Page 47 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“I’m kinda growing fond of these Parisian greetings,” he said, looking at Cecile.
“I see you’ve come bearing gifts,” she replied, eyeing the tequila bottle with a small smile.
“Yeah, I thought we could pregame before leaving for the party. We don’t want to be dry when we get there.” He threw an equally flirty and mischievous smile at Cecile.
“Wet is always better than dry,” Cecile said with a raised brow.Cecile! That’s what I meant when I said she didn’t have a filter. But Tobias didn’t seem to mind.
He laughed and high-fived Cecile with a grin. “My kind of girl.”
Anyway…
“How do you want to drink this?” I asked Tobias, taking the bottle away from his hands.
“Shots?” he proposed.
“Um, sure.” I widened my eyes with terror.
“Oh, come on!” Tobias gave me a side hug. “We’ll take care of you, Billie. I told you. The three of you.” He laughed as I walked hastily toward the kitchen to fetch the shot glasses. “Let’s have some fun!”
“You’ve never done a tequila shot before?” Nathan asked behind me. He startled me. I didn’t realize he’d followed me to the kitchen. “You don’t have to drink if you don’t want to.”
It was kind of Nathan to feel like protecting me from Tobias’s peer pressure, but Ididwant to drink that tequila. I needed it. I was just afraid of Tobias’s suggested presentation: shots.
“Well, I tried a few of those—aquavit thingies on Midsummer,” I said, waving a limp hand while I searched for shot glasses through the upper cabinets. “But that’s it. I’ve never had tequila before. I’m curious, though.”
I turned around to face him, and he was leaning against the fridge with bunched-up brows.
“You do live here, right?” He teased. “You don’t seem to know your way around the kitchen.”
“Very funny.” I smiled. “I almost burned my apartment into ashes a few months ago, so I try to stay as far away from the kitchen as possible.”
“Were there actual flames?” He laughed.
It wasn’t funny, but I couldn’t help but laugh too. “Well, the flames didn’t make it out of the oven, but yeah, there was mostly thick smoke everywhere,” I replied, browsing around the cupboards.
Surprisingly, I finally found the shot glasses and placed them on the counter. I didn’t think there would be any. Nathan grabbed four of them, and I took the other two.
“So, how did you put the fire out?” Nathan asked with genuine concern on his face as we walked back to the living room.
“I didn’t. He did”—I jerked my chin at Tobias—“I passed out from the smoke inhalation and probably embarrassment, too.” I chuckled. He didn’t. But he did frown again.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said in a hushed voice. I was about to reply when Tobias complained about how we took too long to come back.
“Sorry, I couldn’t find these things.” Nathan and I placed the glasses on the coffee table. Tobias immediately grabbed the tequila bottle and opened it.
“Ilovetequila,” Sophie said to Tobias, trying to get his attention.
“Then you’rereallygoing to dig this one.” He messily poured the tequila into the glass shots. “Billie, do you have any lime and salt? It’s kind of important.” He grinned.
“I do, actually. I’ll be right back.” I sliced a few limes, placed them in a small bowl, and brought another plate with salt.
The lame part of me was scared of drinking tequila because I had never tried it before. But the angry and bitter part encouraged me to drink it. I needed to forget about William, and the tequila smelled strong enough to perform such a task.
“Okay, let’s do this.” I extended my hand for him to give me one of the shots. Tobias explained how we had to lick the salt, drink the shot, and chew on the lemon. “Lick. Drink. Chew. Okay.”
Nathan laughed. “Exactly. Lick, drink, chew. It’s pretty straight-forward. I’ll be right next to you if you forget any of the steps.”
I lightly shoved his shoulder with a smile.Damn it.
