Authors: Casey McMillin
"Ooh, I love these things," Julien said, not even paying attention to the fact that Nadine was speechless in his mere presence. "Can I have a bite?" he asked.
She would have totally said yes, but he didn't even wait for her to answer. He ducked his head to hers and put his mouth around the end of the candy that was hanging out of her mouth. It was li
ke the scene from Lady and the Tramp, but it only lasted half-a-second. He ducked down, put his mouth around the candy, and bit it off. Then he came up with it in his mouth as if taking food out of other people's mouths was something he did every day.
Nadine slapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, that was mine."
He smiled an arrogant smile that looked really good on him.
"You know you liked it," he said.
She did like it. She
just looked at him, not even bothering to deny it.
"
What are you girls up to?" he said.
"
Getting a drink," both girls said at the exact same time. Then they proceeded to look at each other and laugh in unison.
"Whatcha drinking
?" Julien asked. He smiled and gestured toward the bartender, who was standing at the girls' back, waiting for their order.
"Long Island Iced Tea,"
Lindsay said without hesitation. The bartender looked at Nadine who ordered a glass of ice water before turning back to Julien. She still couldn't believe he came up to them so quickly.
"Why didn't you get a drink?
" Lindsay asked. She nudged Nadine to get her attention since it seemed all she could do was stare at Julien.
"I
'll share yours and we can get another one if we think we're okay to drive."
"I'll be fine," Lindsay said. "We'll just hang out long enough for it to wear off. I'll have a few glasses of water after I drink it. Seriously, I'll be good to drive, I promise. You should get something
to drink. It'll help you relax." Lindsay gave Nadine an exaggerated wink that totally embarrassed her in front of Julien. Nadine knew she was blushing, but could do absolutely nothing to stop it.
"You ladies can drink if you want to," he said.
"I'm done for the night and I'm fine to drive your car if you need me to."
"We're not staying in Baton Rouge," Nadine said.
Julien shrugged. "I don't mind getting back home tonight," he said. "I was planning on staying, but that's mostly just because my ride's spending the night. My car's at the gym, so you'd have to let me follow you home once we got there."
"No, that's too much,"
Nadine said. "I don’t want you to have to—"
"I want to," he said. He reached out and pulled her in to his embrace.
She sort of stumbled over the foot or two of space that had been separating them, and ended up standing close enough to him that their bodies made brief, little contacts. Nadine was sort of standing with her back to his chest and she looked up at him through adoring eyes.
Lindsay's eyes widened as she watched the scene between Nadine and Julien. She'd never seen Nadine acting like a big bundle of nerves, and smiled as she watched the two of them flirt. She turned to the bartender as he sat the drinks down. "Another one of these, please," she said, pointing to the Long Island Iced Tea.
He nodded and took off again. When he came back, he set the second drink down along with a ticket that had the total of almost fifteen dollars for the two drinks. Nadine and Lindsay both had their debit cards out, ready to duel to the death when the bartender came back to get the payment.
Julien took a
twenty-dollar bill out of his money clip and threw it down next to the ticket. "Come on, let's go back over here." He didn't give them time to protest, he picked Nadine's drink up off the bar, and drug her by the arm toward the tables where all the gym people were. There looked to be at least a dozen or so people, and Nadine recognized most of them, even if she didn't know their names.
Julien led them to a table that was full of young guys.
John David and his friend were there along with several guys Nadine knew were fighters.
"Did you get lost?" John David asked. He was referring to the amount of time it took them to get to the bar after he walked them to their car. His familiar question made Julien just jealous enough to put his hand around Nadine's waist.
She felt a hot rush of anticipation at his touch, but didn't even acknowledge he was doing it. "We had to get gas for the trip home," Nadine said, looking at John David as she tried to ignore the hand on her back that was causing all the chaos in her central nervous system.
All of a sudden, Carlos came up behind Julien. He hung on his shoulder, breathing like he'd been running.
"Dude, I need a huge favor from you."
"What?" Julien
asked.
"You know that girl Raven you were with last time?"
Julien felt Nadine stiffen at the question, but he just nodded at Carlos.
"Dude, she's asking about you, and I'm thinking if we tell her you're otherwise engaged," he cleared his throat and looked at Nadine, "I'm thinking I have a shot. Especially with that win tonight."
"That's all you," Julien said.
Carlos smiled and took off in the direction of Raven without another word. Lindsay was already sitting at the table, sipping on her tea and talking to the guys.
"I feel like I should be jealous," Nadine said.
Julien smiled. "Are you?"
She shrugged. "Maybe."
"My bad if she tries to fight you."
Nadine cracked up. "Oh,
your bad
?"
"Yeah." Julien looked in the direction Carlos had taken off, and pretended to get scared that the girl was coming to fight her. "She's pretty scrappy."
"
Scrappy
?" Nadine asked. "What's that even mean?" She shot a panicked look in Raven's direction, and Julien laughed.
"I'm just messing with you. I don't see anybody. I don't even know
if she's even here."
"Carlos just bet me twenty dollars that he could get some brain in the bathroom by the end of the night,"
the fighter named Mike said as he returned to his seat.
Another fighter Nadine didn't recognize chimed in. "He's trippin' if he thinks he's getting that from that girl Raven. She's a tease."
