by KB Winters
“Men are just douche bags, Ev!” Tori explained, pouring me another glass of wine. The bottle had started as a pre-date-jitter-calmer, was down to its last few fingers, as we passed it back and forth, filling our short tumbler style glasses. “I mean…what the hell? Bennett had it made in the fucking shade! I’m not some clingy, needy girl who wanted to hear about his crappy childhood or meet his mother. All I asked for was to get good and fucked—on the regular! That’s a guy’s dream! But it didn’t even matter to him, he just up and left. No phone calls, text, nothing.”
She gulped the rest of her wine, throwing it back like a shot. “I just feel bad, ‘cause I got you into this mess. I swear, Ev, they seemed like normal guys. I mean…they’re Navy SEALs, ya know?”
I shook my head. “I know. Don’t worry about it.”
“No, really! I should have known! God, this is why I always go back to dating women! I swear to God, they don’t pull this kinda shit!”
I kept quiet. I didn’t need to remind her she’d been screwed over by both sexes equally. I sipped at the wine—the buzz from the first two glasses warmed me up and melted away the confusion and frustration. I had to come to peace with the fact that I wasn’t likely to ever figure out what had happened with Ryker. The missed date, the disconnected phone number or why he’d even asked to see me again after the night before—where I’d run out of his room when things had gotten too hot between us.
“You know what?” Tori stood from the couch and waved her glass above her head. “We’re not going to let those fucking punks ruin our night! Come on Ev, get up. We’re going out!”
I stared up at her, but didn’t make any attempt to move. “Tori, I just want to scrub all this makeup off and take a hot shower. If you wanna stay in and binge watch TV, I’m your girl—but I’m so not interested in leaving this apartment.”
Tori leaned over and pulled me up by the armpit. I wobbled up—my alcohol tolerance significantly less than Tori’s—and she braced me upright, a hand on each shoulder. “No, no, I won’t have it! Come on, girl! You look fuckin’ hot as hell in that dress and you’re not going to waste it sitting around here! Give me five minutes to change, and then we’re gone.”
There was no point in arguing with her when she got like that. I shrugged my shoulders, finished my wine, and tried to rally my excitement over her plan. “Fine! But if you’re not out here in five, I’m hittin’ the shower.”
“Okay!” Tori jumped away and scurried off down the hall, rattling off places we could go.
Three and a half minutes later, she reappeared, her auburn curls loose and natural, her eyes made up in a sultry smoky eye, and she was wearing a blue bandeau top with a skirt so short I could see her thong underwear when she leaned over to grab her purse from the other side of the couch where it had fallen. To top it all off—she had on a pair of spiky black heels that looked like they could double as a weapon if needed.
“Let’s go!” She slung her small black purse over her shoulder, and grabbed for my hand.
Apparently, she’d already called a cab and it pulled up in front of our apartment complex seconds after we made it down the stairs and walked to the front entrance. Tori preferred to take cabs whenever we went to the Strip, wanting to avoid the traffic and parking nightmare that Vegas turned into after dark, and also so she could talk me into drinking and not listen to my concern for being the DD.
Tonight, I wasn’t going to need much convincing to down a few drinks.
It wasn’t my style, but as we got closer to our first stop of the night—bound to be a tour of the hottest spots on the Strip—excitement pulsed through me, and I started hoping we’d see Ryker somewhere and he’d see what he was missing.
My wish came true—in a backwards sort of way. We were driving down the Strip, Tori on the lookout for some bar her friend was going to be at, when she pressed her face to the window. “Ev? Is that…?”
I didn’t even need her to finish her sentence. I leaned over and peeked out the window past her shoulder.
“Ryker?” She said.
My stomach knotted up and all I could do was nod my answer. It was Ryker. He was standing on the sidewalk outside one of the casinos, talking to a woman who looked like some hooker. He was wearing dark jeans, a black hoodie sweatshirt, and if it hadn’t been for Tori’s eagle eyes, I wouldn’t have even recognized him, but once she pointed him out—it was painfully obvious.
“What the fuck? Is that—?”
Tori turned back to me. “Looks like he found a new kind of playmate.”
