Hold the Forevers

by K. A. Linde

  “Holy shit! Look, y’all, it’s ‘Hey There Delilah',” a guy said as he approached me.

  My face soured. Only one group of people had ever called me that. And go figure, I’d managed to end up at the same bar as Ash and his asshole high school friends. I didn’t blame Ash for not wanting to crash with Chuck Henderson. His lackeys, Greg and Joseph, weren’t too bad, but Chuck was as much of a ringleader as Shelly Thomas.

  “Chuck,” I all but growled.

  “Delilah, I must say, you have cleaned up nicely,” he said, his eyes roaming my body. “No wonder you were fucking her in high school, Ash.” He smacked Ash in the chest.

  Ash’s fist clenched, and he shouldered Chuck out of the way. “Why don’t you shut the fuck up?”

  “That would be excellent advice.”

  Chuck held his hands up. “Hey, I was joking.”

  “No, you weren’t.”

  “No, he wasn’t,” Ash agreed.

  Our eyes met, and that mutual understanding passed between us. I’d been lucky the last year to not run into anyone at UGA who had gone to my small high school or the all-boys equivalent. Now, Ash had brought them right to me. Great.

  “Of all the bars in Athens, you had to choose this one.”

  He shrugged. “Chuck’s choice.”

  “Here you go,” the bartender said, sliding a drink to me.

  “I got it,” Ash said. He withdrew his credit card and passed it to the bartender. “Can I get a Jack and Coke and five shots of tequila as well?”

  “Sure, buddy.”

  “You didn’t have to get my drink,” I told him as I sipped on the drink that tasted mildly like swill.

  “For the trouble,” Ash said with a dazzling smile.

  I shrugged but wasn’t going to turn down a free drink.

  The bartender passed Ash his drink and then laid out five oversize shot glasses, filling them nearly to the brim. Salt and limes were dropped onto a napkin next to the drinks. Ash nudged one toward me.

  “Oh no, I already had a Four Horsemen.”

  “Damn, Delilah,” Chuck said. “Who knew you could hold that kind of liquor?”

  I couldn’t. But the challenge in Chuck’s voice made me pick up the tequila shot. Mind you, it was definitely more like two or two and a half shots. And the last thing I wanted to do was drink it, but fuck Chuck Henderson.

  “To high school,” Chuck declared.

  “Ew,” I said under my breath as I clinked glasses with Ash.

  Then, I downed the contents of the drink, latching on to the bar to keep from spinning. I scrambled for a lime to try to douse the fire in my gut.

  I was not going to be sick. I was not going to be sick. I was not going to be sick.

  Maybe if I said it on repeat, it might be true.

  “Lila, there you are!” Channing said. “You’ve been gone so long. We had to send out the search party.”

  Chuck took one look at Channing and stepped forward, as if he were king of this place. “Hey there, baby.”

  Channing wrinkled her nose. “Not interested.”

  “Come on,” Chuck continued over her objection.

  “She said no,” Ash said.

  “Not that I need a reason,” Channing snarled, “but I’m here with my girlfriend.”

  “Oh, I’d watch that.”

  I stepped between Channing and Chuck before Channing could deck him, which he rightfully deserved. “Go fuck yourself, Chuck. You weren’t cool in high school, and now, you’re a fucking prick.”

  Ash shook his head. “What the fuck, man?”

  Chuck laughed, as if the entire thing were a joke. “I was just kidding. Christ, everyone is so sensitive.”

  Ash ignored him and followed me and Channing away from the guys he’d gone to high school with. “Hey, I’m sorry about him.”

  Channing rolled her eyes. “As if that’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

  “Still shitty.”

  “It is,” I agreed. “Channing, this is Ash.”

  “Ash,” Channing said with raised eyebrows. “The Ash?”

  He shrugged, all nonchalant. “Sure.”

  “The one who showed up without a girlfriend this trip?”

  “Didn’t work out.”

  Channing grinned devilishly at him. “Oh, I like you. Dance with us.”