"What's brain?" Nadine asked. She'd meant to ask it quietly enough for only Julien to hear, but the table got quiet as soon as she said it, and it came out louder than she hoped.
She heard a snic
ker or two before Chad chimed in. "It's a blow job," he said.
There was a
moment of silence then Lindsay, of all people, spoke up, "Yeah, I never understood where that came from anyway."
Nadine looked at her like she couldn't believe Lindsay even knew what it was, and Lindsay smirked back at her.
"It's because it goes so deep it touches her brain," said the same guy who was hoping to win twenty dollars out of the deal.
"No it's not," Chad said. "It's slang for getting
head
. Instead of saying getting
head
, you call it brain. Get it?"
"
Please
," the guy looked at Lindsay. "It's because it touches the brain. He put his hands out front and thrust forward for effect. "You wanna find out?"
"Taylor!" about three guys, including Julien yelled at the same time.
"I'm sorry," Julien said to Lindsay before giving Taylor an impassive glare.
"
No worries," Lindsay said. "I asked for it when I chimed in at a table full of boys."
Someone (John David, probably) skillfully changed the subject to something besides blowjobs, and everyone at the table spent the next hour having somewhat more appropriate conversations in groups of twos and threes. If the dreaded Raven was indeed there, Nadine didn't see her. She was really relieved, even though she was pretty sure she could take her in a fight if she had to.
"Whatchu smiling at?" Julien asked.
"I was just thinking about my kickboxing skills. I was wondering if I could take that girl Raven."
Julien laughed. "You could definitely take her. You don't have to fight over me, though," he said. "You can just have me."
Nadine looked up at him.
She was a little lit from the drink she'd just finished, and was feeling reckless enough to play along.
"You kissed me in your
Jeep at the gym and then we ignored it and didn't talk after that."
"That's not my fault," Julien said. "I thought you were supposed to text me."
"No way.
You
were supposed to text
me
," she said. "It's the guy's job."
"It is?"
She nodded.
He bent to whisper in her ear, and the combination of his deep voice and his hot breath on her ear made a jolt of electricity shoot through her body.
"I think I need to try again," Julien whispered.
The feel of it was so good she didn't even hear him. "Huh
?" she asked.
"I need to try it again."
"Try what?"
"The kiss," he said. He reached up to her chin and tilted her face up to meet his. He let his lips linger less than an inch from hers for several long seconds. The anticipation was so great, she could
have just cried. Nadine was nearly shaking with the effort to keep from taking control of the situation herself when he finally let their lips meet. He pressed his mouth to hers ever so gently, putting a few chaste kisses on it before pulling back to look at her face and then doing it one more time. She let out a little whimper that only he could hear, and he stopped, took a calming breath, and pinched his eyes closed at the temptation.
"Julien?" she said.
"Yeah?"
"I like you."
He smiled. "I like you too."
She gave him a satisfied grin. "Did you say you were driving me home?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Cause I want another one of those iced tea drinks."
"I'll go get you one," he said.
"I don't want it yet," she said. "I'm not even halfway done with this one. I just wanted to make sure you were serious when you offered to drive us home."
"I was definitely serious. I wouldn’t offer something like that, let you drink, and then change my mind."
It sounded logical when he said it like that, and Nadine smiled and relaxed in the knowledge that she had a ride home. Okay, she didn't really care about the ride as much as the guy who was offering it, but either way, she was feeling good
"
I have to use the toilette," she said, looking up at him.
Every
once in a while Nadine said a word in French or with a heavier than usual accent, and the sound of it made Julien want to go all medieval on her.
Lindsay
offered to go with her, but Nadine said she'd be fine going alone. Julien was glad to get a minute to talk to Lindsay without Nadine standing right there. He was trying not to let it get to him, but he was still reeling from the news about Nadine's birthday being on Valentine's Day. The scene in the book where Nadine gets shot three times and almost dies, happens on her birthday—which, you guessed it, is also on Valentine's Day. Julien just wanted to talk to someone who knew Nadine, and was glad to get a moment alone with Lindsay.
"Tell me something I don't know about Nadine," he said, sitting in the chair right beside
Lindsay. He figured that was safe enough since it was something a potential suitor would ask. He was hoping for something from her background or maybe even something about the ex-boyfriend.
Lindsay smiled. "That girl
cannot walk down the street without wanting to help someone. Seriously, she has the biggest heart. She wants to meet needs when she sees them, and she notices things about people I'd never even pay attention to. She's amazing. She loves the blues, and taught herself to play the harmonica."
Julien racked his brain trying to remember if the book had Nadine playing the harmonica. It definitely didn't say anything about that, and he smiled and felt a sense of relief at that being another detail that was off.
"What part of that made you smile?" Lindsay asked, taking in Julien's expression.
"The harmonica."
"I know, right? She's really cute doing it too. She's got that messy hair and wears boy clothes half the time."
"
I like knowing that random fact about her," Julien said. He was hoping Lindsay would keep on with the facts about her that didn't lineup with the book.
"She's a
senior at UL, she's studying to be a teacher, and is student teaching at the French immersion school. Do you know all this?"
Julien did, but he shook his head, hoping she'd keep going.
"She's super sweet, I already said that. She's got two sisters. Her whole family's in France, and so is her weird ex-boyfriend named Pierre.