“I don’t…” Finally, she turns her head and glowers. “I have no clue what you just said.”
“Don’t worry about it. Wanna dance?”
“Nope. I’m still mad about the lake.”
“Wanna come with me to the bar, then? I need a drink, and I feel awkward standing here with you like this.”
“You can go to the bar.” She waves me off with a polite smile. “I’m not stopping you.”
“I want you to come with me. If he ain’t busy, I could even introduce you to my brother. You’d have a field day analyzing us both at the same time.”
I’m cracking her grumpy exterior, because she grins and looks toward the bar. “Tempting. Is he as weird as you?”
“Some would say weirder.” I lean away from the wall and gesture in that direction. “Coming?”
She chews her bottom lip for a moment, likely wondering how much harm this could do.
“Come on.” I take her hand and wrap it in mine until her eyes snap down. But before she can make it weird, I yank her away from the wall and head back in the direction I came.
“Are you here to party?” I have to shout to be heard over the music. “Fun, or work?”
“I’m not getting sloppy, if that’s what you mean.” She has to shout too, but better yet, she moves closer so the hand-holding turns to me placing a palm on the small of her back. “I never get sloppy. It’s unladylike.”
“Unladylike?” I snort, and slow at the bar when we reach it and Rob and Kelly are nowhere to be found. I let my gaze go left, along the bodies and couples, then right, and do the same. “Huh. They’re gone.” I look down to Ally and shrug. “He met some chick as I left and found you, so maybe he’s getting busy.”
“They just met, and now they’re having sex?” She gives me her best look of derision and snootiness. “Wow. They sure respect themselves and their bodies.”
“Oh please.” I scoff and lift my hand when the bartender catches my eye. “If you haven’t had a one-night stand, then you ain’t living. The knowledge that you can get all your freak shit going, and you won’t see them again after tonight, the fact you can be selfish – or generous, depending on your mood – and you both know it’s purely a physical act, and has nothing to do with feelings…” I look down and study her beautiful eyes. “Babe, if you haven’t had that yet, then you’re missing out.”
“And of course, you’re available, should I choose to want to try new things.”
“It’s the gentlemanly thing to do. The club scene can get dicey if you happen to meet the wrong guy. Maybe his freak and your freak just aren’t compatible, and maybe he’s a little too rough. I couldn’t, in good conscience, send you off to fuck just any old freak and hope you’re gonna be alright tomorrow. Honestly, me helping you out would be the chivalrous thing to do. And I can almost guarantee you’ll come three times before I pass out and smother you while we sleep.”
“Three times?” Her eyes go wide, but I think it’s a lot less because she’s thinking what Kelly thought, and whole lot more that she’s calling me a liar. Or mentally challenged. “And then you just assume a woman will stay with you all night while you sleep? I thought a one-night stand was supposed to be about screwing and then going your own way?”
“Well, I mean, there are different kinds of girls, right? Thanks.” I grab my drink when the bartender sets it down by my elbow. “There are the right-this-very-second-but-not-a-minute-more kinda girls. They’re the crazy ones who’ll probably cut a lock of your hair while you sleep, then either claim you’re meant to be, or replace your shampoo with bleach.”
“Neither outcome is ideal, especially if she’s crazy.”
“Right! The next level of girl is the full-nighter. She’s beautiful, and her voice doesn’t make you want to get a lobotomy. Her smile is nice, and maybe you kinda want to snuggle all night. You don’t want a relationship, you definitely don’t want her hanging out past breakfast, but for as long as it’s dark, she’s a good place to rest.”
“This is like poetry,” she mock swoons. “Please, go on.”
I take a sip of my drink. “Then there are the girls you marry. They’re funny and smart and beautiful. They have the wide-set hips for baby-making, and their cooking is better than mine. It’s not necessarily good, but it’s passable, and better than mine. Those are the girls who deserve decency and a big house. But at this juncture in life, a person ain’t looking for forever.”
“So when in a club like this?”
“You aim for the all-night girl. You don’t want your hair bleached or removed because she’s cray, and you don’t want a white picket fence either. So you do good, and you look around till the right one comes along. The chick my brother was talking to, I suspect she’ll be around till breakfast, Rob won’t lose his hair, and he won’t be buying a diamond ring.”
“It’s perfect, really.”
“Right! And that concludes today’s lecture. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.”
“So who am I?”
I pause with my drink halfway to my lips, falter when her words register in my brain. “Huh?”
“What kind of girl am I?” she pushes. “Am I crazy? Am I all-night material? Are you worried I might bleach your hair while you sleep, so you look like nineteen-ninety-nine Justin Timberlake?”
I let the shiver overtake my body. “Please don’t. Not the bleach blond. I’m begging you.”
“So who am I, Luke?” Maybe she’s a smidge drunk too. “Which kinda girl am I?”
“Well…”
I lean my hip against the bar, and grin when a woman trying to get a drink bumps into Ally’s back and inadvertently pushes her closer to me. The club is dark but illuminated by flashing lights. The music is loud, but not so bad that we can’t talk. There are hundreds of people crammed into one room, but right here, packed into our tiny space, it feels like we have privacy.
I study her eyes, and the soft smattering of freckles on the top of her cheek. Either she missed those when she was putting makeup on tonight, or she’s not wearing anything on her face, because she knows she’s beautiful without it.
“I think you’re a forever chick. I think you are physically and emotionally unable to have a one-night stand, because you catch feelings too easily – despite your ice queen impersonation. But I think there’s a part of you who wishes you could have a filthy one-night fuck and then be able to walk away and forget he exists, because that would be wild and… well, not Ally.”
She scowls and brings her drink up. “I can be wild.”
“I think you’re extremely selective about who you take to bed, and if you chat with a guy more than once, you basically declare that a monogamous relationship.”
“Not true.”
“I think you daydream about being a hoe, but you can’t do it. You can’t go through with it, because by the time you’re both done and getting dressed again, you’ve already caught the bug.”
“I think you’re wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.”