I walked up to the bar and tried to rejoin the conversation Izzy was having with Flynn and Mel. I think they were talking about their honeymoon, but I have no idea. I positioned myself right next to Flynn, turning so I could watch Vanessa and Luke.
Flynn looked back at me and lowered his voice. “You doin’ alright?”
“Just fine,” I quipped, still staring over at Vanessa and Luke.
Flynn glanced over in the same direction and then turned back toward me. “Remember how Mel and I used to fight before we got together?”
I just nodded, knowing where he was trying to go with this.
“Well, it was really because of too much sexual tension. You should probably just man up like I should have.”
I shook my head, smirking. “That’s not the issue, Flynn,” I told him gruffly, while still watching Luke and Vanessa together.
He looked stunned as he pulled his brows together when I glanced back at him. “It’s not?”
“Nope,” I replied as I flicked my eyes back and watched Vanessa reach over and squeeze Luke’s bicep. What the fuck was that?
“Matt.” Flynn snapped me out of watching Vanessa grope some guy. “You were saying?”
I shook my head remembering what I was telling him. “She’s got some stupid policy at work against inter-company dating, the same one that kept me from seeing Kara. She wants to stick to it and it’s driving me nuts.”
“Oh.” Flynn looked slightly taken aback by what I just said. “Well, that sucks. Too bad you can’t just have a night with her and get her out of your system.”
I choked on the drink I had just taken from my beer. Flynn smirked and shook his head. “Shit. Are you serious? You guys already did that and you still want her?”
I looked over at Sandy behind the bar and held up my empty bottle. She quickly brought one over for me, setting it down nicely in front of me. Well, at least she was in better spirits than before.
“I see Vanessa is getting acquainted with Luke. He’s such a great guy,” Sandy said sarcastically and a bit too happily. I gave her a dirty look and grabbed my beer from the bar quickly as I turned around to watch Luke touch Vanessa’s hand lightly. His fingers were grazing over the back of her hand lightly as he smiled at whatever Vanessa was saying.
Flynn started laughing, “Ease up there Matt, or you’ll crack your teeth as hard as you’re clenching your jaw.”
I glanced over at him and tried to take a deep breath. That wasn’t helping matters so I took a couple drinks of my beer as Flynn started in. “You know. Maybe she actually means a little more to you than just being one of your regular girls.”
I shook my head. “Don’t try that shit with me, Flynn. It’s not gonna work. I’m not interested in a relationship with her.”
“Yeah, right.” I stared at him wondering what made him say that as sarcastically as he did. “Matt, you had her, you usually can move along. Why you’re getting bent out of shape about her and Luke is pretty obvious.”
“It is?” I asked, raising my brow.
He pressed his lips together smiling. “Yeah. It’s pretty obvious you’re really into her.”
I rolled my eyes. Bullshit. I started looking around the bar. I needed to prove him wrong. Asshole. Into Vanessa. She annoys the shit out of me and I just want to have sex with her again. That’s all this is. I shook my head and walked over to a small group of women and started talking with them. I have no idea what they were saying and I just kept nodding my head. One of them bumped hips with me and started pulling me towards the dance floor. Good. See. I’m can move on and be with another chick.
We passed by the table Vanessa and Luke were sitting at and I purposely placed my beer right on their table and smiled over at Vanessa. She didn’t even look at me. Well, that didn’t go as planned. Had I planned that?
I started dancing with the girl and then realized I had no idea what she even looked like. I looked her over from head to toe. She was almost as tall as me and her hair was striped blonde and brown. I couldn’t tell if she did that on purpose or if she had a bad hair stylist. She wasn’t bad looking, but nothing like Vanessa — the girl I was trying not to think about.
This immediately caused me to glance over to where they were sitting. Luke was leaning in telling her a story and she was laughing and touching him. Flirting. Vanessa knows how to flirt? She did that with me, didn’t she? No. Maybe. She didn’t do that with me. I was pretty certain of that.
“Hey, you’re supposed to be dancing with me not staring at other people,” Stripey exclaimed.
