I bite my lip, coming up with an outrageous plan. I'm only partially joking when I speak it into existence. “Can’t we kidnap her?” I ask, trying not to cry. “Come on. I’ll clobber her, and you can get her in the car. We can return her after her flight leaves.”
I'm going to miss the shit out of her when she leaves. She's been my best friend since high school. Though she was a senior when I was a sophomore, we always had been more like sisters.
“She’ll be okay.” Mac promises.
“I’m going to run her over with my car. Just her foot. A broken foot means she can’t leave.”
“Let the girl live her damn life.”
I roll my eyes.“You need a new girlfriend. Your current one must not give good head. Do you always have to be in a shitty mood? It’s a wonder how you stay in business, Mac.”
“Get out of here before I change my mind!”
I stick out my tongue and turn back to Colby. “You have any plans tonight?”
“I don’t. What do you have in mind?”
“I’m headed to a party for my friend. She’s leaving for her new residency tomorrow. Wanna tag along?”
“Dude is like ten years older than you.” Mac grumbles under his breath. He’s one to talk, considering his girlfriends are hardly ever over the age of twenty. He’s thirty and his newest girlfriend won’t be twenty-one for another three months.
“Sure, I’ll come.”
On the way to the party, I learn Colby is an only child with deceased parents. Conversation is easy with him, and my whole car smells like his fresh ocean body wash. I glance over at him, letting out a chuckle as I shake my head.
I’m five eight and I barely fit in my Elantra, but Colby has a good five inches on me, and his head brushes against the roof of my car.
“What?” He asks.
“You don’t look very comfortable over there.” I chuckle. “In fact, I’d say you look like you’re crammed in one of those clown cars.”
He smirks, leaning over the center console, and jabs me in the side. “You barely fit in here yourself. What are you, six-foot?”
“Five-eight." I huff dramatically, poking my tongue in his direction.
“I think you need a bigger car, Andi.”
“Hey! Don’t smack talk Anna.” I quip, jabbing him back.
“You named your car, Anna?” He chuckles.
“Well, what’s your bike’s name?”
“Tamara.”
"Tamara?"
Tossing me a sheepish look, he says, “Tamara Jacobs.”
I glance over and catch the side eye he gives, then I let out a cackle. I laugh so hard it hurts my stomach. Colby named his motorcycle after the teacher that had an affair with Pacey in Dawson’s Creek.
“I’m surprised you know who that is. You were probably in diapers when that show came out.”
“Colby has jokes.” Pulling into the parking lot of the restaurant, I squeeze into a space and turn off the engine. “We’re here, Pacey. Let’s go.”
Colby follows me into the restaurant, and to the back, where a room is rented out for Haley’s celebration. Twenty of Haley’s friends are drinking and eating. Haley spots me immediately and hurries over, a drink in her hand. She’s already pretty sloppy, which is unlike her.
“Haley, this is Colby. We met at Mac’s.” She hands me a drink and wraps her arms around his neck. Again, this is totally unlike her. Haley has a dark past, and she’s never dated a man, or even slept with one. Because of this, she also stays sober in public. She isn’t a fan of not being able to ward off unwanted attention.
I take a sip of the drink and shake my head at the horrible taste. Something is off about it. Almost like whoever mixed it added bitters. “What the fuck is this?”
“A Long Island. It’s my second one. The first one tasted better.”
Bitters shouldn’t be mixed in a Long Island. They’re used in whiskeys and gins, not sweet drinks. In my bartending class, we covered an entire section about date rape drugs, and how GHB can sometimes taste bitter.
“I think someone put something in this. It doesn’t taste like a Long Island, and you’re acting blitzed off one drink, babes. Did you set this down anywhere?” I grab her hands and wrap them around me. Glancing at Colby, he senses my concern. He slides off his leather jacket and wraps it around her, then he takes the drink from me and throws it in the trash. “Let’s get you out of here,” I whisper.
Colby agrees because he takes her from me and carries her as he follows me back out of the restaurant. That’s when Mac’s warnings to me about not flirting with strangers in bars hit me like a ton of bricks. If Colby was a bad person, I could have ended up like Haley.