  I giggled at Channing’s easy acceptance of Ash. Just like that. Despite all the frustration she’d had with him earlier, he’d stood up for her, which made him cool as far as she was concerned. Plus, she was still mad at Cole. As was I.

  It was another hour of drinking and dancing before I realized that I might have started the night off a little too strong.

  “Lila, are you all right?” Ash asked.

  He steadied me against him, and I giggled all over again.

  “I’m fine,” I said, my speech slurred. I was also seeing two of him, which made me laugh louder. I reached my hand out to touch the second part of him. “Oh my God, what a trick. There’s two of you.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Jesus, you’re trashed.”

  “Shh,” I said, putting my hand on his mouth. I missed the first time but managed it the second. “I’m fine, Ash. Fine.”

  He took my hand off of his lips and held up his fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

  “Three.” I counted them with my hand, missing one and starting over again. “Maybe four.”

  “Okay, I should get you home.”

  “Nooo,” I cried. “Party pooper.”

  Ash ignored me and turned to Channing. “Hey, I’m going to get Lila home. She’s plastered. Do you and Mary Elizabeth need a ride?”

  “No, we’re good. I don’t think we had as much as her. We’re going to stay until bar close.”

  “Cool,” Ash said. Then he slid an arm around my waist and directed me toward the stairs.

  “I don’t want to leave.”

  “I know,” he said as he maneuvered me up the short flight of stairs. After two unsuccessful attempts, he slipped an arm under my legs and hoisted me into his arms. He carried me up the steps and then set me back down.

  “That was gentlemanly.”

  “Not the first time I’ve had to carry your drunk ass.”

  “Hey!”

  Ash chuckled, and we shared a moment of easy reminiscence. “I suppose that time was my fault.”

  “You stole a bottle of bourbon from your dad’s wet bar, and we played strip Truth or Dare until I threw up in the bushes.”

  He laughed again. “Yeah, okay, but it was totally worth it.”

  “Ass.”

  He was still grinning about the memory as he called us a cab. Shockingly one showed up quickly. Must have been because we were leaving before bar close. I gave the guy my address, and we pulled away.

  I tipped my head back against the seat. “You didn’t have to come with me.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  I touched his hand. “Thanks.”

  “Anytime, Lila.”

  A few minutes later, the cab pulled over in front of my apartment. After I nearly fell out of the car, Ash got an arm around me and steadied me for the walk up a flight of stairs to my door. I rummaged through my small purse for my keys and failed twice to insert it. The keys fell out of my hand and I cursed violently.

  “God, you’re a mess.”

  He picked up the keys I’d dropped on the ground and got the door unlocked, pushing it open so I could stumble inside first. I didn’t think anything about the lights being on. I must have left them on this morning when Channing and I hurried out for College GameDay.

  “Lila,” Ash said softly. He nodded his head into the apartment.

  I whirled around, nearly falling again. I reached out for the stair banister to keep me upright. And then I saw what Ash had been gesturing at.

  Cole was here.

  My stomach hit my feet, and I sobered up in the same split second. I righted myself against the banister. The moment stretched into infinity. Me and Cole an
d Ash. All in the same place. All together.

  “What exactly is going on here?” Cole asked. His voice was tight and controlled. Anger. Very barely suppressed anger.

  I knew immediately how this looked. I’d told him that Ash was staying here with his girlfriend. And now, we were here sans girlfriend and I was drunk to boot. It wasn’t how it appeared, but it sure looked bad.

  My face flushed red. “Uh, Cole, this is Ash.” I gestured behind me. “Ash, Cole.”

  Neither moved. I didn’t know why I’d ever envisioned them coming to a place where they could look at the other as an equal. There was no truce here. No stepping forward and accepting the other’s presence.

  “Where’s his girlfriend?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. This was going to hurt.

  “We broke up,” Ash said levelly. He arched an eyebrow in challenge and shut the door behind him. Bold. And pathological.

  “He’s not staying,” I assured Cole. “And he didn’t stay last night either. He was just making sure I got home okay.”

