I had not been paying it any attention, so I carefully listened, but didn’t recognize it. “I’ve never heard it before. What’s the name of it?”
“It’s ‘Heaven’ by The Fire Theft.”
I listened to it a little more. “It’s a cool song. I like it.”
She leaned back a little and searched my face with unsteady vision. “Why did you ask me to dance? I’ve been a total bitch to you since the moment we met.”
Because I can’t resist your beauty or your smart ass mouth, but mostly because you intrigue me. “You’re different, nothing like the girls I usually go for.”
“Yeah, I’ve always been different. I tried being normal once. It was the worst five minutes of my life.”
“See? Stuff like that is what I really like about you. You’re so damn honest about who you are and you aren’t afraid to call me out on my bullshit.”
Man, I liked that about her. Probably more than I should. She hadn’t made tonight easy for me. Simply trying to talk to her had proven to be difficult and I guessed that the alcohol could be thanked for the friendly nature of the conversation we were currently having.
“That’s me, Saint Nick. I’ve never been afraid to call bullshit on anyone.”
Saint Nick? I felt my entire body stiffen. I hated being called that, but she made it sound so sweetly intoxicating the way it rolled off of her tongue and I almost forgot the painful reason I hated it so much.
I stopped dancing and stared at her face looking for the answer. “Why did you call me Saint Nick? I thought I was Jedi or Poppycock or something like that.” I tried to be casual about it and I hoped she couldn’t see the way she shook me to my core.
“It’s not near as funny if I have to explain it. I was being a smart ass because you’re the total opposite of a Saint, or at least that’s what Jessie told me.”
“I don’t like to be called that,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure she heard me and I wasn’t sure I meant for her to. I reached for a lock of hair in her face and pushed it away. As I stared at her, I thought she couldn’t be more beautiful than she was in that moment, but then she smiled as she began to sway to the music again and proved my whole theory wrong.
“You’re so beautiful.” I blurted it out without thinking and was shocked by my own absentmindedness. Where had that come from? I had never told a girl anything like that before.
She didn’t say a word as she stared into my eyes with a determination to figure me out and the thing she thought I was hiding.
This was a night of firsts for me. I told a girl she was beautiful and I meant it. Now, I was about to ask her out on a date because I liked her and she was interesting, not because I was planning to get her in my backseat.
“I would really like to take you out. I know Jessie has told you to be leery of me, but I promise to be on my best behavior. I’ll be a saint and you can choose where we go and what we do. Dinner? Movie? You name it. We’ll do anything you want.”
Pleading with a girl for a date wasn’t my scene and it sort of made me feel like a loser, but then I realized how ridiculous I looked standing there hoping she’d agree. She searched my face for a moment and then whispered, “No.”
I just thought I felt ridiculous before. Now, I felt downright humiliated. “No? You’re turning me down just like that without any consideration? Why?”
“You act like this is the first time you’ve ever been told ‘no’.”
“By a girl, yeah.”
She stopped swaying and looked me straight in my eyes. She was trashed, but managed to not slur too badly. “How many girls have you gone through?”
My experience with chicks had always made me proud and maybe even a little arrogant, but suddenly I wasn’t so thrilled by the notches on my bedpost because I could feel that it was about to cost me this girl. “I don’t know,” I shrugged, feeling defeated.
“And that’s why I can’t go out with you. I’m not going to become a number you can’t identify. It’s not what I’m looking for.”
I was sure I didn’t have a shot in hell at being what she wanted, yet I needed the confirmation in case I was wrong. “Tell me what you’re looking for.”
Her smile was breathtakingly beautiful. “I want truly, madly, deeply.”
Oh, of course. She wanted lovey dovey. She wanted her kisses to be slow and romantic instead of fast and needy. She wanted everlasting love, which was something I didn’t offer. Love was overrated and nature used it to kick us in the gut and trick us into reproducing.
“I want what Claire has with Jessie.”
I should run from any girl openly telling me she wanted love, but I found I didn’t want to. There was something about her that drew me in and wouldn’t let go.
If I was going to talk her into going out with me, I needed her to see that I was no different than Jessie used to be. This could quite possibly play out in my favor. “Jessie and I aren’t that different. I can promise you that he couldn’t give Claire a number if she asked for it.”
She smiled the sweetest smile and I wondered what had crossed her mind. “Maybe not, but she’s the only number that counts. His last.”
I pushed another stubborn strand of hair from her face. “Jessie and Claire had to start somewhere, right? I’m sure there was a first date somewhere in the mix.”
I knew it would be laying it on a little thick, but I went ahead and threw in, “Besides, you don’t know that you aren’t my only number that counts. Maybe you’re my last.”
“Wow.” She shifted her jaw to the side. “You’re not as bad as Jessie said. You’re much, much worse.”
Jessie may have c**k blocked me, but I knew how to manipulate this situation. I was educated on how to get the girl because I had done it so many times. I also knew that the alcohol was getting to her a little more and I shamelessly planned to use that to my advantage. I slid my palms from the sides of her hips to the small of her back and pulled her closer. I leaned in to her ear and whispered against it because she had already as much as admitted how much it turned her on.
“We have this crazy attraction thing going on and we didn’t even have to work for it. It just happened naturally. It’s more work to keep it under control than it is to just go with it. What if we’re perfect for each other and we missed out on the opportunity because we didn’t try things out? That would be a tragedy.”