by Anna Lewis
“Where?” Scarlett asked.
“Wherever you want. I'll come pick you up and you can take the lead.”
“All right, yeah,” Scarlett said. “But you're paying.”
Hunter laughed. “Of course. I would never make a lady pay.” Scarlett almost snorted. She didn't consider herself much of a lady but hey, if it meant she didn't have to pay for a nice dinner then so be it. Modern feminist views aside. Never say no to free food, her university life had taught her that.
“Thanks for the drink,” Scarlett said belatedly.
“It's worth it to sit next to such a beautiful woman,” Hunter replied and Scarlett blushed. She hated blushing. She always went as red as her name and it didn't always take much either.
“You're full of it,” she mumbled.
“I'm not full of anything,” Hunter replied, “except booze but I promise that's not the booze talking. My alcohol tolerance is impressively high.”
“Oh yeah?” Scarlett said. “I bet I could drink you under the table.”
“Maybe when you were in school,” Haunter taunted with a devilish smirk, “but from what I gather you've been out of the game for a while.”
“You better be careful or you'll get more than you bargained for.”
“Is that a challenge?”
“It's a promise.”
Hunter called the bartender over. “Can we have a couple shots of your cheapest vodka?” he asked. “And keep it coming.” The man, a young university student, had a look on his face like he'd seen this before and knew he'd end up throwing someone out at the end of the night, but he did as he was asked. The shots appeared before Hunter and Scarlett in short order.
“May the best woman win,” Scarlett said before lifting hers and throwing it back. It burned all the way down. Hunter watched her carefully then threw back his own and the competition began. Scarlett had prided herself on her drinking ability in school. She didn't look like she could hold much liquor, as small and light-framed as she was, but she had surprised more than one male by drinking long after he had already emptied his stomach on the pavement. She didn't know where it came from, but she blamed her heritage. After all, it was almost impossible for one to be English and not be able to drink. Drinking was a national pastime. Hunter looked like he could drink but Scarlett felt confident that she could beat him.
Shot after shot came to them. A few people had started to watch casually and then started to take bets on who would puke first. The world was spinning around Scarlett and she couldn't feel her fingertips but she was not ready to quit yet. She couldn't tell if Hunter was screwed or not, though. He was definitely drunk, they both were. More like wasted actually. But he didn't look like he was going to puke any time soon. All Scarlett really wanted was a glass of water but that would have ruined everything and make her lose by default. She couldn't even talk right, and honestly didn't even wanna try, so she just gripped the bar to keep from swaying off her stool and tossed back yet another shot. It had stopped burning a long time ago and didn't taste like much. It just felt cold going down.
“You done yet?” Scarlett said with some difficulty.
Hunter shook his head with a completely drunken smile. “You wish,” he slurred.
Scarlett took a deep breath to ready herself for the next shot and barely managed to get it down. “Oh Christ,” she mumbled, almost falling off her stool.
“You give?” Hunter asked.
Scarlett hated to admit defeat but even in her totally trashed state she knew that one more drink would spell disaster.
“Give,” she said and immediately tried to order a glass of water. She wasn't sure if she said it right but the bartender understood.
“I'll call you guys a cab,” he said. “You'll be able to get home all right?”
“Yeah,” Hunter said. He had a glass of water of his own but already seemed better. Scarlett put her head down on the bar. “We're old friends,” he said at the look of concern on the bartender's face. “You can have all my contact info if that makes you feel better about leaving her with me.”
“If you don't mind,” the young bartender said. Scarlett focused on breathing. The water helped but she knew she would have one hell of a hangover in the morning and she'd probably regret it when she finally woke up. Especially since she had lost. She was halfway through slowly sipping her water when she felt Hunter all but haul her out of her seat. She could stand, though her legs were shaky, but she was glad to have something strong to lean on. And boy was he strong. She wasn't so far gone that she couldn't feel the muscle beneath his shirt and either she was imagining things or he was ridiculously warm.
“Do you have like, a fever?” she slurred as they stumbled towards the front door.