I nodded and gave her a quick smile. “Right, sorry.” I grabbed her tightly and started to really grind into her with the beat of the music. She willingly did the same back to me and hugged my neck tighter, pressing her breasts against my chest. Nice. See. I can do this. I don’t need Vanessa.
Vanessa. My eyes immediately popped back to where she sat. She wasn’t looking at me at all. She was giggling and getting a hand massage from the dickwad. Giggling. Vanessa doesn’t giggle, does she?
“Hey!” Stripey burst out. “Asshole! Quit staring at other chicks.” She turned towards the direction I was looking and then smugly looked back at me. “Fucking asshole,” she muttered as she marched off the floor. I stood there still gaping at Vanessa and dickwad staring at each other.
Fuck it. I’m done with this shit. I walked over to their table and stood next to them, clearly interrupting their conversation. Luke looked up at me and smiled like a dumb fuck. “Hey, Matt. How’s it going?”
“It’s good, Luke. How about you?” I tried to make simple conversation as I tried to cool my jealousy. I grabbed an empty bar stool from a nearby table and sat right in between them. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees completely ready to enter the conversation. They both exchanged glances several times.
“So what were you guys talking about over here?” I asked trying to act completely enthused. Completely ready to fuck with their conversation.
“Well, Luke,” Vanessa started while she smiled over at Luke, who in turn smiled all to happily back at Vanessa, “Was just telling me a funny story about the time he went to the country club my parents belong to. He was there for a wedding and,” Vanessa started laughing. Her eyes were bright as she ran her hand through her hair while glancing over at Luke. “The maître de took Luke’s coat and Luke told him,”
Luke interjected, laughing as he quipped, “Am I going to have to tip you for that too?” They both started laughing. It wasn’t funny at least I didn’t think so. Luke stopped laughing then looked over at Vanessa as he grinned from ear to ear.
She turned to me. “I actually know the guy; he’s got a great sense of humor.” Her smile dropped when she noticed I wasn’t laughing.
Luke gestured towards Vanessa’s mostly empty glass on the table and asked “Would you like another drink Vanessa?”
She started to answer, but I went ahead and interjected, “Wow, Vanessa,” I scrunched up my face. “You really shouldn’t be drinking after the night you had last night. I would think your stomach is still upset.” She flushed red and I felt bad. Sort of.
“I…”
“Did you have a wild night last night?” Luke asked with a smile.
“Wild? The girl didn’t stop drinking last night, right Vanessa? I had to hold her hair most of the night,” I said while shaking my head.
Vanessa’s mouth was wide open as she stared at me in disbelief. She can hate me all she wants, right now I was going to let Luke know. Know what? I wasn’t sure of that since I hadn’t even thought things through in my head. All I wanted to do was break up this little soiree and I’d think of what I was trying to accomplish later.
“You held her hair?” Luke asked, giving me a disgusted look.
“Well, yeah. That’s what friends do, isn’t that right Vanessa?” I reminded her sarcastically. She glared at me and then turned to Luke.
“Would you please order another Cosmo for me? I’ll be right back,” she asked as sh
e touched his arm lightly and then walked off toward the restrooms after he nodded his head. I watched her walk off noticing she seemed to have a little more wiggle to her step. I also noticed Kara pop up from her table and rush off following her.
I turned back just as Mandy came over to our table and I realized Luke was still watching her walk away. We both caught each other’s eyes as we turned toward Mandy for our order.
“So Matt,” Luke started after Mandy took our order and sauntered off. I wondered why Vanessa changed from red wine to a Cosmo, but shrugged it off. The woman confuses the shit out of me. “What’s the real story between you two?”
“Story?” I asked, knowing what he was really asking, but unsure of how I was going to answer it.
“Yeah. Are you into her and I need to back off or are you two really just friends?” He leaned forward and lowered his voice, “Cause I gotta tell you, she really seems like a fantastic girl.” An overwhelming urge to punch him for just thinking about Vanessa that way gripped me hard. I swallowed hard and got a grip. Kind of.
