Authors: Faleena Hopkins
“Yeah, and he
called everyone he knew right before he freaked out, and the cops called
everyone on the list and verified that – get this – nobody took his
call.
Forty two
people! Forty. Two. That would drive
me to take a midnight swim into
foreverland
, let me
tell you!” Stewart bugged his eyes out for emphasis.
Dani nodded. “I didn’t know it was forty two. Feeling
ostracized can make one suicidal.”
“Yes, but I
don’t feel too badly for the guy.
You can’t get in the way of karma.
I loved his movie, what was it?” Anj asked as Stewart lifted his glass
high in emphatic agreement.
“Faith,” Dani
answered.
“That’s it
– Faith. You saw it, then.
Wasn’t it amazing?”
“I never saw
it,
no.They
were talking
about it at my shoot the other night,” Dani said, amused at Stew’s shocked and
appalled face.
“Oh yeah, I forgot to ask. How did that go?” Anjelica
asked.
“Great.
I have to Photoshop the shot, or give it
to Julian to do it for me. It’ll be in next month’s Elle. So, the case is
closed then?” Dani looked nonchalantly for an answer.
“I can’t wait
to see it,” Anjelica said about the photo spread. She had a pretty braid in her
blond hair that pulled to the side where wisps framed her face for balance.
Dani reached up and adjusted one.
“Looks like
it, yep,” answered Stewart.
He
looked in Adrian’s direction wondering about Dani’s
drink.“And
in case you’re wondering, your boy’s hair is wet because he poured a glass of
who knows what onto his own head right before you came in. Shook his head like
a dog. Somehow it was hot. I don’t know why. He’s a bit of a boozer, honey.
Just a word to the wise,” Stewart warned, watching as the man on the barstool
next to them got up and gave Dani his seat.
She smiled at the stranger as he left,
which Stewart hadn’t seen her do in a long while.
Her depression hadn’t been lost on her
friends,
they just didn’t know what to do about it other than take her for a good time
as often as they could. Stewart was happy for her and couldn’t hold back, “Wow,
he gets a smile…. Someone’s in a good mood.”
“I’m in a
great mood actually. I feel very awake,” she said, looking at the reason.
Anjelica and Stewart followed the direction of her stare
and the three of them watched Adrian bend forward then whip his wet hair back
like he was in a hair band, and the customers were his fans. When he came back
up he shot a singled-out look at Dani for effect and it definitely hit its
mark. She grinned at him, feeling special in a sea of random faces.
“Excuse me, I think I see something I like.” Stewart left
them to talk to an offbeat yet handsome guy in a tan fedora
who
’d
been eyeing him.
“He sure puts
on a show,” Anjelica said.
“
Mmhmm
,” was Dani’s only response, distracted.
“I’m just
saying-” Anj added, her voice heavy with intended meaning.
Dani turned to face her, “What are you saying, Anjie?”
“I’m thinking
you should be real careful,” Anjelica said.
“That’s
sweet,” she smiled and touched her friend’s lovely face, thinking she was cute
with her brow all creased up like that.
“But you don’t need to do that. I definitely don’t need protecting.”
“No, of course not.
I was just saying.”
“I hear you and I’m trying to tell you kindly that I
don’t like it,” Dani gently warned.
Seeing
Adrian detach himself from needy customers to go talk to Dani, Stewart
hurriedly left his new friend to watch the show. He didn’t want to miss
anything, and he took no notice of the look of horror Fedora-guy threw at his
back, furious at being left mid-sentence.
“Hey you,” Adrian greeted.
“Hey,” Dani
answered, leaning toward him.
He
leaned in, too, and he felt like everyone around them vanished. Those eyes of
hers, her energy, they tugged at him and he almost didn’t like it. He knew he
didn’t understand it. It felt stronger than just chemistry.
“Are you
going to run off again tonight?”
“I might,”
she answered mischievously.
“Fine. Do
what you want.
But make sure you’re
back here at 3,” he commanded, placing a Jameson, neat, in front of her. He
consciously grounded himself with the familiar action of putting a drink in
front of someone, to distance himself from the seductive pull of her.
“Oh, really?”
“I’m pretty
sure you heard me,” he threw her a wink and left her and their audience of two.
As he walked
away from her, he felt his chest cave in a little at the separation, felt a
pull to return to her, and shook it off.
“That man is
hot. I mean, HOT. All of a sudden I don’t give a hot damn that he poured booze
on his head,” Stewart declared.
Dani shook her head, “It was water. I smelled only
water,”
“Stewart! You’re not helping,” Anj said, slapping him.
“What? Don’t
tell me you can name one other guy who has the balls to do what he just did… to
DANI. I mean, come on now.
That was
amazing. Don’t even try and tell me that it wasn’t.”
“Guys. If he
hears you, I will kill you both,” Dani warned them.
“Who cares if
he hears us?
Like he even
cares.
That guy has an ego the size
of Montana.”
“I think it’s
covering up something,” Anjelica thought aloud.
Dani shot her a look but Anj, looking at Adrian, didn’t see.
Down the bar, he was lighting shots of
151 on fire and passed them out to eight or nine customers, keeping one for
him. He drank it, wiped his lip off and looked straight at Dani again. He
didn’t smile this time. His eyes glittered at her like electricity.
