“Already sent.” She grinned. “You’re welcome.”
“Thank you,” I said before attacking her from behind in a giant bear hug.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come home with me this weekend?” She turned around to face me even though she knew the answer.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here and go to The Bar with me and watch Jason bang on his drums?”
She sighed. It was long and drawn-out and dramatic. “I wish. But my mom would kill me. I can’t miss her birthday, or she’ll think I don’t love her.”
“I know. I’ll give Jason your regards,” I told her, and her face scrunched.
“My regards? Are you offering him my hand in marriage too?” she asked with a laugh.
“Fine. I won’t tell him anything.” I stuck out my tongue.
“I can tell him myself.” She waved her phone in the air and pretended to punch buttons on the screen.
“I’d love to stay out here and banter with you, but I need to get ready for class,” I said before disappearing into my bedroom to shower, the smell of Cole inundating my senses when I walked into my room. I hoped it would linger all weekend long until he got back home.
Lauren left the next day, and even though I knew our apartment was going to be way too quiet without her here, I was grateful for the alone time. I had a checklist of tasks I needed to accomplish for my clients, and having no one around to distract me or allow me to procrastinate was just what I needed to get them all done.
Cole and I talked and texted often while he was away. Except, now, all of our conversations ended with I love you. It was like once the emotion was out of the bag, it refused to be contained. It was freeing … to not only feel that way about Cole, but to also be able to say it out loud and have it feel so incredibly good and right each time that I did. The fact that Cole felt the same way back and wouldn’t stop saying it to me first probably didn’t hurt either.
By Saturday morning, I was wrapping up all of my notes to present to The Long Ones at The Bar later. I was excited to see them, not just for the new content I’d get to upload online, but to also let them know that their follower counts had doubled on every platform among other things. Their growth was almost unprecedented and definitely unlike anything I’d ever seen since I started doing this. I knew it was a combination of steady posting, fresh content, and their overall talent.
Have fun tonight.
You too. Kick ass. Hit me a home run.
Ha-ha. I’ll try.
Before I could reply with something witty to Cole, he sent another text.
I love you. Be safe. Text me when you get home, okay?
I will! I love you too. Have a great game.
When I got to The Bar, it was relatively quiet, but it was still early. I knew that things would get hectic the later it got and the closer we got to them going onstage.
“I have some news,” I said as the group of us sat around the bar.
“Well,” Jason, the drummer, asked, “are you going to tell us?”
“You guys passed a hundred thousand views on your latest video!” I shouted, completely excited because it was a big deal to have that many views for a virtually unknown band. Two other videos weren’t far behind.
“What?” They all threw their hands in the air and gave each other high fives before getting out of their stools and grabbing me.
I swiveled around in my chair before getting up and giving them each hugs.
“This is insane! You did this. Thank you,” the bassist, Aaron, said.
“You guys did this. All I did was post the content. But it was your talent that got the views.”
They weren’t having any of it, arguing with me that I was the reason they were taking off. I groaned as Charley, the lead singer, yelled for the bartender to come over.
He introduced me to bartender David before instructing that he take care of me all night and get us started with, “Sake bombs all around.”
I must have made a weird face because Charley asked me if the drinks were okay or not.
“I’ve never had one before.”
“Really? You’ll love them. You love beer, right?”
“Beer’s my jam,” I said with a grin.
Then, bartender David appeared, balancing five full glasses of beer and five shots of sake—whatever the hell that was. He distributed them, and I stared.
“How do we drink them?” I said, sniffing the sake shot. “It smells kind of like vodka.” A hint of worry filtered through me before I waved it off, knowing that I wouldn’t get drunk while I was trying to work. Beer was one thing. Beer I could handle.
“It’s technically a rice wine,” Jason said as he reached for his shot glass and held it above his beer.
Charley explained, “Normally, we’d balance the sake on top of chopsticks that we put over the beer. Then, we’d hit the table with our fists so that they crashed into the beer, but there are no chopsticks, so we’ll just drop them in.”
“Drop it in? The whole thing?” I asked.
They all took their shot glasses and dropped it, glass and all, inside the already-full beer. The contents spilled out, making a huge mess as they reached for their beer and drank it all like it might disappear if they took too long.
I dropped my sake shot into my beer, but unlike the guys, I sipped the contents, making sure I liked it and not wanting to get in over my head. Lauren wasn’t here, and Cole was away. I knew it wouldn’t be smart for me to get drunk while I was out alone … what with the kidnapping cartel and everything.
“Like it?” Charley asked.
I nodded. “It tastes like”—I looked around at the rest of the band, who was all waiting for my response—“beer,” I said.
They cracked up like I was the funniest person on the planet, but I’d meant it because I couldn’t taste the sake at all.
Throughout the evening, bartender David made sure that I never had to ask for a cold beer. If my glass was half-empty, a new, fresh one would show up from one of the servers. Although I knew that I could handle my beer consumption better than most, I still made sure to sip it, not wanting to get in over my head. I also kept count—or at least, I tried. I left half-filled glasses in my wake as I filmed the band, taking videos and at least a hundred new pictures of them dominating the stage, a rambunctious crowd in the foreground.
Somewhere into the band’s second set, my head started to spin, and the ground grew fuzzy. A minute earlier, I’d been sober, and now, I was way beyond being simply buzzed. I’d gone from feeling in control to feeling like I had none in the span of a breath. I wobbled on my feet before bracing against a chair for balance. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten so drunk and seemingly out of nowhere. How did that happen from drinking beer?
I needed to leave.
“Need a ride home?” a deep voice asked.
I looked up, meeting Logan’s eyes as he jangled his keys in front of me.
When did he get there? I wondered before my whole world went dark.
Blacked Out
Christina
I woke up the next morning, my head pounding like a hundred drummer boys lived inside of it and my stomach turning. Glancing down at my body, I noticed that my shoes were gone, but my socks were still on. Aside from my top being on inside out, I was fully clothed, lying on top of my comforter.