“I think you wish you could be like the chick Rob already walked away with. She was offering herself up to the both of us, and she’d already told me that she was only passing through town. She’ll be gone tomorrow.”
“She offered herself up…” Allyson’s cheeks turn a little paler. “To two guys?”
I smile and help her when her drink rests in the general vicinity of her lips, but she can’t quite get it there. “She wanted us both, and she wanted us to be rough about it. But alas, I saw a flash of red across the room, and here I am. With a girl who will inevitably marry her casual fuckbuddy.”
“I will not marry my… anyone. I literally have zero room for a relationship in my life right now. So your assertion is ludicrous.”
“Prove it.”
“Prov– prove what?”
“That you can have a one-night stand, and still walk away tomorrow without feelings.”
It burns my gut, like a fucking cattle prod in the center of my stomach, when she looks around the club as though in search. “With who?”
“With me!” I grab her jaw and bring her eyes back to me. “Let’s go back to my place, let me rock your world. Then tomorrow, I’ll watch you struggle to collect your things and leave, because you’ll already be dying a little on the inside. You claim you’re wild, right? You claim you’re ready to do something crazy.”
“Nice try, Hart.” She tosses the last of her drink back and plops the glass on the bar, then turning back to me, she wipes the back of her hand over her lips. “Apart from the fact I already said no to sleeping with you, there are ethical issues with you and I sleeping together. Can’t do it.”
“Ethical?” I jolt back a little and try to puzzle out her words. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m your therapist, Luke. I could probably lose my job if we slept together.”
“Well, first of all, you’re not my therapist. Sonia is. Second, you don’t have a job. You have an internship that pays you…?”
“Nothing,” she admits with a rosy blush filling her cheeks. “I don’t get paid for these hours.”
“Ha! So really, you have nothing to lose. Get wild, Allyson. Fuck me.” I lean a little closer. “Put my cock in your mouth and show us your skills.” Her face turns whiter and whiter. “Swallow me down and make us both explode.”
“You are exceptionally crude. And I already said I would not sleep with you. But pick someone else.” She turns back to the crowd and studies the guys who move around.
It pisses me off that dozens of them study her back even though I stand right here beside her. They still look.
“Pick a guy,” she pushes. “But be nice. Make him taller than me, and sort of assertive. Like, I’m here, and I’m willing to play your game, but I can be a little shy too, so he can’t be bumbling or too quiet, otherwise we’ll both freak out.”
“You want assertive?” I grind my teeth and study the top of her hair while she studies her smorgasbord of suitors. “Taller than you.”
“Nice teeth,” she adds with a smile. “He can’t be dumb. Like, I’m not looking for Elon Musk-type genius, but he can’t be pulling on a push door either. That would send me insane. Oh, that guy is cute.”
I suspect the alcohol in her brain has her acting braver than usual, more ballsy than she normally would be. Because first of all, she’s fucking sassing me and describing another man right in front of me. But second, she points, and some tall motherfucker with a glistening white smile sees.
And then he starts in our direction.
“Oh damn.” Ally turns nervous in an instant. “He’s coming this way.”
“You just summoned a stupid motherfucker.” I grab her hand and trot away from the bar before I get myself another appointment in front of a judge.
Dragging Ally through the club and straight out the front doors before the smiler reaches the bar, I slingshot her forward until her walk turns to a trot, and then her trot results in belly laughs and our hands linked together while we run.
“He was coming over to us, even while I stood there!” I run beside her, and when she stumbles twice on her heels, I place my hand on her hip as a kind of safety net for when she begins to topple over. “He was coming over!” I exclaim. “When I was standing right there! He would have tried to pull a push door, Allyson.”
Laughter bubbles along her throat until she snorts like a pig. “I’ve never done that before. Just…picked out a guy. Is it really that easy?”
“When you look like you?” I drag her around the corner at the end of the block and keep running. Because why the fuck not? “You literally just have to stand there, Ally. Do what you did just now, search for the one you want, and he’s yours. Then if you want ten more, they’ll line up and wait.”
“Well that’s unsanitary. Wait. Hold up.” She pants and tries to peel my fingers from her hip.
I stop us on a dark street, and press her against the brick wall until her breath bursts out and bathes my face.
“I can’t run that far.” She breathes like she just ran some kind of world-record-breaking mile. “Heels… and a dress.” Then she presses her head against the brick and looks up at the starlit sky. “Alcohol is sloshing in my tummy."
“Probably shouldn’t run after drinking.” I move in closer, closer, so our hips touch and the fact she’s looking straight up becomes beneficial for me when I stand over her and replace her view with my face. “You aren’t wearing makeup, are you?” I bring a hand up and stroke her freckles with the pad of my thumb. “This is just you.”
“I’m wearing tinted moisturizer.” She grits her teeth, like her words might somehow displease me. “And mascara.”
“And lipstick.” I look down at her lips, stained red from lipstick she applied an hour or two ago. The coloring remains, but it’s clear she’s due for a touchup. “Be wild with me, Ally. I promise not to catch feelings tomorrow.”
She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “I’m an unpaid therapist, but still, I’d really like to not lose my job. I’ve worked hard to get as far as I have, and sleeping with the hot anger-management case just isn’t conducive to getting business cards.” She opens her eyes. “But if it’s any consolation, I kinda wanna.”
“Kinda wanna?” I slide my fingertips along her cheekbone and over to push loose strands of hair behind her ear. “Kinda wanna what?”
“Sleep with you. Nobody said you’re not pretty, and you’ve got the height and smile too. I’ve yet to see you try to push a pull door, and Sonia clearly agrees that you’re not actually being punished for anger, but rather for being a general annoyance on this town.”
“Wait. Sonia said I’m annoying?”
She barks out a giggling laugh and presses her forehead to my chest. “Sonia says lots of things. None of which I’m allowed to repeat. Can you just…” She pulls away and looks to her right. “I’m staying a block from here. Can you walk me home, but, like…” Her grin is slow, lazy, as she hits her wall and turns sleepy. “Don’t kiss me or anything when we get to the door. I know you wanna, and you’re the guy who’d rather ask for forgiveness instead of permission. But I’m a little tipsy, and I think that run just supercharged the alcohol in my blood…” She stops and frowns. “Yup. Running is bad. And if you kiss me, it’s super likely I’ll just wrap my arms around your neck and go with it.”