Page 57 of Awestruck at Dusk
“No,” he replied, his negative like a brick wall.
“Am I low on my midi-chlorian count?”
“Never.” He laughed. “I would only agree to pour more wine in your glass if I were in charge of taking care of you.”
“You always take care of me.”Flag!Someone shut me up.
“In that, we can agree. But,” he said, walking toward the kitchen staff. He asked for two shot glasses and the bottle of wine, which were handed to him mere seconds later, and came back. He placed everything on the stainless-steel table in front of us. “How about if we do a shot of wine and you close shop for the night.”
“A shot of—wine?”
“I’m not giving you any hard liquor after all the wine you’ve already pushed down your throat. I saw you taking a tequila shot earlier with Nolan too. I don’t know how you’re still standing.”
I honestly didn’t know either. But I was reaching my limit. And I hadn’t noticed at all that William watched me while I talked to Nolan. About him.
“Ah, right. The mixing thingie,” I said, waving a haphazard hand at nothing. “But you shouldn’t be drinking.”
He raised a brow. “You shouldn’t either. So,” he said, pouring the wine into the shots, “you either drink thiswithme, or you walk out of here empty-handed.”
“I can ask for another glass of wine outside, you know.”
“You can. But once you take a step back into that party, wine’s gonna be the last thing on your mind. So last chance. Yes or no.”
What the hell does that mean? I had no time or mind to figure that out.
“Pour it.”
William smiled an annoyingly triumphant smile and poured the shots.
“Here you go.”
I grabbed my shot and said, “Thank you for—you know.”
“I don’t know. Be specific,” he said, holding his shot glass in front of me.
“For cheering me up. For helping out with the party. For the paella and Nemorino’s wine—everything.”
“Well, I was bored and had a clear schedule.” He teased. He shot a smile at me that almost made me fall to my knees. But I smiled a stupid smile back instead and cleared my throat. “We’ll talk about the paella some other time because wereallyneed to get back. But just tell me how much you loved it.”
“Best I ever had. The socarrat had me begging for more,” I said with a laugh, just to tease him, remembering how he promised that would be my reaction after trying it.
“Ha-ha,” he countered.
“It’s true!”
“Focus. A toast?” he mused, bringing his shot closer to mine.
“I thought we were in a hurry.”
“We are, so you better think of something quick.” He lifted his brows and jerked his chin at my shot glass.
I brought it closer to his and said, “May our worst nights be like this one.”
“Damn it, Guille.” William shook his head slowly with one of his smirks, bumped his glass against mine and said, “Skål.”
“Skål.”
We emptied our shots, and William’s phone buzzed again. He took the phone out and read the screen. “Shit. We need to start moving,” he said, placing his phone back into his pocket. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen.Whoa.
