Piper’s friend. Maybe she could give me some more information on why Piper had been so rude.
“So … I’m an actress as well.” The chubby girl batted her eyelids at me. “I’d love to audition for you sometime. Like at your place or something …” She grinned up at me hopefully. “I’m even free tonight.”
“I don’t think so.” I shook my head and almost sighed in relief as Jackson and Alexa came back into sight. “Hey.” I beckoned to Jackson, and I could see the huge grin on his face as he took in the sight before him.
“Oracle Lion, my word. I leave you behind for ten minutes and you’ve already got yourself a harem of ladies.” Jackson slapped me on the shoulder and I watched as the two redheads jaws dropped in major excitement. I looked over at Alexa, who had a bemused expression on her face as she stood there sipping a fruity looking cocktail.
“Where’s Piper?” she asked casually, no actual worry or concern on her face.
“She left,” I said with a small shrug. “She seemed to think that you and Jackson had disappeared for the night … not that I can blame her.” I looked over at Jackson and then back at Alexa in her tight little dress.
“I didn’t leave her.” Alexa cursed under her breath and handed me her drink. “Hold this, please, I need to text her.”
“Sure, sure,” I said holding the drink and turning my back to the two redheads that Jackson was now flirting with outrageously. I wondered if Alexa felt jealous or sad that she had already lost his attention. Jackson Camden was notorious for his one-night stands, and he often had multiple ones in a single night. I thought I was bad about relationships, but Jackson didn’t seem to care about women at all. The way he treated them and their feelings was pretty horrific, even by my standards, b
ut that didn’t seem to stop women from wanting him.
“Shit, she’s gone.” Alexa shook her head and sighed, her eyes meeting mine with an exasperated look. “Why didn’t you talk to her or something?”
“I did talk to her.” I stared back at her, my face expressionless. “She wanted to leave.”
“Fuck it.” She nibbled on her lower lip and glanced over at Jackson. I could tell from her face that she was having a moral dilemma. Should she leave now and go and make things right with her best friend? Or should she stay and have a shot at a night with Jackson? I had a pretty good guess at which direction she was going to take. They all took the same path when it came to Jackson.
“She’s a big girl. I’m sure she’ll be okay,” I said as I handed her back her drink.
“We came to LA together though.” She actually looked guilty, and I was surprised to see that she was still anxiously texting Piper. Maybe she was a better friend than I’d initially thought. “I think I’m going to have to go.”
“You’re going to go?” I said, my voice loud to alert Jackson. He was still chatting with the redheads, but I was pretty sure that Alexa would make for a better night than them. If I hadn’t seen Piper first, I might have been attracted to her myself. She was beautiful in an obvious kind of way, while Piper had an understated sexiness to her. Piper had layers that I wanted to peel back in more ways than one.
She nodded as she sipped on her drink. “Yeah, I think so. She’s my best friend and, well, I already ditched her once tonight. I should go and catch up with her.”
“You’re leaving?” Jackson looked pained and I could tell that he realized he’d messed up. His back was now to the two redheads who were standing there looking like they didn’t know what was going on. “Stay.” He put his hand on Alexa’s shoulder and started massaging her back. “I promise we’ll have fun.”
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