My cheeks burned. On our last date, we’d gotten carried away in his hotel room, but I’d bolted before things went too far. Truthfully, I’d thought his chase would end there—as Tori had eloquently put it, I’d given him mega blue balls—and was shocked when later that night, he’d asked to see me again. But, maybe he’d changed his mind, and decided to go after a sure thing. It didn’t seem like him, but even as I whipped up rationalizations for his strange behavior, I had to admit…I didn’t really know him.
“Pull over, just for a sec,” Tori directed the driver. She rolled down the window as we rolled to a stop along the nearest section of curb, and she stuck her middle finger out the window. “Hey! Ryker! King Douchefuck!”
I shrank back, hiding behind her hair, but kept my eye trained on Ryker, who turned at the sound of his name. His face looked pinched and tight when he spotted Tori, but he didn’t make a move towards us, instead, he wrapped an arm around the hooker and led her off in the other direction down the sidewalk.
“That’s right! Take your whore and go! We don’t need trash like you,” Tori concluded, rolling up her window. “Let’s roll!” She snapped at the driver.
We pulled back into traffic and a couple moments of tense silence crackled between us, before Tori turned to me. “Sorry, Ev.”
“It’s fine,” I lied, wrapping my arms around myself. The party mood had been sucked right out of me, but I knew there was no way Tori would agree to go home, and I didn’t want to leave her alone when she was in that mood. There was no telling what kind of trouble she’d get into.
When we got inside the bar Tori had been hunting for, the music was so loud that all my thoughts were muffled. She dragged me to the bar, and as we were waiting for the bartender, I looked around and noticed there wasn’t a man in sight. Tori placed our order and turned back to me, seeing the look on my face, she started to laugh. “I figured this might be the kind of scene we needed! No men allowed!”
“Oh my gawd…Tori…” I stammered, reaching for her arm.
Tori continued laughing and wrapped an arm around me. “Don’t worry sugar—I’ll take care of you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
I rolled my eyes. Tori was always full of surprises, but taking me to a lesbian bar was near the top of the outrageous category. We got our drinks and made our way to the dance floor. I stayed on the edge, sipping on my drink through a tiny straw, and watched the other women dancing together. Tori joined the throng as soon as she gulped her drink, abandoning me to get down and dirty with every female in the place.
After my second—or third?—drink, I joined in with her and all thoughts of Ryker faded as I danced with Tori and a few other girls who approached me on the floor. Tori watched me closely and if any girl started getting too up close, she would insert herself between us and chase away the other girl. Knowing she had my back made it easier to cut loose and before I knew it, everything around me blurred together, and I had more fun than I could remember ever having at a club, and Ryker was the last thing on my mind for the rest of the night.
****
The next morning, I opened my eyes to a bright light streaming in the window, and the soft sound of…snoring. I whipped my head over and saw Tori’s signature red hair fanned out over the pillow next to mine. I sat upright and realized I was naked as the sheet fell away from me. I gathered it up and shoved out of the bed, dragging it with me. As the sheet pulled off Tori, it revealed her na
ked body, still sleeping.
I panicked, racing through my scattered thoughts from the night before. What on earth did I do?
At the commotion I was making, Tori stirred, and rolled over, giving a catlike stretch before opening her eyes. She smiled at me, standing there in the sheet, horror pulling my face into a twisted expression. “Morning gorgeous,” she purred, smiling up at me.
“Tor-Tori…what, um, did we?” I fumbled, pulling the sheet tighter as I struggled with what I needed to ask—afraid of the answer. “I mean, last night. We didn’t?”
Tori laughed and shook her head. She stood from my bed and stretched her arms up over her head, not seeming to care that she was still buck naked. Then again, I’d seen Tori naked more times than I could count, so I supposed she didn’t actually care.
“Tori!” I burst out, her pause testing my patience.
“Relax, doll. Nothing happened. You were crazy drunk, seriously girl, I’m proud of you! But we didn’t get it on. We didn’t even kiss. Although I won’t lie, I would’ve let you.” She threw me a wink and rounded the bed. I backed up, bumping into my wall, as she passed. “God, Ev, I’m not gonna attack you or anything. I’m just playing.”
