Page 87 of When Wrecked Meets Ruined
* * *
Evie fed me popcorn with her eyes glued to the screen where flesh-eating zombies were taking over the world. We’d stayed for the late show, and only a handful of people were in the movie theater.
“They can’t stay in that shopping mall forever,” I observed.
“That’s the trouble with ending up in a group. Everything gets too complicated.”
“I guess you would have just struck out on your own, huh? Fuck everyone else. It’s survival of the fittest.”
“Yep.” She side-eyed me. “Maybe I’d let you come with me.”
“You’d let me, huh? Pretty sure it would be the other way around. I’d have to fight off the flesh-eating zombies for you.”
“Ugh. Then I’d have to stitch up your wounds.”
“Quid pro quo.”
We debated what the people in the mall should do and argued about it until the movie ended.
When Evie and I emerged from the theater onto the streets of Austin, we strolled down Dirty Sixth and stopped outside a dive bar painted avocado green with a flashing red neon sign: Live Music & Cheap Drinks.
“Let’s hit up a bar,” I said. “Do you have an ID?”
She gave me a look that said,What do you think?
Then she thought about it for a minute and nodded.
The guy at the door barely looked at our IDs. He was too busy checking out Evie. Tonight she wore ripped black jeans with a silky black tank top trimmed with dark purple lace. The jeans were cropped, stopping a few inches short of her black ankle boots, and the chunky heels gave her an extra four inches in height.
I paid the cover charge, and we got our hands stamped. The room was long and narrow, crowded with college kids, and smelled like stale beer and sweat.
I ordered two beers on tap and handed one to Evie. She touched her glass to mine and downed half of it before she came up for air. My brows spiked.
“What? All that popcorn made me thirsty.”
She downed the rest in two seconds flat and slammed the glass on the bar, demanding another.
* * *
Evie was dancing to the music, mostly covers, grinding her ass against my erection with her arms snaked around the back of my neck.
“We need more shots,” she announced.
She stumbled up to the bar and ordered another round. Last time, she drank them both. Evie was on her fourth beer, and I was only on my second. Even though I was a lot bigger than her and had a hundred pounds on her, I was trying to be responsible. I still had to drive us home, and a DUI was not on my list of fun things to do tonight.
Neither was dealing with all the guys who looked at her like she was their next meal.
Evie was gorgeous. I’d always known that. But it was the first time I’d seen her out in the wild. Away from the school halls and our regular spots in Cypress Springs, she looked like a wild, exotic animal.
Now she was dancing again, her hips swiveling. A slow, sensuous dance just for me. A ghost of a smile played on her lips, and her eyes were hooded. I pulled her against me, feeling the constant need to touch her, and kissed her lips. She tasted like beer and tequila. She flung her arms around my neck and gave me a drunk smile. “Hey, Clyde.” She winked. “Would you be my ride or die?”
“In a heartbeat, baby.”
“Let’s jump in your truck and just keep driving. Let’s never come back.”
I slid my hands up her sides. “Where would we go?”
“To hell and back. Or we could just hang out at the mall.”