“No,” Hunter said. He sounded almost completely sober. “Just a naturally warm body temp.” Scarlett grunted. The cool air outside hit her like a slap in the face and did a lot to wake her up. She straightened and shook her head, which proved to be a mistake since it just made her dizzy, but she definitely felt more awake.
“I can get home from here,” she said, pushing Hunter away. She stumbled but could stand on her own. “Done it loads of times.”
“I wouldn't want to be responsible for anything happening to you,” said Hunter.
“I'm fine,” Scarlett said empathetically. “I'll be fine.”
“At least let me ride with you.”
“Mmm, nope,” Scarlett hummed. She fumbled for the latch on the back door of the cab. “Nope, I'm good. See you tomorrow.”
“Wait, wait,” Hunter said, grabbing her wrist. Her whole body went alight and her breath caught around a knot in her throat. “I don't have your number, how am I supposed to come get you?” Scarlett grunted and managed to get her phone out of her pocket with no small degree of difficulty. Hunter gave it back a couple seconds later. “Okay,” he said. “Give me a shout when you get home yeah? If you remember.”
Scarlett gave a sloppy, mock salute. “Aye, aye, Captain,” she said, and knocked her head on the top of the door frame getting into the cab. As the driver pulled away from the curb it was to a stream of curses falling from her mouth as she nursed her aching head. She was going to be in one hell of a state tomorrow.
To his credit, the driver waited until she was inside her building before driving off. It was loud as ever. For once Scarlett didn't mind it. She found herself drunkenly dancing to her downstairs neighbor's music while she tried to unlock her front door. It gave after a minute and she almost fell in. Humming to herself she locked up and stumbled her way to her bedroom to change. Upstairs she could hear the banging of her other neighbor's bed against the wall, supported by the occasional very loud moan. At least someone was getting some, Scarlett thought with a tinge of drunken bitterness. She had never been the kind of girl to do one night stands but that didn't mean she didn't wish she was. It would make her boring sex life so much more exciting. Waiting for a relationship meant finding a relationship in the first place and then getting to the point where anything more than kissing was okay and it wasn't always good which meant everything was awkward the next day. At least if a one night stand was terrible he was always gone the next morning.
She flopped onto her bed, having given up on removing the rest of her clothes which left herself still in her bra and shirt but devoid of her pants and shoes, at least. She'd had the foresight to put water and pills on the side table, which was good because as soon as her head hit the pillow she knew she wasn't getting up again.
***
The mother of all hangovers greeted her when she woke up the next morning. As much as it hurt to think, her brain remembered what to do: take pills, drink water, get in the shower and eat something even though she felt like she wanted to puke. All in all it took about an hour for her to go through the motions, but by the end of it she felt good enough to actually put on pants and go down to get the mail she had forgotten to grab yesterday. The bright lights in the staircase hurt her eyes but Scarlett soldiered on all the way do
wn to the mailbox on the ground floor. She flipped through her mail – junk, junk, junk – then turned around to go back up and met something very solid that almost but not quite managed to knock her on her behind. She opened her mouth and let out a stream of curses that were stopped by the hand held out to her. Scarlett grudgingly took it, prepared to use what little strength her aching body had to pull herself up only to be yanked onto her feet with no effort on her part. She grumbled out a thank you and finally looked up and had all of the air sucked from her lungs.
It was her neighbor. She knew that much. He lived above her, but she didn't remember him ever being quite this attractive. Dirty blond hair, green eyes, sharp features and god he was tall. And lanky. How had that completely passed her notice? Of course, she'd only ever seen glimpses of him. She didn't really talk to either of her neighbors and they didn't talk to her. It was kind of an unspoken agreement that they all kept to themselves. She wondered how it had been possible she had never even bumped into them. She racked her brains trying to think of an answer and didn't come up with anything other than completely different schedules when her neighbor's voice broke her out of her thoughts.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“What?” Scarlett asked, stupidly.
“You fell hard,” he repeated. “You okay?”
“Uh, yeah,” Scarlett managed. “Fine.”
