Page 2 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

“I wouldn’t say it’s a done deal, but stop looking at me like I’m batshit, okay? And you know what they say,” I said, flashing her Dre’s gift once more before stuffing it back in my bag. “Whoever gives you a token on Saint Patrick’s Day is the one you’re meant to be with.”

“Uh, no one says that, Perry.”

“Well, it’s a fact. Something to do with love and luck.”

Christa plucked a shamrock off the bar and handed it to me. “Consider this my token.” Then she leaned over and gave me a loud, exaggerated smack on the cheek. I laughed, pushing her away. Yeah, she was definitely just worried that our friendship would change; that’s what her whole reaction had been about.

“TheguyI’m meant to be with, silly.”

“And you’re sure he’s the guy to change for? For all you know, he could just be feeding you a line of bullshit so you’ll stop screwing other men. Meanwhile, he’ll continue getting his dick wet in anything with a pulse.”

I scrunched up my face. Worried or not, she was sure acting crazier than normal. Maybe it was all the leprechaun piss.

I adopted a go-with-the-flow attitude and picked up my drink. I brought it to my mouth and nearly chipped a tooth when I was flung forward.Goddammit. I quickly set it back down, then tried dabbing at my wet shirt with a flimsy bar napkin. It didn’t take long before it turned into a clump of mushy shreds. Christa started giggling as she crawled over the counter to grab another stack, flashing her ass to everyone when her micromini hiked up.

“Sorry about that,” a soft, slurry voice said behind me. I turned to face a woman with spray-painted green spiky hair. “I was pushed too,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it.” I sighed. I doubted the stain would ever come out, but it was hardly her fault. That’d teach me for not wearing green on this night, but it wasn’t my color, dammit.

Christa climbed back down and placed the napkins in my hand. I felt someone squeezing in to the left of me, and then a glass of clear liquid came into view.

“Try this.”

I glanced over to put a face to the masculine voice and found myself staring into some blue-ass eyes.

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll get right on that. Because you know, I always accept drinks in bars from strange men.”No matter how fucking hot they are.

He smiled. Of course, there wasn’t a snaggletooth in the bunch. “It’s for the stain before it sets. Club soda.”

“Oh, okay.” I dabbed a napkin into the glass and then onto my shirt. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

I turned back to see Christa eye-fucking him. She didn’t usually go for the Norse god types, but whatever.

“He’s not good enough for you.”

I whipped my head back to Thor. “Excuse me?”

“The guy you’re with. He’s not good enough for you.”

Just how long were you standing here, anyway?“And just who the fuck are you?”

I didn’t care if he was single-handedly responsible for getting the stain out of my favorite pale pink shirt, that didn’t give him the right to act like he knew my business.

“I’m—”

“You know what? It doesn’t matter. Thank you for the soda, but our conversation is over.”

He chuckled, which for some reason made me more pissed off. I swiveled my back to him and looked at Christa. Her eyes were wide.

“Wow, bitchy much?” she said.

“He deserved it.”

“Well, I guess that’s one way to take yourself off the market. Continue acting like that and you’ll scare them all away.” She rubbed her lips. “But damn… weren’t you looking at the same thing I was? I think I just had the best sex of my life.”

I shook my head slightly and narrowed my eyes, indicating that I didn’t want to discuss this at the moment.

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