Page 12 of Let's Call a Truce
The song changed, another remixed version of a top-forty song. It sounded familiar but could have been any of the other hundreds of songs I’d missed out on since my kids were born. Disney soundtracks and kids’ songs filled my house and car, and on the rare occasion I had time to myself, I pulled up my favorites from the sixties and seventies that made Asia ask if I was an old woman.
“I wanna hear everyone inside right now!” the DJ hollered, and the crowd around me cheered before everyone started to sing their hearts out. I couldn’t have come up with a single lyric if I’d been offered free babysitting for the next ten years.
I followed my first instinct and headed to the bar. I draggedAsia with me, ordering us a round of whiskey sodas. The bite of the whiskey sent tingles through me as I tried to settle into the vibe of the club.
Asia winced as she sipped. “Damn, that’s nasty.”
“What are you talking about? You love whiskey!” I called over the crowd.
“I love Maker’s 46 and Lagavulin. Macallan. This bottom-shelf stuff could burn the veneer off the bar,” she said, coughing as she tilted the concoction into her mouth again.
“You’re such a snob.” I laughed, even as I coughed through my own sip.
“It’s her birthday, Juliana. She doesn’t have to drink your crappy drink if she doesn’t want it.” Ben stepped around her, grabbing the drink and downing it in a few long gulps. With his head thrown back, my eyes locked in on the pulse point at the top of his throat.
I pivoted my attention back to my drink. I wasnotthinking about what it would taste like to lick him there or the sounds he’d make when I sucked lightly on his skin.
“Fine. Then you buy her a better one.”
He leaned over, ordering her some top-shelf whiskey that required the bartender to go on his toes to reach, and I dug my fingernails into my palms to keep from snipping about him trying to show me up. Apparently, unlike me, he had forty dollars to drop per drink. He followed it up with a round of shots. To my surprise, the bartender poured three. Ben passed one to me, raising his own in a toast.
“To the birthday girl.”
We threw back the shots, and my eyes homed back in on Ben. A small drop of liquor settled in the corner of his mouth. Asia pointed it out, and he caught it with his thumb before sucking the digit into his mouth.
My legs seemed unsteady, and I was suddenly grateful for the loud music, which swallowed the whimper that escaped againstmy will. I had to get this under control. Alcohol always turned me into a horny schoolgirl, but Ben wasnotthe solution.
Another song I didn’t know came on, something with a Latin flare that I could admit was seductive. Asia squealed.
“Come on,” she called as she ran off to the dance floor.
“I need a bit more liquid courage first.” I laughed, turning back to the bar. Alcohol may make me ridiculous, but it was the only way I’d get over my self-consciousness and join my best friend on the dance floor tonight.
“That’s one hell of an outfit.”
I looked at Ben from the corner of my eye. Full eye contact was not my friend tonight, and I needed to refocus my opinion of him. I cycled through the entries in my battle log for ones I lost. Something that would really piss me off.
Like the time he watched me closely on a slow elevator ride, making me flush bright red when he told me I looked incredible with my new makeup. The way he’d bit his lip while he tracked the progress of my blush made my stomach do infuriating somersaults, only for me to realize fifteen seconds later when we walked into a meeting that my “new makeup” was a pen that had leaked all over my lips while I was chewing it.
Broke that habit immediately.
“I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not,” I said without turning toward him.
“Trust me. No one who saw you in that dress could think I meant it any other way.”
My eyebrow quirked up. There’d been an undercurrent to our hostile relationship from day one, an attraction buried under the mountain of animosity. But he’d never said something so blatantly flirtatious—fake pen-related compliment aside.
But I kept my attention fixed on the bartender, determined to ignore the presence next to me. The heat from his body, which had been pushed far too close by the other patrons at the bar, didn’t seep through the fabric of my dress. I didn’t squirmas his eyes roamed the side of my face, couldn’t feel it like a caress as it slipped down the line of my exposed neck.
Zac came over to coax me onto the dance floor. While I was grateful for the interruption of whatever tension was brewing with Ben, I wasn’t ready to get out there yet.
“Come on, Kangaroo Girl.” He swung his hips in what would have been a tempting move if not paired with the reminder of our earlier conversation. I waved him off.
Ben scoffed, watching Zac dance his way back to the floor with a shake of his head. “That man has nothing going on upstairs. Kangaroos in Austria.”
“He is sweet, and brains aren’t everything. You could learn a thing or two from him.”
“Are you serious? I’d give you one day with him, and you would pull your hair out. You are way too smart for him.”
