Page 3 of Half-Hearted
“Why’d’y stop?” she slurred, pouting her red, pillowy lips.
Fuck.Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.
There was a really,reallysolid chance Ethan was going to carve out my tongue, shove it into a meat grinder, and churn it in front of me. Slowly.
That’s what he’d threatened to do to Isaac when the unsuspecting fool had decided to make a comment about his sister’s “fantasticrack” and ask if she was single.
And Isaac hadn’t even touched her.
I, on the other hand, had wasted no time. None. I’d been given a sliver of an opportunity and almost devoured her whole on the spot.While she was drunk.
“Alexis.” My voice cracked like I’d regressed fourteen years.
She smiled up at me slowly, cheeks pink, eyes heavy. “That’s my name.”
Adorable.
I was still holding her at a stiff arm’s length, my idiot mouth hanging open as I tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to do next.
“Hey,” I said stupidly, needing to buy my brain some time. “You’re—uh, here.”
“I’mmere,” she agreed, continuing to flash that lazy, seductive smile of hers. “What’re you gonna do with me?”
Okay, nope.
Nope nope nope nope nope.
She was beyond wasted.
And I was good as dead.
“Let’s…”
What? Call her a cab? I couldn’t let her get into a cab like this, especially at this hour.
Get her inside? That seemed like an even worse idea right now.
Drive her home?
…
Yes, that’s it. Drive her home.
“Okay, Lex. Let me just grab my keys so I can drive you h-ome.”
The second I let my hands fall from her shoulders, Alexis slipped into my apartment and shut the door behind her. With me on the outside.
“Uh…” I looked around, dumbfounded. I couldn’t even remember having stepped out into the hall.
Then I considered just leaving. She would be safe in there, probably pass out in a few min—
“Joel?” Alexis called from inside the apartment. I had to bite my cheeks to stop the huffed laugh from escaping. She was so drunk.
“Joooel,” she called again, and I could hear her scuffling around behind the door. “Where’d’y go?”
I failed to hold back the laugh this time, and not a single person on the planet could blame me.
I knocked.