I rolled my shoulders, and loosened my grip. She was right, I was acting crazy. “Sorry, I know that, obviously. I just…wasn’t expecting to wake up with you…here. I can’t remember last night…was I really that drunk?” My tongue was dry, but my head wasn’t pounding like it normally did when I’d had too much to drink.
“We came home from the club and you still had your heart set on a TV binge, so we watched in your room. That was your idea, by the way,” Tori explained. She left my room and went across the hall to her own. I followed, still dragging the sheet. “My idea was getting more comfortable and getting out of my dress. Believe me…I was just as surprised as you, when you stripped out of yours…”
“Oh gosh…” I pinched my eyes closed as the memory hit me. I’d stripped it off to the bump and grind music for some late night phone sex hotline commercial. “Mental note to self…no more alcohol. Ever.”
Tori laughed. “I think it was all those lesbians, Ev. They made you hot!”
I shook my head and walked back to my room. I could still hear Tori cracking up as I shut the door and collapsed back onto my bed.
Chapter Two
Everlie
Thanks to my morning surprise, I was fifteen minutes late to the studio and had a host of miniature ballerinas—and their angry parents—lined up outside the front door. I made my profuse apologies as I unlocked the studio and ushered them all inside. My morning classes were chaos from the start. The kids were cranky from having to wait, and restless baby ballerinas are not an easy thing to combat. When my first class left, my second class arrived just as anxious, and I spent more of the class trying to wrangle the students as I did actually teaching. My mind was so distracted by the events of the night before, and my heart wasn’t in teaching, which made an already difficult task, impossible.
When my lunch break came, I collapsed into the chair behind my desk and buried my face in my hands. My head ached, my body ached, and my eyes rapidly filled with tears. I sat hunched over my desk for awhile, taking deep, yoga breaths in an attempt to calm myself, and when the door swooshed open, with the soft tinkling of the jingle bells tied to the handle, I cursed under my breath, not ready for my next batch of students.
When I looked up and saw Ryker filling the doorway, his hands in his pockets, I cursed out loud.
“I suppose I deserve that,” Ryker said, taking a few steps inside. “Everlie, can we talk?”
I jumped out of my chair and braced my hands on my desk, leaning towards him. “No, Ryker, we can’t. You need to leave. Now. My next group of students will be here any minute, and I cannot—will not—have you here when they do.”
He considered me for a moment, but ignored my angry expression, and took a few steps closer. “Everlie, I know you were with Tori last night, in that cab. I’m sure you have questions. I wanted to come over and talk to you. Please, give me a chance to explain.”
I laughed. “There’s nothing to explain, Ryker. I don’t have questions for you. I’m sorry you wasted a trip out here. You should have just called or something. I could have saved you some time.” I pushed off the desk, grabbed my lesson planner and flipped it open, diligently studying the exercises for the next class in hopes that when I looked up again, they would be assembled before me and Ryker would be gone.
“I would have called but I don’t have your number. I mean, I did, but my phone was hacked, so I had to get a new phone and number. It’s been a nightmare, actually,” Ryker continued.
“That’s too bad,” I replied, not lifting my eyes from my lesson plan. Ryker stepped closer and lifted the book from my hands. My eyes darted to his. “What are you doing?”
“I want you to listen to me, Everlie. I need to explain some things.”
The doors opened again and Ryker took a step away from me. I looked past him and saw my next class filing in. They were my junior high aged ballerinas, just out of school for the day, and always arrived early enough to eat a snack before starting.
“Hello, girls,” I called out.
“Hello, Ms. Harmon,” they chimed back.
“Go ahead and eat, change, use the ladies room. We’ll get started in ten,” I instructed. They nodded in reply and went about their business, a few of them gawking at Ryker.
I flicked my eyes back to Ryker. “Come with me.”
He followed my lead to the back room where I store costumes, stage equipment and office supplies. I flicked on the bare bulb light overhead and leaned against a bookshelf, my arms crossed, as I faced him. “You have five minutes. Then you need to leave so I can get on with my classes.”
