by Jayne, Kris
Alexa smiled. “Don’t worry about it. We’re not serious.”
* * *
Graham agreed to meet Trista again at Logan’s—just the two of them. He arrived shortly after seven and squeezed his way to the bar, which was packed wall to wall. With no seating readily available, Graham joined the throngs hovering and waiting for the people who had seats to give them up.
After a few minutes, he noticed a man asking for the check while his female companion gathered their things. Rather than take a chance, Graham tapped the guy in the shoulder and asked straight out if he could have their seat.
“There are a lot of people waiting.” The man glanced around the bar.
“Can you do me this favor? I’m waiting for a friend. A friend of the female variety…”
As Graham suspected, the guy did the bro-code thing and set him up to impress his lady friend with his ability to score seats. The couple left, and Graham staked his claim—much to the irritation of several people around him. He didn’t care. He hated waiting.
She arrived about fifteen minutes later as the mob grew impatient with Graham’s occupation of two seats.
“Hey, you! It’s so great to see you.”
Trista attempted to give him a hug, which didn’t quite work since he was seated in the bar stool. She settled for curling her hands around the back of his neck and pulling him cheek to cheek.
She wore the same perfume she always had—a designer fragrance that smelled of cinnamon and musk. It always made Graham’s nose itch. He stifled a sneeze as she climbed into the stool next to him.
Her short, black skirt climbed up her thighs. The outfit showed off her strong, defined legs, which flowed down to a sexy pair of open-toed platform pumps. “Fuck me” shoes if there ever were a pair. She wore a red halter top, tied behind her neck with an inviting bow. The blouse plunged in the front, and as she positioned herself on the stool, her breasts pushed together, swelling nearly to the point of spilling. Graham cast his eyes away and caught the attention of the bartender.
“What do you want to drink?” He looked at his non-date sideways.
She peered over into his glass. “What are you having?”
“A glass of Cabernet.”
“Sounds good.”
He ordered her the same and launched into small talk.
“Did it take you long to get here? The traffic has been a mess.”
“I guess. I hardly even notice anymore. I’d been living out in Round Rock, so anytime I had to come into the city, it was a nightmare.”
“You’re not still there?”
“No. I sold my mom’s house and moved to East Austin.”
Graham read her face for signs of whether she would want to talk about her mother. He knew from experience that sometimes you just wanted to stay happy.
Trista smiled and flipped her hair.
He’d keep it light. “I still can’t believe that part of town is now the trendy place to live. Back in the day, all you wanted to do was avoid East Austin.”
“I love it. I’m glad to be back in the thick of things. What about you? Where do you live in these days?”
She crossed one leg over the other below the knee, brushing her leg against his. Her smile puckered in invitation.
Graham swallowed hard. “The other side of town. In West Lake.”
“Nice. Posh.” Trista giggled. “You’re making me regret that I ever broke up with you.”
Her hand brushed his thigh, and he turned, catching her fanning her lashes at him.
His crotch tightened, and he pressed his heels into the bar stool.
Their tumultuous relationship always seesawed between her not being able to get enough of him and then nearly throttling him. Trista ran hot—surface of the sun hot—and ice cold.
He wasn’t doing that again.
“That was probably for the best.” Graham laughed. “As I remember it, we didn’t want the same things.”
“You still don’t want to get married? Or have kids?”
“Those are big questions.”
“I’m just curious.” Trista picked up the red wine newly delivered in front of her and swirled it gently, nosing the glass.
Graham couldn’t respond to Trista’s inquiry. Not because he was incapable, but because the answers would never be applicable to her. When Graham was younger, he took screaming and yelling and passionate make-up sex as a sign of great feeling.
He couldn’t contemplate marriage and kids sitting across from a woman so tempestuous.
“I’m not ruling anything out if I meet the right woman.”
“You’ve matured. That’s good news.”
“I suppose I have.” Have you? He wouldn’t ask her that question. “What else is been going on in the past seven years?”
“I sold my half of the studio to Trina. From what I hear, the business has really taken off. I think she’s opened a couple of extra locations.”
“You don’t keep in touch with her?”
“We lost touch,” she answered curtly. Hot and cold.
“Do you miss having your own business? You always loved being in charge of every aspect of the operation.”
“I did, but running everything is exhausting. Mostly what I miss is the personal contact with clients. I’m excited to start working at Starlight Fitness. Alexa seems like she’ll be a great boss. Do you know her well?”
Graham poured over Trista’s blank expression. Innocently asked question or a mining expedition? She sipped her wine and continued to gaze at him with wide-eyed interest.
“I haven’t known her long. We bought the building back in January, and that’s when we met.”
“Oh. I thought you two seemed friendlier when I ran into you at the gym that day.”
Her innocent eyes blinked at him, but he realized her game. “We’ve gotten to know each other since I started working out there. From what I’ve seen, you’re right. She’s a good boss, and you’re lucky to work there.”
“Cool. That’s good to know. How’s your dad?”
Graham welcomed the new line of questioning. He caught her up on the goings on of his family and the few friends they’d once shared. Once they ordered dinner at the bar, Graham relaxed. Trista quit pumping him for information about his personal life, and he remembered how much fun she could be when he wasn’t entangled in the messy way she ran her relationships.