  “I’m sure he was.” He looked like he wanted to put a fist through the wall. Or maybe through Ash’s face.

  I needed to wrestle back control of this situation. “What are you doing here?”

  A muscle in Cole’s jaw flexed. Apparently, that was the wrong question to ask.

  “I thought you were with Jess.”

  Ash shifted behind me. I glared at him for a minute, but he just smirked. I hadn’t mentioned what was happening with Cole and his ex-girlfriend. But he’d assumed something was up, and he’d been right.

  “I came to apologize,” Cole said. “Maybe we should talk somewhere more … private.”

  “Yeah. Sure. Of course.” I turned toward Ash. “We’ll be right back. I don’t know if you want to …”

  “I’ll wait,” Ash said.

  Fuck, the look he shot Cole. He wanted to goad a fight out of him. He’d always been that way, but it was not helping right now.

  “Fine.” I nodded my head toward the stairs. “Come on.”

  I didn’t wait to see if Cole followed. I stomped up the stairs. This whole week was a huge pass. I wanted it to be over and never think about it again.

  Cole did follow me, closing the bedroom door behind him. “Lila …”

  “Nothing was happening with Ash,” I told him before he could say anything else. “I don’t want you to think that you and I were in a fight and so I’d do anything stupid. He was at the same bar as me, and I was hammered, so he was making sure I got home okay. That’s all.”

  “Okay,” he said, his arms crossed over his chest. “I believe you.”

  “Do you? Because you look skeptical.”

  He gritted his teeth. I could see him trying to control the anger burying through him. “Yeah, it sucked to watch you walk in that door with him. And it’s fucking suspicious that he showed up here without his girlfriend. Not to mention he just happened to be in the same bar as you.”

  “I know how it looks.”

  “Bad,” Cole said.

  “Yeah, well, I was pissed at him for not telling me about Charlie, and I kicked him out. This isn’t what it looks like.”

  Cole dropped his arms and sighed. “I want to believe that, but I saw the way he looked at you.”

  “Then you can understand how I felt about Jess staying with you.”

  “I can,” he said. His hands rested on my shoulders, and he dropped his forehead onto mine. “We didn’t need privacy because I was mad about Ash or came to talk about Jess.” His hands moved into my hair, tipping my head up to meet his big blue eyes. “We needed privacy because I need to apologize.”

  His lips crashed down on mine. All the notes of his apology in that one fervent moment of desire. My response mirrored his. I was still drunk enough to be on fire with need for him. Not to forget our argument, but to use it as fuel. To fan the flames.

  “Cole …”

  His hands slipped down to my thighs, hoisting my legs up around his waist and walking me back to the bed. We slammed down on it, breaking apart with a short laugh at the squeaking from my bed.

  “Should we talk first?”

  But Cole was already sliding down my front and hiking up my short black game day dress. His fingers hooked under my thong, yanked it down to my ankles, and then tossed it to the floor.

  “Talk later,” he said.

  Then, he dived between my legs. I gasped at the first touch of his lips on my body. The gentle nips along my inner thighs before he reached what he was after. He flicked his tongue along my clit, and I bucked beneath him. He used his arms as leverage to hold me open before him on the bed. He was so much stronger than me. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to, and as he ravaged my pussy with his tongue, I couldn’t imagine ever moving from this spot.

  “Fuck, you taste good,” Cole said.

  I squirmed under him, hot with need from the comment. “Oh God.”

  “I could eat this pussy every day.”

  My face and back flushed at the filthy words. I clutched the mattress as he released one of my legs to bring his fingers up to my opening. He dragged two fingers through my wetness before delving inside of me.

  I bucked off the mattress. I was so close. Unbelievably close.

  “Come for me, baby,” Cole said, pumping his fingers in and out and then trailing his tongue in tight circles around my clit.

  Between the alcohol coursing through my veins and his tongue on me and his fingers inside me and those words urging me, something snapped. I cried out shamelessly. My body went taut as a bow. Everything tightened as the orgasm ripped through me.

