Page 8 of Wolf
I laugh. “You live twenty blocks away, lady. Swing by the club and tell himyourself.”
“Hell no,” she shouts. “Luke will have a fit. And Jeff will probably try to squeeze me into one of those outfits and shove me on stageagain.”
“You’re not wrong,” I agree. “But shut up about squeezing your size two scrawny behind into anything. Have you seen myass?”
She laughs hard then huffs out a long, frustrated breath. “Wait until you see this baby bump. Nothing fits meanymore.”
I haven’t seen Trish for a few weeks, so I have to try to imagine what a slender gazelle would look like with a little tummy. I’m sure she’s exaggerating. “Luke must be soexcited.”
“He is. I just wish he’d calm down with all the sex. I swear he won’t leave me alone. He’ll be at it all night long if I don’t tell him the baby and I need our beauty sleep. Then he wakes up and starts all overagain.”
“And there it is,” Igroan.
“What?”
“TMI, girl. Way, way TMI. Tone that shit down a notch. Single people like me don’t want to be reminded that everyone except me is having sex. Tell it to your marriedfriends.”
“Shit, sorry Rose,” she tells me in a less than empathetictone.
“No, you’re not,” I teaseher.
“You know, you can take care of that little problem anytime you want to,” she sayssuggestively.
Trish knows that I’m not dating, but it’s by choice. She believes that I’m just way too picky. Maybe I am, but that’s not the reason I’ve kept myself out of the meat market. I don’t want anyone to get too close. I don’t want to be forced to startover.
“Maybe so, but that doesn’t change the fact that whatever happens between you and Luke in the bedroom needs to stay the hell out of my ears. I don’t need the visual,” I add, laughing alittle.
Grams calls me from the bottom of the stairs to come down for dinner. Grateful for the well-timed interruptions, I tell Trish I’ll call her tomorrow and mentally wipe the image of her and Luke from mybrain.
* * *
When Tuesday rolls around, I let Trish and Luke drag me to a new sports bar for drinks after dinner. This is so not my scene. Crowds put me on edge, and new places make me weary, so it’s zero for two already. We’re seated near a window, bringing it to zero for three, because now I feel even more exposed. At least the music is decent. The waiter who takes our drink order is nice to look at too. And he’s back with our orders in record time. Big servings of booze, beer and cocktails in flashy, oversized glasses and stemware.Impressive.
I look around as we catch up on gossip and other updates, relaxing into the ambiance and letting the alcohol loosen meup.
Luke lets go of Trish’s shoulder and leans forward. “You have a few admirers,” he informs me with a mischievous twinkle in hiseyes.
“I’ll pass,” I saydismissively.
He runs a relaxed hand through his neatly combed sandy brown hair and raises his thick eyebrows. “Without even checking themout?”
“Trust me, I already have,” I giggle. “Pass on all of them. Pass, pass, pass, andpass.”
From a young age, I’ve taught myself to be attuned to my surroundings. Trish always used to say I have eyes at the back of my head. Luke says I was a trained spy in a former life. But it’s about staying alert and observing without being tooobvious.
“Pass on who exactly?” Luke tests me, but he should knowbetter.
I take a long sip of my custom drink. It’s a sex on the beach with pineapple and kiwi wedges on one side of the rim of my massive glass. It tastes so good that I hear myself moan without meaning to after each sip. If they keep up the serving sizes after their grand opening launch period, they just might convert me into aregular.
Leaning back in my seat, I smooth out the skirt of my black knee-length dress and prepare to answer Luke’s challenge, going from memory of what I’ve already seen. “Let’s see. The guy in the red shirt is too uptight. Black blazer sitting two tables away is a player. Navy and white striped polo shirt by the bar is faking it till he makes it. The two over there with matching black muscle shirts like to share one woman, and… who else?” I look around again. “Right. Dude with the cowboy hat and office boy drinking scotch are both regulars at the Speak-Easy, so that’s an automatic no. White shirt with the military haircut is a cheater. He took off his wedding ring while he was walking toward the girl he’s now sitting next to at the bar.” I can’t hold in my laughter when I see one more. “Oh, and stud muffin with all the ink down his arm, it’ll take me all night to tell you why he’s all wrong. It’d be like the way we’re wired to slow down to witness a carcrash.”
Trish and Luke can’t stop laughingeither.
“How do you do that so fast?” Luke asks after a minute. “Dismiss all the potentially eligible single men in a room before they say a word toyou?”
“Oh, they talk to her,” Trish tells him with a gleam in her eye. “Just not with theirmouths.”
“Why do you have to make it sound so dirty?” I whine. “I prefer to call it listening with myeyes.”
