Page 55 of There's Pumpkin About You
The others introduce themselves, minus Gus who ignores Oakleigh’s existence completely, and just like that, my best friend becomes a part of this crazy group I’ve grown to love.
ChapterTwenty-Five
GUS
By the time midnight rolls around, my hourly number of beers has pretty much doubled. Now, there’s two stages overlapping one another against one wall and things seem to move slower than they did before. The live band finished about an hour ago and a DJ has since taken their place. And when I say DJ, I mean Sarah from the library who is one of the rare people who knows how to plug a phone into a sound system.
Sam and Jamie have conveniently disappeared at the same time, and even an oblivious and drunk idiot like myself can decipher why. Bash and Finn are now starting their third round of pool. Finn is getting easily distracted by Wren’s friend, Oakleigh, who is busy flirting with Jonathan Brine who works at the hospital. Which leaves me on a table beside them, watching them as best I can with no glasses and a shit load of beer in my system, trying to ignore the somewhat distracted, but also drunk, woman beside me.
She’s been keeping up with me, I think. Whenever I go to buy another I see that hers is also done, and vice versa.
That doesn’t mean that the drinks aren’t affecting her, though. Whenever she comments on our brothers’ pool game, she does so in a way that makes her even louder than the music. Her words have been slurred for a few hours and when she gets up to pee, Finn pauses the game to help her make it to the bathroom.
All in all, it’s an okay night. It will be a hell of a lot better once I’m able to stop thinking about the woman beside me, though.
Am I wrong for blaming her for the way I am now? Maybe, but that’s not going to stop me from doing it. As much as I look at her and want to have what would probably be the best sex of my life, I’m aware that it would also be the besthatesex of my life.
“Suck it, bitch!” Bash yells as he pots another two striped balls.
“Says the one currently losing two out of three.”
A hazy chuckle leaves Wren. “I hate to admit it, Bash, but you’re not doing too good,” she slurs.
Bash feigns hurt. “Why break my heart, Wren? You’re supposed to be on my side.”
“I’m always on your side, sweetie.” She blows my brother a kiss and I find my green monster growing.
Wren and Bash have become very close over the last few weeks. If he wasn’t in love with some other woman, I would think he has a crush on my woman.
Hold up… my what?
I attempt to shake my head free of idiotic thoughts and take a long slug of beer. The endless flow of it has my mouth dry and I’d kill for a glass of water.
The more I drink, the more aware I become of Wren’s presence beside me. I feel it every time she turns her drunken gaze towards me, even when I’m not looking. That lick of heat that crawls its way up my spine deliciously each time I hold off on turning around. It feels like a game I’m playing with her and she doesn’t even know I’m a participant.
I lean back in my seat and let the ethanol guide me. One of her hands remains hidden under the table and when I think about the way she reacted to me in the barn, I can’t stop my hand from moving closer.
Bash and Finn’s cries of competitiveness blur into the background as I shift closer and move my hand closer to hers. The moment my fingers brush against her warm hands, she jumps. I keep a cool exterior and repeat the action again, earning myself the same shocked inhale.
“What are you doing?” Wren asks me under her breath, only loud enough for me to hear her over the music.
I run my finger softly in a circle on the back of her hand before grabbing it and lacing our fingers together.
“I honestly don’t know.”
* * *
An hour later, and I’m about ready to bounce, the need for alcohol now replaced by the need for a woman who I’ve been enjoying torturing for an hour.
It started with a brush of my fingers against hers, back when I was trying my best to ignore my own feral urges. But soon I grew bolder, worried that my actions were becoming too subtle. I’m not great with social cues, but when it comes to others who don’t share my struggles, how subtle is too subtle?
Light touches turned to a possessive hand on her lower back. That turned into the dire need to lean over and smell her hair, let the scent of vanilla wash over me and sober me up.
Okay, so maybe I have been torturing myself more than her, but whilst I’m oblivious in social situations, there has been nothing subtle about her reactions.
It’s been all too easy to know what the way her eyes close when I touch her means, or the way she lets out the quietest moans that I can hear over the music, a sound so sweet that even molasses could take a lesson.
The erection I’ve had to hide from everyone this entire time has become painful and any alcohol I did have in my system has completely left my body. That’s the effect she seems to have on me. I’ve known that since the moment I met her. I knew she would create these kinds of problems for me and if I’m being honest that’s a big part of why I was so angry around her. I was angry that after such a long time of not finding any woman attractive, after spending years deciding that I was better off alone, she had to come along when I’m at my lowest and make me want her.