“I’m sorry about last night. Like I was saying, my phone was hacked—had to disconnect it fast and when I switched to a new one, I didn’t have any of my contacts saved, so I couldn’t call you, and if you tried to call me, it was disconnected.”
I nodded, remembering when I’d tried to call, that was the message I’d received. His explanation—although horribly farfetched—was plausible. At least, so far.
“Anyways, that was a whole mess, and then I called Bennett to see if he could give me Tori’s number, he had some emergency and I couldn’t get out of helping him.”
“A hooker emergency?” I asked, even surprising myself with the sharpness of my reply.
Ryker rubbed the back of his neck. “I can’t explain everything…but what I can say is... I wasn’t with her—if that’s what you thought. All I was trying to do was get Bennett’s situation handled so I could get him to give me Tori’s number.”
I stepped forward and flicked off the light. “Time’s up.”
“Everlie, please,” Ryker pleaded, following me back to the main room where my students were sitting in a circle on the floor, giggling and finishing up their snacks.
I spun on my heel. “Go away, Ryker. I know sometimes I can be a little gullible, but you’re lying to me. I don’t know why, but you are. I don’t have to figure out what game you’re playing to know I don’t want any part of it. Now, please, leave me alone.”
“Everlie, I’m not lying to you.”
I ignored him and went to the barre in front of my students. “All right girls, let’s pack away the snacks and get started. As you know, we have our annual recital in a few weeks—” Ryker stared at me as I rambled on about the recital plans, but after a few minutes, he took the hint and stalked out of the studio.
* * * *
The rest of the afternoon went much smoother than the morning, and although my visit from Ryker had been tumultuous, I was proud of myself for not getting sucked back into his drama, and danced with my classes much lighter and clearer than I had the first half of the day.
Tori had promised me pizza and a movie to get things back to our normal routine and get rid of any lingering weirdness from the night before. She wouldn’t be off w
ork until much later, as her final burlesque show of the night didn’t wrap until well after eleven, so after my last class left, I plowed through some paperwork to hand off to the accountant at the end of the month, and did a solo workout, before leaving the studio for the night.
On my way to my car, Ryker popped out of the shadows. I screamed, startled by his sudden appearance. “What the hell! Ryker! What are you doing here? You scared the crap outta me!”
“Sorry, Everlie, that wasn’t my intention. I came back to see you and finish our conversation from earlier.”
I felt for my car key on my ring. “This is getting creepy,” I told him, my fingers shaking as I unlocked my door.
Ryker sighed. “Everlie, I don’t know what you expect me to do. You refused to talk to me earlier—I still don’t have your number or address. Coming here is the only place I know I can find you. I’m not trying to creep you out—I just wanted to finish our conversation.”
I stopped, my hand still on the handle of the driver’s door. “It’s a waste of time. I’m not interested. Not anymore.” It was a half-truth. I couldn’t deny my attraction to him, and while there was a tiny part of me that believed the part about the phone being hacked and losing my number, there were still too many other things that didn’t add up. So, regardless of how handsome or intriguing I found him—it was over.
“Hear me out, and I promise I’ll leave you alone.” Ryker placed his hands on the top of my car, his dark eyes intense and focused on me.
“Fine.” I sighed and crossed my arms. “Go, talk.”
“Here?”
I nodded.
“All right. Not ideal, but fine.” He dropped his hands and came around, stopping a few feet from me. “That woman I was with last night, when you and Tori saw me, she’s one of Bennett’s friends. I had to talk to her to get Bennett out of this jam he was in.”
“I thought you told me Bennett went back to Oklahoma.”
“He did, but he had some unfinished business here.” Ryker looked to the left and then the right, scanning the empty lot. “Listen, Everlie, I’m not really supposed to say anything. Bennett and I are like brothers, but he fucks around sometimes, and gets himself into trouble. When that happens, I have to bail him out. Anyway, he was with that woman, but her quote, unquote manager, was saying he didn’t pay and threatening him. You can’t tell Tori a word of this, but that’s why he left. It’s all a mess.”