After they ate, they surrendered their bar seats to other people who wanted to grab dinner, moving closer to the entrance as the throngs pressed toward the bar.
“I miss this.” Trista tipped her face up toward him. A man passed behind her, and she made a big show of being bumped, throwing her body against his and bracing herself with her hands on his shoulders. Not sure if she were really about to topple over, he grabbed her around her waist.
He righted her on her feet and his hand slipped down, trailing over her firm ass. He couldn’t go there again, but damn, she still had a rocking body. Feeling a little nostalgic, he held his hand there, smiling down at her.
“I do, but I don’t.”
She tossed her hair back, which thrust her breasts up and gave him a tantalizing view. Oh, the mistakes he’d once made. He gave her backside another quick pat, looked up, and froze.
The last person he needed to see him right now walked in the front door. The statuesque woman blazed at him with rage-filled eyes. Oh, shit.
* * *
Alexa spotted Graham as soon as she walked into Logan’s. His hands slid down the back of a firmly built woman and then settled squarely on her ass. The woman in the skintight outfit and “fuck me” pumps laughed. Graham’s familiar smirk shined down on her. Not until he lifted his eyes and met Alexa’s did he push the woman away.
“Oh, shit.”
The expletive got the petite, but muscled, woman to turn around and blanch before blushing. Alexa approached them with calm resolve.
“I see you’re getting to know my new instructor. Oh, wait. That’s right. You two alread
y know each other.” Alexa pressed her lips together and tried to keep her nostrils from flaring like a longhorn bull.
“Look, Alexa, this isn’t what it looks like. I was telling Trista that she and I are just going to be friends.”
“Really?” Alexa and Trista expressed their disbelief at the same time, causing Alexa to shake her head.
“You know what, Graham. I can’t even be mad. You and I aren’t exclusive. That’s clear. So, it’s none of my business. Except it is. She does work for me, but that’s not your problem.” Alexa turned heel and returned to her friends.
Holly reached out and squeezed Alexa’s arm. “Let’s just go somewhere else.”
“No. We came here to have a drink, and that’s what we’ll do. He could do whatever he wants.”
“There are hundreds of bars within spitting distance of this place,” Melissa pointed out.
Alexa dropped her voice. “I’m not giving him the satisfaction. Who else wants a cocktail? I’m going to the bar.”
She didn’t wait for her friends’ approval or continued sympathies. A woman on a mission, she forced her way forward and made eye contact with the bartender.
“Can I get three tequila shots please?”
While she waited for her drinks, she saw Graham and Trista huddled together, sparring. Or Trista was sparring. Graham had that patronizing, “Just calm down, sweetie,” look that men get when they’ve messed up, but want you to believe you’re overreacting. Trista sniped one last time and then fled.
The bartender poured three golden shots and left her tab open. Drinks in hand, Alexa scrambled back to her friends and passed out her wares.
“Bottoms up.”
Alexa slammed the tequila shot like she hadn’t since her last year of college. She should have been more specific with regard to the quality of the tequila because the pungent burn hit her like a one-ton pickup.
“Alexa, please. Let’s talk outside.”
Without turning to look at Graham, she spat out a, “fine,” and walked outside, knowing he would follow. When she heard the footsteps behind her come to a stop, she whirled around.
“Honestly, Graham, you can do whatever you want. But I thought we had this conversation. Yesterday. How could you expect this not to bite you in the ass? Correction, bite me in the ass. Or Trista. This is my business. You are astoundingly fucking selfish.”
“I’m not sleeping with Trista, and I wasn’t going to sleep with Trista.”
“So, feeling her up in the bar is what then?”
“I wasn’t feeling her up. She stumbled, and I caught her and we kinda laughed. I literally was just telling her that we can’t go back to where we were.”
“Is that why you were leering at her tits?” Alexa threw her hands to her temples and then to the sky. “Don’t answer that. I don’t have the right to tell you what to do with your life. I just wish you gave more consideration to how what you were doing affects everyone else. But, I guess, you’re not that guy. I know that now.”
“I’m sorry.” Graham’s pleading eyes searched hers for understanding, and she gave him none. “I let my little head have more control than the head on my shoulders. I shouldn’t have been touching her like that if for no other reason than I knew she wanted to start things up again, and I don’t.”
“I’m not talking about this anymore. I’m hanging out with my friends, trying to have a good time, and you’re blowing my buzz.”
Alexa took a couple of strides back toward the door, and Graham changed his tack.
“So, you’re hanging out with your ex and introducing him to your friends. You expect me to be okay with that, so I roll with it. But one freaking moment with an ex-girlfriend and you flip out.”
His indictment turned her back around and sent her storming toward him.
“I wasn’t groping Adam. And I introduced you to him because he and I are nothing, and it wasn’t a big deal.”
“You introduced me to him because you had no choice. And he’s practically in love with you, so you need a way to back him off. You used me to deflect him. Don’t kid yourself.”
