I have to admit I was glad that Chace forced me to come here. Maybe he was right. A night with a gorgeous woman underneath me screaming out my name may be just what I need. Despite my lack of sex towards the end with Corinne, I did know what I was doing in bed. And before Corinne, I had a very good track record of making women come. Corinne was just a frigid bitch.
EXACTLY.
Aidan: Just got here, where are you?
We push through another set of doors and it’s significantly lighter. I suddenly feel like I’ve stepped through the door to my past. At thirty-two, I’m definitely the oldest person here. Holy fuck.
“Told ya you needed to be drunk,” Taryn says as she takes in my expression. Chace, who is the same age as me, is probably salivating and also regretting that he’d RSVP’d to this college girl party with a plus one.
“Wow, is there anyone here over the age of twenty-one?”
“This is the college bar. A lot of CGU kids,” she informs me as I follow behind her and Chace towards the bar.
Great. Just what I need, running into a future student of mine. I let out a breath, relieved that I only had one person in mind to talk to tonight and she was a twenty-two year old grad student. She’s still a bit young, but at least I don’t have to worry about her being in here with a fake, or being in my Monday morning Social Justice lecture.
Taryn orders our beers and Chace all but knocks her hand out of the way when she tries to pay, shooting her a warning glare, and she raises her hands in defeat. “So, where’s Bella?” she asks as Chace pays for our drinks.
“No idea, I asked and she hasn’t replied.”
“Well, look for a short, tan, blonde-ish girl.” Chace takes a sip of his drink and looks around the room. He’s a few inches over six feet like me, but has me by an inch something that he never lets me forget.
I’m in the process of scanning the room for Bella when I hear a shrill voice from a few feet away over the music thumping through the speakers. “Four shots of fireball!” I turn slightly to see a blonde girl in a crop top leaning over the bar as she shakes her ass to the beat slightly. I am way too old to be here.
The girl in question must have felt my gaze because she peeks over her shoulder and her eyes light up. I’m used to that look, and although she’s cute, she isn’t exactly my type. The tequila shot from earlier, mixed with all of the other drinks I’ve had, has me thinking that I want to at least meet Bella and see that gorgeous smile.
And okay maybe more than that. I mean she is pretty fuckable.
I give her a tight smile when her hand finds my bicep. “You’re the hottie from Boston!”
“That’s usually my nickname,” Chace interjects and looks at me as if to say, Who’s this?
She giggles and bounces on her heels. “Oh my God, Wes totally owes me twenty bucks. He said you catfished Sky.”
I shake my head completely at a loss at what the fuck she’s talking about. “Catfished?”
“It means pretending to be someone else on the internet. Watch TV dude,” Chace says.
“Oh. Um. No,” I tell her, as I look down at the hand she still has on my arm.
“Come on. We have a table.”
“Oh, I’m meeting someone—”
“Yes, I know. Skyler.” She puts her hands on her hips and looks behind me at Chace and Taryn. “When you said you were bringing friends, I was hoping they’d be single guys. God, really!?” She rolls her eyes. “Oh, I’m Peyton.”
“Peyton. I’m sorry, but I’m so lost. And a little drunk. So speak…not girl.”
She purses her lips and then her eyes seem to focus slightly and she slaps a hand over her head. “Oh! Right, alias name or whatever. Skyler is Bella. That’s her real name. The girl you’re talking to on OC. Also, you’re welcome, because she wanted to stay in tonight and like sleep or whatever.” She starts walking away and I follow slowly behind her with Chace and Taryn behind me.
“Is she for real?” I hear Chace whisper. “She’s hot as fuck though.”
“Aren’t you…” I shoot him a look, my eyebrow quirked at him as I think about Taryn who is following behind us. I know she didn’t hear him, what with her being a good foot shorter than us both, but damn Chace.
“I’m just sayin’.”
We make it through a throng of people and it’s as if my body senses her before I see her. As we approach the table I see she’s seated with one other girl and two other guys, bottles and glasses stacked along the table. I watch her suck a lime between her lips, her eyes squeezed shut as she cringes slightly.
“Whew, that was bad.” She shivers slightly as she opens her eyes and drops the lime in the empty shot glass. Her brown eyes find mine instantly and for a moment it feels like no one else is there—certainly not the guy that seems to be seated just a little too close to her.