“Are you
gonna do it?” Anjelica asked her but Dani simply ignored her and her impudence,
instead holding focus on Adrian as he rang in an order. She watched the muscles
in his arm as he pushed the buttons, his hips as he moved to the music. He
smelled so good.
Anj wouldn’t let up.
A mistake. She should have left Dani’s business alone, but instead she
said, “Are you coming back here, after they close? You’re not, are you?”
Dani turned in her chair and stared down her friend in
silence before she slowly and evenly asked, “Why, Anj? Would you rather it were
you? Is this jealousy that’s causing you to overstep your boundaries? Because
there must be a reason you feel you have the right to tell me what I should or
should not, do.”
Anj was speechless. Stewart put his drink down and
stared.
“No!” Anj stammered, “Of course not.
Of course I don’t wish… I wasn’t saying
that at all.”
“Jesus, Dani,
she’s just being a nurturing mother hen like she always is. Calm the fuck
down,” Stewart said. The look on Daniella’s face made him feel increasingly
protective of his girl. He didn’t know what was going on, and hated it.
“Right.
Whatever.” Dani slid off the bar stool and walked out the door without saying
goodbye. They watched her go without saying goodbye, completely speechless.
Stewart shook his head, picked up Dani’s abandoned drink and downed it.
Anjelica just looked at him, her mouth dropped open in disbelief.
“Don’t look at me. I have no idea what just happened,” he
offered.
“Did it ever
seem to you like I wanted Adrian?”
“No.
Do you?”
He asked.
“No! Come on!
You know me better than that! I would never go after someone Dani wanted. Plus
the guy…” she lowered her voice to make sure the party in question couldn’t
hear, “…is nice and all but he’s obviously an alcoholic and I’m not into guys
like that. You know me!” she said, looking very wounded.
“Sorry…
sorry, babe. I know. I had to ask though. I’ve never seen her act like that and
sometimes women see things men don’t, etc. blah
blah
blah
.
But I’m
sorry.”
“God, I hope
she doesn’t really think that about me.
Should I call her?”
“No, I think
she should call you. She was out of line.”
“Maybe she
doesn’t think so.”
“Well, when
you do talk to her I wouldn’t tell her he’s an alcoholic. She has to figure
that out on her own. You don’t want to lose her as a friend.”
“No! But I’m
being a friend when I tell her these things.”
“Anj. If this
is a lesson she has to learn, then she has to learn it. You can’t do it for
her, or try to stop the train while it’s roaring down the tracks.”
“That’s pretty wise there, Stew.”
“I try.”
____________________
At 3:00am, the bar was closed and Dani leaned against her
Jeep in the empty parking lot, waiting.
She looked at it how dirty it was and thought about washing it, but knew
she wouldn’t.
At 3:17 he came out the back and smiled, “What are you
waiting for. Get in here.” He held the door for her as she walked in. The bar
looked different now. It was dirty, quiet and empty. The people and music
really changed the energy, she observed. Trash littered the floor with only the
bar top wiped clean.
She walked
about ten paces before feeling his hands on her as he reached around her waist
and pulled close against him, her back against his chest, the way he had held
Anjelica in her dream. It sent an eerie shiver throughout her body from the
memory. She shook it off.
He turned her around and took her mouth in his.
She returned his kisses allowing them to
melt away the memory of the nightmare; let his mouth explore hers while his
hands slid up her body, her ass, her back, her breasts, her neck.
He pulled away and looked at her.
She knew that look and wondered how far
she should let this go. A vampire could do some things humans could do but with
difficulty. A female vampire is able to accept a human man’s penis but he would
have to find another way to make her wet because her body no longer responded
the way a woman’s would.
She didn’t want to think about it.
His
kisses - so good.
It was impossible to think of stopping him. She
couldn’t leave now if she wanted to, and she didn’t want to. And do what, go
home? Sit alone again? Stare out into the empty street? Drive around for hours?
Go to a restaurant and watch people eat food that tasted foul to her? Pressed
against the wall all she could think of was, this is what every woman wants
;
a man who takes control, who is a beast in a bedroom and a
gentleman in society.
His scent was intoxicating. She could smell his blood.
Feel his pulse quickening as he caressed her. Hear the heartbeat that called to
her as his tongue moved with hers, exploring and tasting her. He picked her up,
carried her to the bar, and placed her on it.
She laid back, one leg swinging off the side,
as she looked at him serenely, welcoming him. He stood back and took her in,
his eyes traveling all the way from her hair and the way it fell in silken
strips, to the tips of the cool burgundy boots she wore. “Why are you so
fucking hot?” he asked. She smiled and shrugged.
She felt human again and very feminine under his
eyes.
She may not be able to have
some of the bodily functions a woman had, but her skin was more responsive than
a human’s, her senses heightened, and when he came to her and sensually ran a
finger down her neck, breast, stomach, hip, and then took her leg and bit it
playfully, she was on fire.
Every touch, every kiss - intensely powerful.
He took off her boots one by one and dropped them to the
ground. She liked the sound they made in the silence of the room. He moved up,
going for the skirt of her dress. She sat up abruptly in objection as reality
struck her hard. How could she do this?