Page 21 of Piece By Piece

My eyes flick back to a girl in the crowd I’ve been watching for a few minutes now. She has shoulder-length brown hair, a heart-shaped face, and nice, full lips. She looks good and since she’s dancing right in front of the platform, I noticed her. She noticed me too and has been throwing me glances every now and again as she swayed her hips to the beat.

I get up from my seat and walk toward the end of the platform. “I’ll see you later,” is all I say to my friends, and I don’t miss the way Aliena’s eyes narrow on me, then jump to the girl. I guess she has been paying enough attention to see our silent interactions before. My intoxicated mind finds that very interesting and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a small kick out of getting a reaction.

I meet the girl on the dancefloor and shoot her a lazy grin when she smiles demurely and says, “Hey.”

“Hey, gorgeous. What do you say we go somewhere a bit more private? My friends are too curious and they already noticed me watching you. I don’t need to give them any more reason to talk,” I tell her, laughing softly. She joins in and coincidentally touches my shoulder.

“Sure, I’d like that,” she agrees. I take her hand and start leading her away with one last fleeting look at my friends, who are already watching me as expected. Oh well, let them watch if they get off on it, I guess.

I take the girl back to the corridor lined with bathrooms, doing my best to walk straight so as not to seem too drunk. I might’ve had a drink too many considering I like not to lose control of myself, but I’ll be damned before I let someone notice it.

Once we’re alone, the girl doesn’t waste any time grabbing my face and kissing me. She’s tall, enough so that I don’t have to lean down which is a blessing since any acrobatics I’d have to do now wouldn’t be an easy feat.

She kisses well, gentle enough for the beginning, though there is something demanding in her touch that I don’t mind at all. My hands find her waist and I pull her a little closer, enjoying the fact that there are no overwhelming fireworks as I touch her. This is simple. Forgettable.

A throat clears obnoxiously somewhere nearby and the girl in my arms pulls away to find the source of it. I know who it is before I see the cross-armed birthday girl a few feet away. I give my hookup who still hasn’t introduced herself a pat on the arm and nod towards the nearest door to one of the private bathrooms.

“Why don’t you wait for me in there while I deal with my friend? I’ll make it quick,” I tell her in a lowered voice.

She nods and leaves, but not before saying, “Just for the record, I only believe that that isn’t an angry girlfriend because I saw her on your friend’s lap before. I’m no homewrecker.” I smile and nod solemnly. That’s something to respect her for.

I’m still smiling when I stroll toward Aliena. The closer I get, the more amusement fills me. God, her face is red. She’smad.

Before I get the chance to speak, she snaps at me, “Is it that hard for you to keep it in your pants for one night?”

It’s clear to say the unjustified accusation wipes the smile right off my face. So much indignation fills me that I almost get whiplash. Maybe the alcohol is making me sensitive or maybe I’ve been holding on to this since she pulled that move with Mattheo, but my voice is almost shrill when I retort. “Look who's talking!”

She huffs at me. “One person. One time since I’ve known you, Sebastian! What did you expect me to do, live a celibate life because you don’t want me, but you also don’t want anyone else to have me? And meanwhile, I get to watch you have a different girl every night?” Her voice is shaky and breaks at the end of her sentence but I don’t let it get to me. No. No matter what reasons she might think she has to be upset, she’s fucking wrong.

I decide to finally tell her that. “There are no girls! There haven’t been any since I met you, Aliena, so to answer your question, no, it isn’t hard to keep it in my pants for one night. It just doesn’t appeal to me this particular one. Now crawl back to Mattheo, will you, because you’re right, I don’t want you.”

I practically spit the words and I can see them hit the bullseye when she clamps her mouth shut. A part of me rebels against leaving her like this, with her stupid hurt expression and those damned tears shining in her eyes. The sight doesn’t make me feel nearly as triumphant as I thought it might.

And now we’re here, both our chests heaving with deep breaths as we stare at each other in shocked silence. Before I can cave and even think about apologizing, I turn and join my hookup in the secluded room. Just like that.

I lock the door behind me and slam my lips to hers, hoping to drown out the war raging in my head. This serves her right. After the shit she pulled with Mattheo inmyhouse, she deserves to think that I can enjoy someone else just as much as she clearly can.

Even though I know I can’t and I know I won’t. Tonight, despite the alcohol and my anger, won’t be any different from all the others. I’ll entertain this nice woman, make out with her for long enough to let Aliena’s mind run all sorts of scenarios about what I’m doing to her, and then go back out as if nothing happened.

That time turns out to be around forty minutes. Forty minutes that felt like a lot longer. Luckily, my company was nice enough and she seemed to enjoy my approach of not taking any clothes off of either one of us. After telling her some excuse and that it was nice to meet her, I leave the bathroom and return to the VIP section of the club.

The party’s still going strong but somehow, the colors seem a little duller as I make my way to my friends. If only my conscious would stop bothering me with the image of Aliena’s silly hurt expression. So what if I offended her a little? She didn’t care about my feelings two weeks ago.

The thing I immediately notice is that only three people are on the couches of our VIP lounge. The birthday girl is missing, and it doesn’t sit quite right with me. Overall, I’d describe the mood up here to be somber as hell considering where we are. Even the lovebirds don’t have their heart eyes on.

I force my lazy smile to remain as I casually ask, “Where’s the guest of honor?”

“Home. She just texted,” Lily replies. That has me halting in my tracks and I can feel a brow rise on my forehead as I turn to Mattheo.

“And how exactly did she get there?” I ask him, my harsh tone betraying my cool façade.

“I don’t know since she left without notice after followingyou,” he says through gritted teeth. And here I thought messing up his knee would teach him a lesson about making sure our friend got home safely. If I didn’t already know she made it home tonight, I’d have to give him another friendly reminder.

“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” he adds, clearly blaming me for her departure.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demand.

“It means that she was fine before you started eye-fucking that girl and left with her,” he retorts without missing a beat, being more direct than he’s ever been about my situation with Aliena. I just shrug, unwilling to agree that he has a point.

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