He did.
What trouble am I getting myself into?
I shouldn’t tempt the devil, but sometimes the devil has a strong, undeniable pull.
“You were up there with your friend… what made you come down here?” I try not to let my eyes go wide at his words. So, he saw me first. And here I thought I was being sly. “Hardly anything goes unnoticed by me,” he says, tapping the bar, and the bartender automatically makes his drink.
I want to scoff, but I don’t. Because clearly, I went unnoticed for all that time I was eyeing him.
“How old are you?” I ask.
Noah turns back to me, this time his eyes lazily take me in from head to toe, then back again, lingering on my legs a little too long before he leans in. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” His gruff voice sends shivers all over my body.
“I’m legal, obviously, if that’s your question,” I say with a smirk. “But you wouldn’t be asking me that, now would you, considering you’ve already asked me out.”
He bites his lip. “I asked to see you outside of work, which I seem to have accomplished.”
I shake my head at his words. “This is just a happy coincidence.” I smile, reaching for my drink, and taking a long sip.
I shouldn’t keep talking.
I should get up and leave.
I’m not sure I trust myself around him.
“Yes, if you say it is so.” He doesn’t say any more, just stares at me while I hold my drink to my lips, which makes me a little uncomfortable.
“I should go,” I say, turning away after I hold up my drink. “Thanks for this,” I say over my shoulder. Noah nods but doesn’t say anything. His eyes aren’t roaming me as they were before, they simply stare. “Okay, bye.” I walk away and try not to look back.
I chant it in my head.
Don’t look back.
Don’t look back.
But somehow, when I get to the stairs my head turns, and my eyes find him.
He lifts his glass in the air to me and one side of his mouth quirks up, as if he was waiting for me to look back.
Asshole.
“Where have you been?” Vicky asks when I reach her.
On the way back, I went to the bathroom to try to calm my racing heart, and now I am seated where I was before I spotted Noah.
I have not looked for him again.
“Noah is here,” I tell her.
Vicky leans in and squeals loudly, then she stands on her tippy toes, looking around. I reach for her hand and pull her back to the seat.
“Stop! Don’t look.”
She’s clearly drunk and doesn’t hear me, because when she spots him, she yells, “Oh my God, are you going to ride that dick?” Vicki is loud, and that’s saying something considering we’re in a nightclub.
Danny hears her and turns, getting up to view the direction of her eyes. I don’t look down. I’m too afraid Noah knows exactly what we’re doing—talking about him.
“No, now sit down.”
“Hey, I know him,” Danny says, making both of us look to him. He scratches his face with his hand and looks at me with a gigantic smirk.
“You planning to fuck a lawyer of some of the worst criminals there are? Nice one.” He nods and sits back down. I look at where Noah was, but he’s no longer there.
Taking a deep breath, Vicky hands me another drink. I’m well on my way to being tipsy and need to get to bed soon. My parents request my company once a month—twice a month in December—as payment for the apartment. It’s not that I don’t like to see them often, I just… well, okay, I don’t like to see them often. I’m not perfect like Rylee, so I get sick of hearing about her, and that’s hard, considering how much I love her. I see Rylee often, at least once a week, sometimes more. She always stops by the apartment on her days off or even driving back from work.
Reaching for my phone in my bag, I look at the time. Shit, it’s super late. When I look back up to tell Vicky we should call an Uber, Noah’s standing there. He slides in right next to me in the only spot available. Vicky and Danny, who are opposite us both stare, one with a smirk, the other with an outright smile.
Vicky is the one with a smile.
“Seems you have the wrong impression of me,” Noah says and looks at my friends. He leans over and offers his hand to them. Danny is the first to grab and shake it.
“Noah, Rhianna’s new friend,” he says.
And if I wasn’t already intoxicated, I may blush at those words. Maybe.
“You are legendary, man. I hear you roll with the most dangerous men,” Danny says with awe in his eyes.
Noah turns to me. “Is that what scares you off?”
This time Vicky speaks, “Or, you know… because you’re married.” I look at him for his reaction, but Vicky speaks again, “Your wife know you’re out tonight?” she asks with her eyebrow raised, and a giant smirk on her lips.
“I wouldn’t know, she’s dead.”
Well damn! If the music wasn’t blaring, the room would have fallen silent.
Everyone stops talking.
Noah turns to me and gives me his full attention. “How about tomorrow, when you finish work, I take you out for a coffee.”
“I don’t drink coffee,” I somehow manage to say.
He looks at my drink, then back to me, “Vodka?” he asks, and I smile at his words.
“Any drink other than coffee will be fine.”
Noah stands, pulls out his phone from his pocket, and hands it to me. “Add your phone number.”
I do as he says and hand it back to him. He presses something, and my phone lights up before he ends the call. He nods his head to me then does the same to Vicky and Danny before he walks away. I watch him leave and think, Who is this man? And most of all, What is his story.
“My head hurts,” Vicky says, crawling into my bed the next day.
I’m up and already dressed. Today I have to go to my parents’, and my sister is on her way to get me.
“That’s because you drank half the bar dry last night,” I say, shaking my head. I stopped after Noah left, and not long after that I went home, leaving Vicki there.
A knock is heard, and then my sister walks in. Her long, dark hair is down and in perfect waves, where mine is thrown up in a messy bun.
We are identical twins. And when we were eighteen, I tried everything possible to separate my look from hers. But now it doesn’t bother me as much. I love her and think she looks beautiful. So why would I try to change my outer appearance when I think that way of her?
Her dark eyes, almost black, lock onto mine. And I wonder when she looks at me, does she see herself? Or someone completely different? Because we are. Our outer appearance might be the same, but our inner personalities are not.
She’s prim and proper.
I’m a mess and unorganized.
“You look better than expected,” Rylee says and sits on my bed next to Vicky, whose eyes are fighting to stay open.
“Did Noah really say his wife was dead?” Vicky manages to say with a croaky voice.
Rylee looks from Vicky to me, then waits for me to speak.
“He did.”
“So now you have no excuse not to go out with the man you’ve been crushing on for months.”