  Then it released, and I lay, spent on the bed. My eyes slowly opened and stared at him in a drunk, just-sexed stupor.

  He withdrew and removed the remainder of his clothes. His dick sprang free of his boxers, and I could see what my orgasm had done to him.

  He leaned his muscular body over mine. The tip of him sliding across my wetness. “I want you to come at least one more time. I’d keep you coming all night if I could.”

  His lips pressed to mine, and I tasted myself on him. My body was shaking with anticipation. I wasn’t ready for more, and also, I was so fucking ready for more and more and more.

  “Tease,” I groaned, lifting my hips to try to get him inside of me.

  “Oh, did you want something?” He pressed a kiss to my nose and then sat up, angling my hips up to meet him. Then with exaggerated slowness, he slid into me.

  “Oh fuck,” I murmured.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he said when he bottomed out. “You’re so tight.”

  “Cole.” I wiggled my hips to try to get him moving. But it was a sight to see him on his knees with his dick buried in me. His head tipped back and eyes closed as he enjoyed the feel of me. “Please.”

  He leaned down on one elbow, brushed a kiss to my lips, and began to move. Slow and steady at first to bring me back to the brink, but then neither of us could hold out any longer. I dragged my red acrylic nails across his back, leaving my own marks. His fingers dug into my hips, using them as an anchor as he plunged into me over and over again on the creaky bed.

  “Close,” I told him. “So fucking close.”

  He lifted me up into his arms so that we were both sitting up and I was on top of him. I leveraged myself against his hips, slamming back on him. Wanting the sweet release that was within reach.

  He took over the rhythm and used my body, bouncing it up and down on him until I cried out as my orgasm hit at the same time as his. He grunted, shooting up into me one last time. I threw my arms around him as everything went hazy and I saw stars.

  I flopped backward on the bed, my hands over my head, and I smiled up at him.

  “Wow,” I whispered.

  “Yeah. Fuck, Lila.”

  “That was some apology.”

  He fell onto the bed next to me, kissing my forehead. I padded out of bed to clean up, and then he followed. When we both got back in bed, he wrapped an arm ar
ound my shoulders and tucked me in tight.

  “One day, we’re going to have to not use sex to solve our problems.”

  He kissed me again. “You’re right.”

  We lay in silence. Both of us knew that we needed to have a real conversation, but neither of us wanted to go there yet while still trapped in the afterglow of our sex.

  Then the downstairs door slammed shut, loud enough to practically rattle the hinges.

  I winced at the sound. Ash must have left. He’d probably heard everything. Fuck.

  “I’m sorry about Jess,” Cole said in the bubble of silence that fell after Ash departed.

  “I’m sorry about Ash.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I don’t understand how you could still be friends with her after what she did to you.”

  Cole sat up on an elbow. “We’ve never talked about this before. What did you hear that she did to me?”

  I flushed again, unable to say the words.

  He nodded his head. “You heard about the train.”

  “Uh, yeah …”

  “I’d hoped you’d never hear about that. I hate that it’s still circulating. It’s a vicious rumor.” He tipped his head back in frustration.

  “Well, what really happened?”

  “Look, I didn’t tell you what happened with Jess because it isn’t my story to tell.”

  “Your breakup isn’t your story to tell?” I asked skeptically.

  “Jess was raped.”

  I sat up in horror. “Oh my God.”

  “Yeah.” He ran a hand back through his hair. “She was at a party, and a guy slipped something in her drink. Then, he took her out back and …” He gestured to off to indicate what had happened. “One of her friends found it happening and swore she was going to call the cops, but she brought her to me first. By the morning, Jess didn’t want anyone to know. She was humiliated and ashamed, and … she still can’t talk about it. She wouldn’t go to the police. She said they wouldn’t do anything.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut. “I hate that she’s right.”

  “Well, her friend told me who did it. I found the guy, and a few other players and I beat the shit out of him. Decided it was as much justice as he deserved. He tried to get us kicked off the football team.” Cole shrugged. “Didn’t work.”