Page 17 of Where There's A Will
The bar was around half full already, and I guessed the people there were waiting to take part. Bree caught me looking.
“Checking out who you want to date?” She giggled.
“Maybe,” I said, trying to keep it vague. I knew if I singled anyone out, she’d have me getting their number like a shot.
Bree herself was dressed up and looked amazing. As always, she had on skin-tight jeans and an off-the-shoulder top, showing off her tanned skin. Her blond hair was wound up in some elaborate twisty-braid thing, with a few tendrils falling loose around her face. If I tried anything like that, I always looked as if I’d put my fingers in a socket. Her eye make-up was smoky and dark, lips slicked with a rose-pink gloss, innocent yet promising so much more. If she wasn’t my best friend, I’d hate her. I wished I’d made more of an effort as I felt somewhat dowdy sitting beside her in my straight-from-work black pencil skirt and burgundy blouse. My own make-up looked tired from being applied first thing, I hadn’t yet bothered to touch it up, and my hair was an end-of-day mess. Still, I didn’t necessarily expect to find anyone tonight. Not after Will. I wanted to give him a chance.
“What about him over there?” She pointed in the direction of a dark-haired guy, built like a bodybuilder.
I shuddered at the thought of his muscles. Not my type at all. While it was clear Will worked out, he was more toned and sculpted, exactly the way I liked it. I drifted off again, like I had already on several occasions, zoning out and thinking of last night. I hoped there would be the opportunity for a rerun. Somehow, I had to engineer seeing him again.
Bree elbowed me in the ribs. “Seriously, Montana, where are you? I swear, if I didn’t know you weren’t with Hugo anymore, I would think you were in love. Come on, girl, there are dates to be had.”
This was the Olympics of dating.
This was no muss, no fuss, get-the-bullshit-out-of-the-way-you’re-diving-into-the-ocean-with-no-life-preserver dating.
I wasn’t sure I was ready for it.
My gaze strayed to the sign pointing upstairs where the event was going to be held. I couldn’t even do a runner from there without being seen. Not that Bree would let me go anyway.
“Shots,” I said, turning to Bree. I needed something to take the edge off. Something to help me make small talk with guys I had no interest in, before heading home and maybe knocking on my neighbour’s apartment door. That thought spurred me into action before Bree could argue with me.
Purposefully, I walked up to the bar to order.
“I’d like two shots, please,” I began, placing my hands on the bar top.
“Goldschlager?” a familiar voice beside me murmured.
I spun ninety degrees and found Will standing right beside me. Excitement bubbled up in my chest. Followed by a sense of shame. Not twenty-four hours ago we’d slept together and now, here I was, about to go speed dating. Then my eyes narrowed. Maybe Will was here to do exactly the same thing. Perhaps he wasn’t that into me after all.
“Hey,” I grumbled, my hands clenching into fists.
“This wasn’t my idea. My mate, Roman.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at the guy, who looked confident, and seemingly liked what he saw as he glanced in Bree’s direction. Will leaned in closer to me. “I was meant to meet him last night for drinks when I ended up staying with you.”
“Well, I’m sorry I was such a disappointment that you felt you had to come here this evening.” I sniffed, trying to take the higher ground.
Will’s hand covered mine and instantly I felt it in my core. Everything we’d done last night came back to me with an intensity that made me quiver. How the hell was I going to get through the evening now?
“If it’s any consolation, the thought of you going home with another guy brings out the green-eyed monster in me,” he whispered. “Maybe we should go home together so they can think their little event was a success.”
I grinned and was ready to agree with him when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a familiar face enter the bar.
Not ten feet away from us was Hugo.
He looked toward the bar and I turned my head, hoping he didn’t see me. Bree bounded up to us and I pulled my hand away from Will, presenting him with my back. I couldn’t risk her talking to him now. As I did so, I spotted Hugo file upstairs with the rest of the people taking part in the speed-dating event.
Shit.
Bree pulled me up the stairs, and all the way, I felt a pair of eyes burning into my back. It didn’t take a genius to work out it was Will. I felt slightly sick as the organisers started explaining how it was all going to unfold. The exit was close and it wouldn’t take much for me to slip out, although I wouldn’t go unnoticed. I was stuck.
“What’s he doing here?” Bree hissed in my ear, and surreptitiously pointing in Hugo’s direction.
As if he knew we were talking about him, Hugo looked dead in our direction. Bree fluttered her fingers at him. He and I made eye contact, and I dropped my gaze. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the hostess he cheated on me with. Was he so shallow he had already moved on?
“Don’t leave me,” I whispered to Bree. “I can’t do this.”
She fixed me with a glare. “Don’t be silly, it will be fun. And I knowhe’shere, but I know you can rise above it. He moved on; so can you.”
