Page 121 of On Merit Alone
“Have you guys made it official?”
“How long have you been seeing him?”
“Is he as good in bed as he is on the court?”
And finally, my favorite.“How big is he?”
My head swam, but in a slow kind of way and I giggled. I guess Em hadn’t told themeverything. Hitching my shoulders up and down, I leaned forward in a stage whisper,“I don’t know.”
There was a collective gasp. And then another outbreak of stumbling sounds.
“Oh my God, Cap is a prude.”
“Merit!”
“I think she’s drunk already!”
“I think she needs to find out already.”
I laughed at their excitement. They were all happy and bubbly and excited to be here. It was nice to see them like this. I only ever saw them at the gym where we were serious and determined and would sometimes joke around but not always. So seeing them like this was sort of inviting in a way; like I was being made privy to another side of them, and them to me.
Maybe I was letting all the excitement get to my head though, as Idowned my second shot of God knows what and swayed on my feet. At one point, Charlie caught me by the shoulders and stood me steady on my feet before whipping her head around to look at my face.
“Cap, are you a lightweight or did you just not eat today?”
I smiled, my limbs feeling buzzy and loose. “Both, I think.”
A chorus of noise filled my ears and suddenly I was being shuffled to the center of the room. Bodies were everywhere and the music got even louder. Next to my shoulder, I heard Emily near my ear saying, “It’s time to dance, love.”
Oh, dancing?I’d never danced much, but I wasn’t afraid to. I liked the upbeat songs they were playing, and I’d never had a problem finding a beat. This was fun.
Way more fun than I’d ever had before. Way more fun than I ever thought I could have in a place that was crowded with floors that stuck to the bottom of my shoes. I danced, I drank, I talked, I lived.
And I thought about Ira.
About how I wished he was there too. That's how this whole thing started right? Because I wish he had shown up for me. It was funny how I thought the solution for missing him was to see less of him when all I truly wanted was for him to appear right there in that doorway and look at me with those happy eyes.
A sudden applause ripped me out of my fantasy and brought my gaze up just in time to see… I wiped at my eyes before I remembered I had makeup on and stopped.
Had I conjured him up? Or was that really Ira I saw shouldering his way into the bar and narrowing his eyes as he scanned the room for…me?
Those eyes weren’t what I thought they’d be. Instead of happy they were angry?Hungry. Possessive. And his usually relaxed face was drawn up in a tight hold.
I watched as he registered my teammates around me. I realizedsuddenly that they’d been the ones applauding.Because they were clapping for him.
I giggled, my hand coming up to cover my mouth. They were all little shits. But they knew what they were doing, because the way he was looking at me now, like he couldn’t take his eyes off of me. Like he was mad for some reason as his eyes bore into my skin—raking up and down my body. It was bringing a delicious tingle to the pit of my stomach.
Turning away from him, I looked around my group. They all eyed me back knowingly. Some with devious little smirks on their faces, some with excited anticipating eyes.
“Whatcha going to do, Cap?” Charlie asked, the captain of the little shits.
The grin I let loose was one of my biggest as I shook my head at them. Always the troublemakers. Reaching forward, I grabbed her hand anyway, latching onto someone else’s in the group too.
“I think we need to find more shots.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ira
