Page 39 of Once Upon A Player
Violet
Monica gives me herdie, bitch,smile before she swirls about, takes Geoff’s hand, and disappears back to their table.
Kill me now.
My face is burning, and I don’t need a mirror to know how terrible I look, especially compared to Monica’s classic blonde beauty.
So much for mentally patting myself on the back for letting Geoff know what I think of him—or, rather, that Idon’tthink about him anymore. I should’ve known Monica wouldn’t take that lying down.
I can’t look at Lucas, so grab the champagne bottle and pour myself another glass. My hand shakes, and a few drops splash onto the tablecloth. God, how much have I drunk?
Since I can’t remember, I slug down half the glass instead, and a happy buzz vibrates through my mind, temporarily dulling theexcruciatinghumiliation pulverizing my entire existence.
My teenage crush.That’s so low, even for Monica. Hiding under the table is looking better by the second.
“Hey, Violet.” Lucas lifts my chin with one finger, and my reflexes are so shot to hell I don’t even pull back so I can keep staring at the tablecloth. At least he’s not laughing at me. Not that he would. But he might want to laughinside. “Are you okay?”
There’s a soft note in his voice, and all I want to do is drown in his beautiful blue eyes and pretend the last ten minutes never happened. Except they did, and even if he’s too kind to throw theteenage crushcomment in my face, it’s going to haunt me every moment we’re together.
“Yes, I’m…” I clear my throat and start again. “I’m fine.” My mouth is so dry it’s like I haven’t drunk anything for a week. I take another quick sip of champagne, and that happy buzz surfaces again. If Lucas can ignore Monica’s bitchy remark, then so can I.
It’s not going to spoil tonight.I finish my glass for Dutch courage because suppose all he sees when he looks at me now is a giggly teenage groupie?
A waiter appears by our table with a bottle of water and two glasses and I watch, faintly bemused, as Lucas places one glass by my plate, before drinking his own water like it’s nectar from the gods.
Stuff that. If I have any hope of making it out of here with my dignity intact I need all the alcoholic help I can get.
Where’s the bloody champagne bottle gone?
Lucas leans over the table and my stomach tumbles and all my nerves go on red alert.Please don’t ask me about the posters.
“Now I’m back in training, I have to watch how much I drink. The boss would fry my nuts if I got pissed tonight.”
I blink, but his face is still a little fuzzy. There must be some kind of filter on the lights. And of course! He’s been given the all clear. Relief washes through me that he’s obviously far more interested in talking about that, than the revelation I used to worship him from afar.
“Well, that would be adisaster.”
“Yeah, I’m quite attached to them.”
This strikes me as insanely funny, and I laugh. Then something occurs to me. “If they’d told you a couple of days earlier, you could’ve gone on tour. What a bummer.”
“But then I wouldn’t be here with you.”
He says the best things. I’m melting inside and have the overwhelming desire to crawl onto his lap and rest my head against his shoulder. From a million light years away, common sense tries to raise its head.He’s a born charmer, Vi.
I know that. But I still love the way his flirting makes me glow inside.
And outside, remember?
This time I manage not to laugh again.
After we order dessert, I need to excuse myself. “I won’t be a minute,” I tell him, as I carefully lay my napkin on the table, and wish I’d worn more comfortable shoes. I’ll die if I wobble on the heels and twist my ankle.
I glide between the tables and reach the bathroom without any heel catastrophe. The bathroom is all bright and glittery with way too many mirrors, but it does have a circular velvet sofa in the middle of the room, which is very film-starry.
When I emerge from the loo, my cocoon of warm smexiness shatters at the sight of Monica washing her hands. Our gazes clash in the mirror. For a second, I’m tempted to go to the wash basin on the other side of the luxurious room.
Sod that. I stalk over and stand next to her, which she clearly didn’t expect, and because I’m going to have the most fantastic sex of mylifewith Lucas tonight, I rake a disdainful glance over her, from her designer shoes to her salon-perfect hair. Yeah, it’s a little hard to be disdainful when someone looks so well put together, but I give it my best shot.
