Page 138 of Just This Once

But when I’d gone up the stairs and thrown the other girl’s number away, Hope never appeared. I’d had to fuckingtexther to get her ass up there.

Which meant I was whipped, and she had all the power.

I didn’t like that. This had to be the first time I’d ever been with someone I didn’t want to lose. It was a very unpleasant sensation.

“Man,” Hudson complained, slugging my arm. “First Archer and now you. That’s it.Stalker,” he called, grabbing Faith’s arm and dragging her from her conversation with the girls. “We need to go have sex. Right now.”

Blinking at him as if he’d lost his mind, she opened her mouth, only to lift her brows and follow him from her chair. “Okay.”

And off they went. After I watched them disappear up the steps, I glanced over at Archer. “He’s such a wannabe.”

Damien chuckled, and the two of us started a conversation about some money he wanted to invest.

At the other end of the table, Alec and the girls were loud and boisterous. Whenever some guy approached, asking one of them to dance, they merely rebuffed him and kept talking until some karaoke participant decided to sing “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” and then they all dragged poor Alec out onto the floor with them.

Eventually, Faith and Hudson returned, and Faith hurried to join the girls as Hudson collapsed into the chair next to me with a satisfied hiss.

“Much better,” he announced as he took a drink and watched his lady start grinding against Damien’s woman on the dance floor.

I kept an eye on Hope the entire time without outright watching her.

And I knew the moment she started to feel sick. She and the girls were still out there, doing Beyoncé’s country line dance together when she laughed at something Oaklynn had said. Half a second later, her smile slipped, and she grabbed her side, bending slightly and looking as if she might tip toward the floor.

Everything inside me tightened with concern. I was on the verge of springing to my feet and dashing to her, but then she shook her head to clear it and straightened again, picking up with the rest of the dance and smiling. Except the curve in her lips looked strained now. She wasn’t as free and loose with her moves anymore. And the line of sweat trailing down the side of her face no longer looked as if it came from fun exertions but from pain.

I picked up my drink and sipped from the glass, finishing it as I watched her conspicuously from over the rim, pretending to listen to Hudson as he droned on about the restaurant and shot me ideas for improvement.

When the song changed over to “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G., the girls wanted to keep dancing. Hope was the only one to slink off to the side after saying something to Faith that made Faith nod and wave her away. Her hand went back to her side as she weaved through the crowd, avoiding our table.

She hit the staircase seconds later and gripped the banister as if she needed it to keep her upright as she staggered up the steps.

I glanced back at the girls who were focused on hitting the right moves. They didn’t notice Hope’s distress at all.

So my gaze slid to Alec, who’d returned to the table and was deep in some conversation with Damien, making big, sweeping arm movements as he talked. He didn’t notice Hope’s exit either.

Setting my glass down, I glanced at my watch as if I’d just received a message, and I interrupted Hudson, saying, “I gotta go.”

“Uh.” He blinked in confusion but waved me on. “Okay. Later, man.”

I headed to the stairs without preamble and jogged up, looking both ways when I reached the top. She wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so I turned in the direction of the bathrooms. Darting down the hall, I knocked on the first door, only to be told it was occupied. So I moved on to the next.

I didn’t even have to knock before I heard retching inside. Hissing a curse, I tried the door handle and pushed it open to find her on her knees, back to me as she gripped the sides of the toilet and heaved.

“Hope.” I lurched forward to crouch behind her so I could catch a few stray curls that had escaped her braid and rein them in out of her face. Then I looked anywhere but at what she was doing as I rubbed her back until she was done.

Once drained, she fell back, collapsing against me and shaking uncontrollably. Tears streamed down her cheeks, making her mascara smear.

I looped one arm around her waist, tethering her to me as I reached for toilet paper to wipe her face and mouth.

“Did you take your pills yet tonight?” I asked, keeping my voice level while everything else inside me freaked the fuck out.

“Not yet,” she admitted in a trembling voice, her teeth chattering as if she were cold.

“Fucking hell,” I muttered, even as I rubbed her arms to warm her. “You know you can’t miss those.”

“Sorry,” she slurred, turning onto her side so she could press her cheek into my chest and cuddle closer. “Forgot.”

The way she softened against me, letting me hold and support her, made me melt. “It’s okay,” I assured, kissing the top of her head and closing my eyes. “I got you.”

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