Fuck it. “You think she’s fantastic? Wow, she’s got you fooled. The girl is a mess of problems. She drinks too much — actually she drinks like she did last night all the time. And man, whew…” I whistled low before continuing, “the mood swings.” I shook my head. “Fuck, I can’t deal with that shit, you know what I mean?”
Luke stared at me, nodding slightly. “Mood swings?”
“Oh God, they’re horrible. Just as her friend, I started tracking that shit monthly,” I lied.
He continued to listen, so I continued to lay it on really thick. “She does this thing where she…” I went on and on for quite some time about anything and everything a woman might do to annoy a guy. I finally stopped as Mandy returned with our drink order.
“Wow, man, I’m glad you told me that. She sure had me fooled.” He shook his head and pulled out a twenty, throwing it on the table. I tried my best not to smile as relief flooded me. “Hey, I’m gonna head out of here before she gets back. Just tell her I got an emergency call and had to help out a friend or something, alright?”
“Yeah, sure man. I’ll definitely do that for you,” I said as he clapped my back and shook my hand. I watched him head out the door just as Vanessa was coming back to the table.
“Where’s Luke going?” She asked, seeming slightly deflated that he was leaving.
“He said he had to help out a friend. He answered his cell and told me there was some emergency,” I lied, again.
She flopped onto the bar stool with a pout. I couldn’t help but look her over. Especially in that little top she was wearing, which shoved her tits right to the top, almost spilling over. Grazing my lips over them earlier wasn’t going to cut it. I was dying to cup her breast hard.
“Darn it,” she exclaimed, making me flick my eyes from her breasts back to her eyes. “I really thought we hit it off. I’m glad he gave me his number. Maybe I should give him a call and see if he needs any help?” She asked me. She was really asking my opinion? I guess a friend would help her out in this type of situation.
Pulling my brows together, I pretended to act concerned. “No, I wouldn’t do that. You might sound a bit desperate. You want to play this thing the right way,” I advised her.
She nodded with a thoughtful look. Then she glared at me. Did she see through my lies? “By the way, you’re on my shit list. What was up with telling him about my night last night and holding my hair? That was a jerk thing to do.”
I chuckled as I shrugged off her comments. “What? All I was doing was tell him the truth. Didn’t I hold your hair last night?” She rolled her eyes, knowing full well I wasn’t embellishing last night. “See, I was just telling the truth,” I shrugged as I took a drink from my beer.
“Well, you didn’t need to tell him all that,” she told me as she glanced at the table. Her eyes glanced back to mine as she perked up and smiled. “He’s really sweet, isn’t he? He was so nice to talk to. We exchanged numbers earlier. I hope he calls me.” She pressed her lips together as she thought more. “Do you think he’ll call me tomorrow? Should I call him?” She asked way too anxiously.
Quickly I responded, “No, you shouldn’t call him. You never call a guy.”
“Never?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
It was finally closing time and we started walking back to our apartment building after saying goodnight to everyone. Vanessa had really paced herself tonight, but I noticed after Luke left she was a bit more tipsy than she was earlier.
I glanced over and laughed as I checked out her tits. She must have bent over at some point and her left boob came out of that tiny bra she tried to tease me with earlier.
“Your tit popped out,” I stated flatly as I glanced back over at her while we kept walking back to our apartment building.
“What?” She asked, still smiling from ear to ear.
“Your tit. In that tiny bra you’re wearing. Popped out. It looks like you have one up and one down.”
I watched her from the corner of my eye stop walking and glance down. I stopped walking and noticed her face flush with embarrassment. I chuckled while she turned towards the building and tried to adjust her boob back into her bra, while mumbling, “Oh shit.”
I waited for her to fix things while glancing around. There were mostly young drunks walking back from the bars now. Some were stumbling into pizza joints that stayed open for the after bar crowd. It reminded me of college a little, only everyone was dressed in more expensive clothes.
Vanessa fixed herself and walked towards me. “Thank you Matt,” Vanessa said as she smiled and knocked into me. I couldn’t tell if it was because she was pretty buzzed or if she was trying to be playful.