“You're in the middle right?” he asked, as if it wasn't obvious by the location of Scarlett's name on the mailbox. “Sorry about the noise. Hope it doesn't bother you too much. Last person that lived here got so fed up they moved out.”
“Uh, yeah I'm kind of used to it,” Scarlett replied. His voice was nice but it was hurting her head. “It's all just white noise at this point.” Which was a lie because there were still nights when all the banging and moaning kept her awake. “So is it your girlfriend coming over or a boyfriend, or...?”
“No, no girlfriend,” the man said with a grin. Scarlett glanced at the mailboxes. Titus was his name. That was weird. He must have hippie parents or something. His teeth were sharp, too, like Hunter's. Genetics were weird. “So if you ever want to come up...”
“Yeah, I don't really do throwaway flings any more,” she replied. “Sorry.”
“The offer is always there,” Titus said with a wink as well. “See you around, neighbor.” He headed out the door.
Scarlett frowned at his retreating back. “Yeah, not bloody likely,” she muttered under her breath, shaking her head. She tramped back up to her apartment, junk mail in hand. Well, at least she knew what the guy looked like. No wonder there was a different girl up there every night, or the same girl, whichever. If she were inclined towards casual sex she'd probably be taking advantage of living so close to him.
She was tempted to get back into bed but knew better so instead fetched her phone and sat on the couch instead with the TV on mute, so as not to make her headache any worse. As she moved her finger to unlock her phone she realized that she had never texted Hunter to let him know she'd gotten home safe. She didn't feel a sudden wave of anxiety or anything but she did feel guilty for having forgotten. The only message she had from him was several question marks. Scarlett quickly texted back.
//So sorry, totally passed out.
\That's ok. Still on for tonight?
//Yeah. Hopefully you'll get a less hungover me.
She texted him her address
, and Hunter texted back telling her to relax and that he would see her later.
Scarlett intended to relax. There was plenty on TV to watch and as long as she kept a steady stream of water entering her system she knew by the time Hunter came to get her she'd be fine. She took one nap after a big lunch and when she woke up she felt miles better. Then came the really hard part; trying to figure out what to wear. Casual or sexy or in between? Scarlett had a feeling that casual was the way to go. Of course casual didn't mean not nice. Most of her wardrobe was built around work, which meant it wasn't hard for her to find a nice pair of jeans and a tight-fitting t-shirt. Hunter didn't strike her as a fussy guy. He probably wouldn't even care what she was wearing. She was really only doing it for herself.
When it was close to when Hunter was supposed to arrive Scarlett went downstairs and outside to have a quick smoke, toying around with her phone and trying not to look like she was waiting. Casual, she told herself. Be casual. The nicotine helped calm her down. She threw the butt out when it was done and didn't light another one, but fished around in her little bag for her tin of mints, popping one in her mouth. She gave her shirt a sniff. She smelled a bit like smoke. With a grimace she dropped her shirt. She should have thought about that before she lit one up. Hopefully Hunter wouldn't notice, or if he did he wouldn't mind. The place Scarlett wanted to go, which was yet another pub but a nicer one than the one by work, usually had a tinge of smoke in the air anyway. It was a newer place, more a restaurant than a pub, but if it had a bar and served alcohol then it was a pub, regardless of if it sold food or not.
She'd been waiting long enough that she was considering texting Hunter to ask where he was when a little silver Ford pulled up in front of her. The window rolled down and Hunter poked his head out.
“Hey,” he said. “You look nice. Where are we going?”
“The Red Cow.”
Hunter gave her a look. “I told you you can go wherever you want and you wanna go to another pub?”
“It's a nice one,” Scarlett said. “I assume you know it?”
“Whatever you want,” Hunter said and showed his teeth in a grin. Scarlett tapped playfully on the hood of the car as she went around to the passenger side of the car. It smelled like pine trees inside, but Scarlett couldn't see an air freshener anywhere. Hunter must have hidden it pretty well. Maybe it would rub off on her and get rid of the cigarette smell that had settled on her shirt. Hunter smoothly pulled away from the curb. Honestly they could have walked to the bar and been there in under twenty minutes, but she wasn't about to complain. It wasn't very warm in the car, though. Maybe Hunter didn't mind the cold so much, but Scarlett definitely did. She kept her mouth shut, though, until Hunter noticed how curled into herself she was.
