I laugh and clink my glass against hers. “Here, here!”
She takes a sip of her beer and scrunches her face. “Nope. I don’t think I’m a beer drinker.”
I motion for her to give me her glass. “I’ll get you something sweeter. How about a screwdriver?”
“As long as it’s not beer, I’m in,” Priya says.
“Alright, wait here,” I tell her.
I head back to the bar again, hating to have to leave her in this room full of wolves.
I try to go as quickly as I can.
I stand at the bar and wait.
This is a pretty packed bar. It’s not a surprise since this is the freshman bar and it’s the first week of school, but still. I can barely move. The poor bartender is on overdrive.
I turn to my left and my blood runs cold.
What is he doing here?
Standing beside me, Rayn sees me as soon as I see him.
But what I don’t expect is for him to walk up to me, which he does. Rayn pushes through the crowd to make his way next to me at the bar.
I ball my fist beside me.
I don’t know where this is going, but from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like anywhere good.
“I know who you are,” he growls at me.
I nod at him. “Yeah, well, as of yesterday, I officially know who you are, too.”
Rayn snarls at me. “I’m not here to have some big heart-to-heart with you. I’m just here to tell you that I know who you are and I have no interest in getting into some big family reunion, okay? As far as I’m concerned, we’re teammates and nothing more. Got it?”
I feel the blood boiling inside of my body.
Where does he get off telling me how our relationship is going to be?
As if I were seeking him out.
As if I were trying to drag him into a big brotherly bear hug.
“Fine by me,” I tell him.
And with that, Rayn walks away.
I order Priya’s drink and try to keep the steam from pouring out of my ears.
Making my way back to Priya, she sees it all over my face before I even need to say anything.
“What happened? Are you okay?” she asks.
“Just ran into my long-lost brother,” I tell her. “We had quite a nice conversation.”
Priya rolls her eyes and takes a nice big chug out of her screwdriver. “Oh shit. This was supposed to be a fun night ofdistractionfor you. Okay. You need to chug your drink immediately. I’ll finish mine. Then, we take shots and dance.”
Well, she sure knows how to distract a guy.