I had to chuckle as I asked, “For what? Telling you your tits were uneven?”
She laughed and then tilted her head as we continued walking. “For convincing me to go out.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if you realize this or not, but…” she took a deep breath before continuing, “I have a tough time meeting new people and getting out.”
I wanted to say, “No shit,” but I refrained. Instead I tried to act surprised, but it came out more sarcastic. “No, you?”
Her face became completely serious continuing to look right at me. “No really. I do. I’ve always had a hard time meeting people.” She huffed. “That’s why I decided to go into HR. I wanted to force myself out there.” She shook her head as she told me this. I couldn’t help but smile. That took guts to throw herself into something, especially a career, in order to get out of her comfort zone.
We arrived back at our apartment doors and I stood there watching Vanessa take her keys out of her purse. This wasn’t a date, I reminded myself. So I shouldn’t want to kiss her. But I really wanted to. I stared at her lips wanting to taste them again. All her teasing from before we went out was no longer there. She seemed more humble or thoughtful tonight as she toyed with her keys. She looked up into my eyes.
“I know this sounds strange, but,” she paused and bit her lip, glancing away quickly before looking back into my eyes. Hers were so bright and beautiful as I glanced back at her lips that were now curled into a sweet smile. “I really had a good time tonight. I mean, I know we didn’t have a date or anything and we were actually apart most of the time. I…” she scrunched up her face and shook her head rolling her eyes. “Sorry, I guess I’ve had too much to drink. I’m just gonna go in and shut up.” She gave a small laugh.
I put my hand on her arm, giving her a smile back. “No, I actually know what you mean. I had fun tonight forcing you out there.”
She laughed at my small joke and nodded, glancing away. “I think I really like our new friendship.”
Her eyes flicked back to mine and I gave her a sincere smile. “Me too,” I told her with pure honesty. Well, minus the jealousy I had tonight. Aside from that, watching Vanessa smile, laugh and flirt, even if it wasn’t with me, really did make it a pretty nice evening.
“Goodnight, Matt.”
“Goodnight, Vanessa.” I watched her open her door and go inside. She smiled before she finally closed the door fully. I just stood there staring at the door wondering if I should have said something more. Friendship. I wasn’t sure if that’s really all that I wanted, but I’ll have to just bide my time for now.
******
Me: How ya feeling Gorgeous?
I smiled to myself as I sent Vanessa a text the next morning. I wondered if she enjoyed being called that. I wasn’t sure if I should ask her or not. I mean, who wouldn’t like to be called that, right?
I was surprised when she replied so quickly.
Vanessa: Feeling great. You?
Me: Good. Want to run out and grab some breakfast?
Vanessa: I don’t usually eat breakfast, just coffee. But I’ll head out with you.
Me: Meet you in 15?
Vanessa: K
I was surprised she didn’t argue with me. I expected to at least have to drag her out since it seemed to be her initial response.
Fifteen minutes later and I was knocking on her door. Aubrey held the door open, smiling and wearing a tight tank top and tiny shorts. God I love my neighbors. I smiled at Aubrey as she eyed me like a piece of candy from head to toe before stepping aside to let me in.
After she closed the door she stepped towards me, inside my personal space. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was coming on to me. She gave me this sexy grin and I wasn’t sure what to think. My eyes quickly scanned the room for Vanessa. I wasn't sure if this was a trick or something.
“You better treat her right. I can be a fucking bitch to deal with if you’re an ass to her. Got it?” Aubrey directed to me as she crossed her arms over her chest.
I swallowed quickly as I realized how protective she is over her friend. I nodded.
She pressed her lips together, returning my nod. She strutted away from me towards her room with a confident, sexy walk. Damn, she’s hot. I shook my head as I walked to Vanessa’s room like I did last night. I got a chub just remembering how she came out of the bathroom dancing naked. I’ve seen just about all sides of her, I was pretty sure. At least I hope the bitchy side I saw at work was as bad as it gets. I can handle that.
Romantic Promises (Alluring Promises Series, #2) Page 30