“Yep,” Tenley replies and sips my drink. She ignores him and turns to me. “I’m going back down to the VIP area. Come with me or give me your phone.”
My phone? I look at Gavin. He seems nice. And I like that he’s not a drunken frat boy. I don’t know what kind of doctor he is, but I’m sure he’s very aware of how the body works, how STDs are transmitted, and the best way to have safe sex, right? I want this kind of responsibility in a sex partner. Yeah, he’s the one, I guess.
“What are you going to do with my phone,” I ask as I reach into my purse because I’ve made the decision to stay. To go back to Gavin’s room with him and hopefully have an enjoyable time, while also dumping this stupid v-card.
Tenley looks shocked that I’m handing over my phone. She doesn’t reach for it at first, but then she sighs in resignation and plucks it from my hand. She flashes it at me to get the face ID to work, and then she starts doing something. I’m not worried. There’s sadly nothing to hide on my phone. I make the occasional Instagram post, call my parents, and partake in the family WhatsApp chats. That’s it. Oh, and read books on my Kindle app.
She hands back my phone. "I'm tracking you. So if you don't make it back to me, or back to the hotel in the next hour I am?—"
“Calling the police?”
“Worse,” Tenley replies. “Your dad, mom, and all the cousins. Group Chat Amber Alert.”
“Jesus Ten, chill,” I hiss and Gavin and his buddy both look mildly amused.
“Hey, I’ll kidnap her myself for a chance to meet the entire Garrison family,” the friend jokes. At least I hope it’s a joke.
“Dude, not funny,” Gavin warns his buddy.
Tenley ignores them both. “I mean it, Liv. Love you. Make good choices.”
“You sound like my mother,” I quip. Mom does say that to Conner and Mae but not to me. She realizes I’m too chicken to make any choice other than the smart one. Well, not tonight.
Tenley turns and leaves with my martini without another word. I have to fight the very strong urge to chase after her and retreat to the safe space that is the VIP area with my cousins and friends. But I’m not getting laid if I do that, so I stay glued to the bar stool with Gavin smiling down at me on one side and his friend looking like a kicked puppy on the other.
“She really just bailed on me?” his friend says, stunned.
"I don't know much when it comes to dating but I do know, as a Garrison woman, the fastest way to lose our interest is to be more excited about our hockey-playing siblings than us," I tell him and take a sip of Tenley's water. The water is refreshing and probably what I physically need right now, but it's not going to do anything for my waning confidence.
How do women do this? I feel like I'm at the front of my high school auditorium in the middle of graduation, naked. I lean over and order a shot of Fireball from the bartender. As I drop back down onto my stool, and Gavin consoles his friend about Tenley shunning him, I notice a guy a few feet away at the bar. He's staring right at me with a smirk. It's a fetching smirk, to say the least. The kind that is warm and filled with mischief. He looks away to wave the bartender over. The smirky dude has dirty blond, almost brown hair longer and tousled on top but short on the sides. His frame is very broad and toned. His eyes aren't dark but not light. It’s the best description I can muster in the low light from this distance.
He’s got tattoos decorating every inch of both his arms. I can’t make out any of them because of the lighting and they’re all black ink. They’re pretty though. He looks… like a Hollywood version of some kind of anti-hero hero. The bad guy that the good girl reforms because his heart was never as dark as he, or the viewer, thought.
I’m staring so I blink and look away when I realize Hollywood Anti-Hero is watching me again. Gavin’s friend is walking away now. The bartender plunks a full shot of Fireball in front of me and I reach for my wallet but she waves me off. “Paid for.”
“Oh.” I smile, and she struts off to make the next drink. I lift the shot glass to Gavin. “Thank you.”
I gulp it, shiver, and purse my lips. Gavin chuckles. “Don’t thank me. I didn’t buy it. I mean, I would have, but I didn’t.”
I shiver again. "Well, who then?"
He leans into me. He smells like pine trees and tobacco but not because he smokes. It must be in his cologne. His breath is minty. “I don’t know who bought it, but I think I should stake a claim before we find out.”
The next thing I know Gavin’s lips are on mine. It’s not an awful kiss. It’s not aggressive or sloppy. I should be enjoying this. But I feel instantly uncomfortable. Angry, even. My whole body tenses, like it did that night when I was suddenly thrown to the ground. I even smell the wet grass from that night in my nostrils somehow. I swear to God every muscle in my body is stone. I can’t even move my lips. I’m so fucking angry, not at Gavin. He’s just shooting his shot on someone who acted like they were a willing target.
I am! I am a willing target! My head screams at my angry heart and terrified soul. I am willing! I want this. He’s the perfect candidate. Why am I freaking out? I slip off the stool, which brings me closer to Gavin who moves a hand around my back and that’s when I feel the flight part of my rollercoaster of emotions wash over me. Nothing is stone anymore. Every muscle is moving—away from him.
“Bathroom!” I call out way too loud and then I’m blindly pushing through the crowd away from the bar, away from Gavin.
I stumble down the stairs, almost tripping, clutching the railing with white knuckles. I see the hallway where the washrooms are located to the left of the staircase and I march toward them as fast as I can without running. My vision blurs and I wipe away the tears tumbling out of my eyes and ruining the make-up Mallory helped me apply.
I am a few feet from the women's restroom sign, and of course, there's a line so I panic and turn the other way. I'm just going to leave the club, maybe even Las Vegas. I never should have come. I…
Smash! My entire body hits a wall. A warm, but hard wall.
Chapter4
Liv