“She’s busting a move on the dance floor with Matt and another hotty.” She’s slurring every other word. She’s gone way over her drinking limit. “Oh my God…this is the best pee I ever had, it’s almost orgasmic. It sorta feels like sex! Maybe I should drink more often if going to the bathroom is going to feel like this.”
“Don’t drink anything else, I’m coming to get you. If you’re talking about orgasmic peeing, then I have no doubt in my mind Ava is smashed the fuck out of her mind.”
“Yesssss! Nick, this is my motherfucking song! ‘Thrift Shop!’” she yells in my ear.
“God.” I grit my teeth and grab a pen and paper. “Cat, where the hell are you? Give me the address.”
“Whoop! Whoop! I’m in the motherfucking Bronx BK for life!”
“You’ve lost your fucking mind. Address, Cat, address! Focus!” She stops singing and yelling long enough to try to give me the name of the club, after a lot of mumbling and singing along with the song.
“All right, don’t drink anything else, do you hear me? And for God’s sake, stay with Ava.” I don’t know how much help she’s going to be, but two is better than one.
“No problem.”
I hang up and put my jeans on, throwing a hooded sweater over my head. I’m going to kill those two, and Ava first; in the Bronx, drunk out of their minds? What the hell!
I walk into a packed club—musicloud as hell, people everywhere, elbow to elbow. Adam Levine is singing, girls are on poles in nothing but floss between their asses and pasties, gyrating and swinging their hips in time to the music, bodies slamming against each other, hot and sweaty. The air is stale, drinks are flowing every which way, and God knows what else. I start pushing my way through the crowd to find Cat and Ava before they get into more trouble. A well-endowed in all the right places petite blonde stops me, throwing her arms around my neck.
“Where did you come from?” I hold her up with my arm around her waist.
“From outside.” She laughs, grazing her nails on the back of my neck. I smile, putting my hands on her arms and trying to pull them off as gently as possible.
“Your eyes are out of this world amazing.” She leans her head back to get a better look.
“So I’ve been told.”
“Can I come home with you?”
“Not tonight. You’re a couple of weeks too late for that to happen. I’m here to take someone else home.” She drops her arms and pats me on the chest.
“Oh, too bad. You don’t know what you’re missing.”
“I can imagine you’re able to do things with that body I’ve never seen before.”
“You got that right. Oh well, looks like all the sexy ones are taken tonight, maybe next time.” She gives me a once-over with her eyes and gives me a big smile. “Bye, sexy.”
“Bye.” She dances away, attaching herself to another guy who seems willing to participate with her. There won’t be a next time. I sure as hell won’t be coming back here and neither will Cat—she better not even think about it. I make my way to the back of the club, where I finally see Cat and Ava dancing on a table with a pole running through the middle. The two of them are swaying their hips to Carlos Santana’s “Maria Maria.” Ava jumps off the table and leaves Cat, where she and two other guys cheer her on.
She tosses her hair back, takes one hand, grabs on to the top of the pole, puts one bare foot in front of the other, and seductively walks around the pole in a slow circle while they watch. Simultaneously, she takes her other hand, and with her feet hooked around the pole she swings around like a pro before sliding down with her head thrown backand lips slightly parted. Where the hell did she learn to do that shit? She better not be moonlighting as a pole dancer. I stalk over to the table. When she sees me, she screams out my name with a high-pitched squeal from where she’s sitting on top of the table, legs dangling.
“Nick! You came! How did you get here?”
I walk up to her, ignoring the two lowlifes sitting at the table who look likeThe Sopranosrejects. She throws her hands up in the air and smiles, her hair tumbling over her shoulders and falling down her back.
“I’m so glad you were able to make it, did I wake you? I hope I didn’t. I missed you.”
I stand between her legs and put my hand on her cheek. “I missed you too, are you okay?”
“I feel wonderful. I’ve never felt this free in my entire life. I’m as light as a feather.”
“I can see.” I stroke her cheek with my thumb while she smiles up at me. “How many drinks did you have?”
“I’m not sure, I dun know. Ava and I… Ava and I were doing taqwilla bots. Bots, did I say bots? I meant bots.”
I shake my head at her and try to keep her focused. “How many bots did you do?”
“I dun know?” She looks at Ava, who’s now slumped over in a chair next to one of the slicked back-haired rejects. “Ava!”