Page 8 of Sweet Tooth
“As long as you’re in it, I know it will be,” she said.
“I love you,” I said simply.
Her head went back to rest on my shoulder, when my hand went back to stroking it.
Fuck did I love her.
Which was why I had to figure out how to get her to go to California to take that business program.
“LOVEBIRDS!” Chaz roared, his head popping beside ours’. He shoved one drink to Jess, then one to me. “DRINK!”
Before I could consciously think about it, I was drinking a fruity vodka something. Only halfway through did I remember and pull away.
“Dude,” I said.
“It’s New Years!” he yelled joyously, shoving out some dumplings, which we accepted, before staggering back inside.
“Shit,” I said, popping my dumpling in my mouth.
Already as I chewed, I could feel the hard alcohol going straight to my head. It felt nice – but still, not good since I was supposed to be driving.
“It’s ok,” Jess said, popping her dumpling in her mouth. “We can cab.”
I groaned. “Tonight it’ll be a miracle to get a taxi and it’ll be like a million percent surge on Uber.”
“We could just walk.”
“You’re cute,” I said, patting her.
“What?”
“It’d be a two-hour walk from here.”
“Oh.”
Just then, the clouds crackled above us, and little hard pellets started raining down.
We ran back into the party just in time. Hail pounded into the balcony mercilessly outside.
“Happy New Year’s, from Mother Nature herself,” I muttered.
“Here, look at this.” Jess showed me her phone screen, which had the current Uber price.
I could only laugh darkly. “For a mere seventy-seven dollars we could be home fast and easy.”
“You guys coming?” Chaz said from down the hallway.
It was then I noticed that the apartment was clearing out.
“We’re going to Boondoggles!” he said.
“Everyone?” I asked incredulously.
He pursed his lips. “Not everyone everyone. But mostly everyone, yeah.”
“If you don’t want to come, you two can hang around for a bit, like waiting for your ride or whatever. But in, say a couple more hours when I come home for the night…”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. “No worries. We’ll be out of here.”
Jess and I exchanged a knowing look. We’d learned the hard way on a group trip to New York City with Chaz and his girlfriend at the time a few years back, that Chaz loved loud sex.
As the final guests left, I started calling up taxis. The first place had literally no one, but the second, was a win.
“Should be here in fifteen,” I said. “So we can head out in ten so we’re ready on time.”
“Sounds good,” Jess said, taking another swig of her flask, then passing it my way.
“Might as well,” I said, drinking deeply.
Heading outside, we found that the hail had worsened, while the temperature had dropped too. Even pressing Jess to me tight in my arms didn’t stop her shivering.
“Just a few minutes now,” I said.
But it wasn’t a few minutes at all. We waited, shivering, five, ten, fifteen minutes. Finally, I called up the place. Now they had no one available, but would send the first they had my way. In an hour or more.
“Shit,” I said.
We walked back into the lobby where a jowly man delivered us an utterly unimpressed look.
I sat Jess down on a stiff striped armchair, then started to pace.
This was jacked up. We were supposed to get home, have fantastic sex, then fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, thinking about what a great New Year’s we’d had.
On the armchair, Jess was nodding off.
“Excuse me, sir.” The jowly man’s face was impassive, though I knew what he was going to say already. “You can’t sleep here. Or stay here.”
“We’re just waiting for our taxi,” I said. “Should only be here another five minutes tops.”
His face showed no reaction. “You can’t stay here.”
I glared at him but got up. Wouldn’t put it past the old bag to call up the cops, New Year’s be damned.
Storming over to the armchair, I roused Jess gently.
“Mmm, taxi here?” she murmured hopefully.
“Not yet,” I said, helping her walk along.
To most people, she probably looked super drunk, but I knew better. She’d worked three twelve hour shifts the past three days, since it was high season and no one wanted to work. My poor girl was exhausted.
“What’re we gonna do?” she was asking now.
“I’ll figure it out,” I said, walking us outside.
As soon as we stepped foot out, a gust of icy wind rushed to greet us. Jess winced.
“It’s ok,” I said. “I’m going to drive.”
Jess accepted this without comment. She hadn’t seen how much of Chaz’s drink I’d had. I’d just drive slow and carefully.
Something twinged at the back of my mind, but I ignored it. No way was I spending New Year’s sitting on some cold pavement with Jess shivering and miserable as we waited for a taxi that was never going to show.
