Page 6 of Hot Mess
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” I poke his chest.
“I’m going to enjoy it even more in a second,” he says, licking his bottom lip and smirking down at me.
I will too.
I grab the front of his jacket and crush my lips against his.
DYLAN
The moment our lips touch, every cell in my body lights up like all the neon glowing on the Strip. How is it that I can already feel this way about someone I’ve only just met? Jessie opens her mouth, allowing me to deepen the kiss and savor the taste of her. My arms tighten around her soft body possessively, wanting to feel more of her. The only thing to break through the bubble I’m feeling at this moment is the sound of a car honking as it passes by and someone yelling out the window, “Get a room!”
Jessie pulls back, her eyes widening in surprise. I don’t need her to say a word. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s feeling it too, but I'm not afraid of it. I'm not sure I can say the same for her. I need to prove to her that even if everything is moving fast between us, like the turn of someone’s luck in this town, the connection is real.
My phone buzzes in my jacket, and Jessie pulls out of my arms. I answer it without looking at the name on the screen. My gaze locked on Jessie, studying her face for some sign of what she’s thinking at this moment.
“Hello?” I ask.
"Dylan, where are you?" Thatcher asks, his voice sounding like there’s a note of panic in it.
“I had to head out,” I tell him. “I met a girl.”
Jessie’s gaze swings back to meet mine. Thatcher says something, but I hardly hear what he says. I just want to get off the phone.
"Yeah, buddy. I'll swing back later, and we can talk about the deal,” I tell him.
“Wait, Dyl—” Thatcher starts to say, but I hang up.
“It looks like we both have people that are looking for us,” Jessie says, lifting up her phone and showing a string of messages from someone named Veronica asking where she’s disappeared.
“I’m not ready to go back,” I admit. “I’m having too much fun with you.”
“Do you have something specific in mind?” A note of suggestion in her voice confirms that the kiss wasn't all one-sided on my part.
“It’s your turn to bet me to do something.”
Over the next couple of hours, the bets go back and forth between us. Ranging from Jessie betting me to convince the Elvis impersonator to take a prom pose style picture with me, to which I must say it was easier to convince him than I was expecting—to me betting Jessie to convince a four-top table of people sitting outside the gelato shop that her name was Mitzie and she went to sleep away camp with one of them.
“Oh, of course, Mitzie,” one of the women says, her face lighting up. “It’s been so long, I barely recognize you.”
Without breaking character, Jessie continues the charade. "Well, last time you saw me, I had just broken my nose after a rogue oar on the canoe trip. So much blood."
The woman nods and looks at the man next to her. “There really was a lot.”
I'm not sure if the woman actually believes this or if she, too, is trying to play along so as not to hurt Mitzie's feelings.
“Mitzie, sweetheart,” I say, walking over and wrapping my arm around her waist. “I know you’re catching up, but we really have to head out if we’re going to get to the show on time.”
Jessie won this round. There's no sense in having her prolong it. Besides, I wanted a reason to hold her in my arms again.
“Babe, you are way too eager to check out Madame Tulane’s Wax Museum.”
“Don’t you mean Madame Tussauds?” One of the people asks.
“No, that’s the classy museum where they actually have clothes on the wax statues,” Jessie says. “But this big perv—” She pokes my side playfully. “Has been bugging me to go see the naked statues with him since we got off the plane.”
Well played, Jessie.
"She's kidding," I chuckle and start to pull her away from the stunned stares of everyone at the table. When we’re far enough away, I whisper into her ear. “I’m going to make you pay for that.”