Alexa huffed and looked past him, down the street. “Deflecting is making this about me when you’re shuffling things around so she doesn’t show up yesterday and you two can canoodle tonight one-on-one on your date.”
Alexa blasted him, all the while chastising herself for not walking away. Their relationship wasn’t a serious one, so why get into this big to do with him? Walk away. But she couldn’t.
“It’s not a date.”
“Like our not dates?” Alexa smiled to stave off a grimace. “It’s fine. Really. We both know what we wanted. Right? We got it. Now, it’s over.”
“Got it. That’s good to get straight.” Graham’s words snapped. “But please tell me you’re not going to take this out on Trista. She had no idea that you and I were seeing each other.”
Alexa felt like gagging at his protectiveness of another woman. “Of course I won’t. That’s the whole point. I don’t want anything personal interfering with my business.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want our thing to make things hard for her at work. She’s a good person, and she’s good at what she does.”
“Wow. She should have listed you as a reference.”
“Alexa—”
“Forget it. Good night, Graham.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Tequila shots are a fast track to regret.
Alexa could sense the sunlight through her eyelids before she threw off the covers and stumbled around her house in search of water. Vodka sodas never left her feeling like she’d licked the bottom of someone’s shoe and then clubbed herself over the head with it.
After storming back into Logan’s the night before, Alexa had doubled down on the party and downed two more tequila shots in short order. Melissa and Holly joined in out of sisterly solidarity.
“We can’t let you drink alone. That would make this sad,” Holly had declared before ordering the next round of shots—lemon drops. “But one more tequila shot, and I might lose my sushi.”
Their raw fish dinner at the Japanese restaurant a few blocks away was maybe the worst preamble to tequila-fueled drunkenness ever, but that escaped her mind as Alexa ordered drink after drink.
Steeped in alcohol, the women decided they needed to go dancing, so they took a pedicab a few blocks over to a nightclub. Alexa remembered standing in line outside with the thumping bass pounding through the muraled brick wall. Holly recognized the bouncer and shimmied her way to the front, springing them from the line to the VIP rooftop.
Bumping bodies and free drinks courtesy of various men took them into the early hours Sunday morning. The next logical step was to grab a breakfast of sorts from the Tex-Mex food truck serving all-night migas around the corner. Melissa bowed out, going home to Kyle and a passable amount of sleep before heading to a late church service.
Holly and Alexa rallied and filled up on a mashup of eggs, tortilla chips, and salsa, rolled in corn tortillas with a side of crispy potatoes and onions. The meal may have saved Alexa from the worst of the hangover, even if late-night eating meant she’d have to white-knuckle it through a workout at some point.
But for now, she needed water. And lots of it. Simply being vertical made her temples pulse with pain. She filled a liter-sized water bottle and guzzled it before heading to the couch. She paged through her phone messages and saw numerous texts and two voicemails from Melissa.
“Morning, Mel,” Alexa grumbled when her friend picked up the phone.
“You’re alive! I was beginning to wonder if I needed to swing by your house and make sure you weren’t passed out face down on your lawn.”
“It’s not so bad as that. I took an Uber home from the taco stand. Of course, that took over an hour and probably cost me an arm and a leg with the surge pricing.”
“How’s Holly?”
“I haven’t talked to her this morning, but she texted me when she got home. I’ll see her at work tomorro
w—hopefully. Of course, I’ll also see Trista at work tomorrow. That should be fun.”
Alexa closed her eyes and circled her fingertips on her temples. None of that was Trista’s fault, but it would make her first day on the job incredibly uncomfortable. Regardless of what he had said, his proclamation that he didn’t want to date her clearly came as a shock.
“Do you think she’ll quit?”
“I don’t know. Most of me hopes that she stays on. Professionally, I really think she’ll be great. A tiny sliver of me, though, would love to duck the whole issue and have her no-show me.”
“You don’t mean that.”
Alexa sighed. “No, I don’t. I’ll manage it the way that I always do. Rip the Band-Aid off with the horrible conversation and then move on.”
“Have you heard from Graham?”
“No. He hasn’t called or texted or anything. I wouldn’t expect him to. Him, I definitely want to no-show. If he has any pride whatsoever, he’ll never set foot in my gym again.”
“Offer him his money back.”
“I never actually processed his application. I can just tell him to go away. You think that would be childish?”
“I think it’s practical.”
“Enough about all that. Are you going to church today? It’s Palm Sunday.”
“I was, but Kyle wants to sleep in. Plus, I feel kinda dingy going to church with tequila seeping from my pores.” Melissa moaned. “Why did you do that to us?”
“Stupidity. I used to drink tequila every weekend, all weekend, and bounce right back. That’s not exactly happening this morning. Right now, I’m trying to stay horizontal.”
“Pull it together. You want to be on your game tomorrow morning.”
“I’m so dreading that conversation. The thought of it pisses me off all over again. He’s such a jackass to mess with my business like this.”
“Only business? You’re not usually one to get this emotional over something like that.”
Alexa rolled over to hide in the sofa cushion. “I have no other right to be angry.”
“You liked him, and he’s treating that like it’s nothing. You can be pissed off about it.”