“We’ll miss you!” Avery yelled. “Come back to us before nine, though, or we can’t sign you up to sing! You have to be there in person!”
“And ask Morgan if he wants strawberry tequila! Or if he wants me to get him something with citrus in it!” Taylor called out.
“Got it!” I shouted back at them without turning around. I couldn’t help the smile on my face as I made my way toward the bar’s bathroom area.
Taylor and Avery were treating me like I was part of the group.
And I was so glad that, at least for tonight, it felt like I fit right in, with Morgan’s friends, with Morgan’s life.
With everyone at The Femme Fox.
I spotted Morgan when I was a few feet away from the bar’s bathroom. He was leaning sideways against the wall as some tall guy stood beside him. They looked like they were having a conversation, but I couldn’t really make out what they were saying over the music blaring through the bar’s speakers. Besides, even if I’d been able to hear their words, it wouldn’t have mattered much, since my attention was fully occupied by Morgan’s outfit for the night.
Whoa.
Morgan was always the hottest guy in the room to me, but tonight he’d really outdone himself. He was wearing a tight, hot pink, leotard, with his thighs and calves fully exposed. There was also a black belt around his waist, which perfectly accentuated the curve of his ass, a part of his body that I’d grown to know oh so well.
I wanted to walk over to him and tell him that he looked incredible tonight. I wanted to hold him by the waist and pull him close to me, just so I’d be able to kiss him down his neck, and maybe bring a hand down to his ass, too.
Fuck.
I wanted him. I really wanted him.
And I didn’t care if the whole room was watching us.
But I stayed in my place, not wanting to interrupt Morgan’s conversation. I’d never met the guy he was speaking to, but I noticed that he was muscular, almost like he was a bodybuilder, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off Morgan since I’d first seen them together. And as their conversation went on, it dawned on me that this guy probably had the same reaction to seeing Morgan in that outfit as I did, and he was currently trying to get Morgan’s number.
Or something much worse.
Like Morgan’s address.
I felt something in my chest twinge as I thought about Morgan bringing someone home who wasn’t me. I knew that I didn’t have the right to pitch a fit about it, since Morgan and I had yet to have a conversation about being exclusive with each other, but I couldn’t pretend like I wasn’t upset by it, either.
I just wanted Morgan to be mine.
I kept my eyes on the conversation unfolding in front of me, trying to tamper down the jealousy that was bubbling up to the surface of my mind. But when I saw Morgan walking away from the conversation, my feelings of jealousy soothed into something much calmer.
But then, the bodybuilder grabbed Morgan by the wrist, pulling him back toward the wall.
And a jolt of rage went right through me.
I moved much closer to them, no longer caring about interrupting their conversation. When I was right next to Morgan and the stranger, I was finally able to hear what they were saying to each other.
“Come on, don’t be that way,” the bodybuilder murmured. “You’re really going to tell me that you got dressed up like that for nothing?”
“I didn’t get dressed up for you. I got dressed up for karaoke night,” Morgan replied. “I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about that.”
“You’re being such a stuck-up bitch right now.” The bodybuilder scoffed. “Why would you come out tonight with your ass out like that if you didn’t want someone to pound it?”
“I said no.”
“Do you have a boyfriend or something?”
“It doesn’t matter if I have a boyfriend,” Morgan continued. “My no should be enough for you. Why can’t you just drop it?”
“Because I think you’re just playing hard to get,” the bodybuilder replied. “Because I think guys like you like to dress up like little sluts and then act surprised when guys want to fuck you—”
“What did you just call him?” I interrupted, stepping between Morgan and the bodybuilder.
“Why the fuck does it matter to you?” The bodybuilder hissed.
“Listen asshole,” I said, completely out of patience. “You either apologize to him right now or I make you regret ever saying that shit, in the first place.”
“You’re not going to do shit to me—” he started.
But I quickly pushed his back against the wall before I looked him dead in the eye. “Wanna bet?”
“You do know that if we start a fight, it’s a lifetime ban from the bar?” The bodybuilder lowered his voice as if he was trying to deescalate the situation at hand.
I shrugged in response. “Don’t care. Not from around here. You probably care, though. Wouldn’t want to lose access to your favorite place to harass people, yeah?”
The bodybuilder cursed under his breath before he looked over at Morgan. “Sorry. I’m sorry, all right? I’ll leave you alone.”
“That’s a good boy.” I nodded as I took a step back from him. I wrapped my hand around Morgan’s waist before I asked, “You ready to get back to the table?”
“I’m ready,” Morgan answered, his response barely audible.
I pulled Morgan back toward the other side of the bar, without looking back at the bodybuilder even once.
Morgan was quiet for the rest of the night. He’d even passed on signing up for karaoke, which caused Taylor and Avery to assume that Morgan was on the verge of dying. When Morgan struggled to come up with a reason for his sudden disinterest in going on stage, I covered for him and mentioned that he’d been feeling sick ever since we were at his apartment.
The lie seemed to work, since Taylor, Cole, and Avery were currently on The Femme Fox stage, doing their best attempt to vogue in time with the music.
Morgan and I were sitting at the table by ourselves, with Morgan slowly taking sips of his drink.
Fuck.
I was so pissed off. I figured that Morgan’s silence had something to do with that asshole who’d been hitting on him, and I hated the idea of Morgan’s excitement about the night being squashed by an asshole who was being way too pushy.
“Morgan?” I asked, looking over at him. “Are you okay?”
Morgan silently shook his head no.
“Is this because of that asshole?” I decided to get straight to the point.
“Yeah,” Morgan admitted. “Sorry. I know I’m the one who invited you out tonight, with all the karaoke and stuff. I just… didn’t really want to get on stage after that.”
“I don’t care about the karaoke stuff, Morgan,” I replied. “I just care that you’re okay.”
“I’ve never had a guy come at me like that before,” he explained. “Usually, when I say no, it’s the end of the conversation. But he was acting like… like I owed him something? Just because I was dressed like this. Like I wasn’t holding up my end of the deal.”