“Are you cold?” he asked.
“No,” Scarlett lied. “I'm fine. Besides it's like a five minute drive, I'm fine.” She was only shaking a little bit, anyway. Hunter didn't say anything else. It took a couple laps around the block to find a parking space that was anywhere in the vicinity of close. Once they were out of the car Hunter sidled up close and draped an arm over her shoulders. She almost pulled away in surprise.
“Christ, you're warm,” she said.
Hunter chuckled. “Yeah, sorry, naturally high body temperature. Hope it doesn't both you.”
“No, it's nice,” Scarlett replied. “It's like I have my own personal heater.” Hunter let out a laugh that made Scarlett beam. He thought she was funny. When was the last time a guy had gotten her sense of humour? Not since university, probably.
Once they got inside the bar Hunter pulled out Scarlett's chair for her and lounged across from her. “So,” he said, “how was your day? Still hung over?”
“A little,” Scarlett admitted, “but not enough for me to stand you up.”
“I totally would have taken it personally,” Hunter said with a sharp smirk. Scarlett giggled but blushed. They ordered drinks and waited a bit longer to decide on food. Scarlett hid her face behind the menu, only occasionally peeking over the top at Hunter, who was completely engrossed in his own. A few minutes later he asked if she was ready and when the waiter came back they put in their order. Scarlett had chosen water over a drink, not wanting to exacerbate her hangover. Hunter did the same, perhaps so she wouldn't feel left out.
“So about your day,” Hunter prompted.
“I ran into my neighbor,” Scarlett said.
“Is that unusual?” Hunter asked.
“Surprisingly. I pretty much never see them. But I ran into the guy who lives above me today, literally, w
hen I went to go get my mail. He apologized for all the loud sex he's constantly having and asked if I'd be interested.”
Hunter laughed, but it sounded forced. “What'd you say?”
“Same thing I told you. I don't do one night stands.”
“And what did he say to that?”
“That I know where he is if I ever change my mind.”
“Sounds like an ass,” Hunter said.
“He was really nice, actually,” Scarlett replied. “And cute. It's no wonder he gets laid all the time.”
“I'm cute,” Hunter sulked. Scarlett smiled and reached across the table to ruffle his already messy hair. Hunter scowled at her and brushed her hand away, gently.
“You are,” Scarlett replied. “And obviously I like you or I wouldn't be here right now.”
“Oh really?” Hunter asked. Like a switch being flipped his attitude changed from dejected to something almost predatory. “So maybe I have a chance tonight?”
Scarlett snorted but there was heat in the pit of her stomach. “You wish,” she said. Hunter didn't reply but he didn't have to. The way he was looking at her was answer enough. He was happy to take her out on a date and get to know her but he wanted more than conversation. Scarlett considered it briefly in the few seconds of uninterrupted silence she had while the waiter brought them their food. Going home with Hunter and sleeping with him didn't mean it had to be a one night stand and maybe she could get back at Titus with some noisy sex of her own. Strangely, the thought of him stopped her. She couldn't figure out why before she was drawn back into conversation with Hunter but the question picked at the back of her mind. If Hunter noticed she was at all distracted he didn't say anything.
However, not very long into the date, his watch beeped. He glanced down at it, casually, but then his face paled.
“Shite,” he said. “I have to go. Emergency.”
“Why, what's wrong?” Scarlett asked.
“Family stuff,” Hunter said quickly. He stood, still apologizing, and threw a wad of bills down onto the table. “That'll cover this. I'll text you, okay? I'm really sorry. Really sorry.” Even as he backed away from the table he was apologizing. Confused and shocked Scarlett couldn't do anything but watch him leave. She sat for a moment in stunned silence before her brain kicked back into gear. Well, at least they had almost finished eating.