Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 80052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Blaze the bartender?” Cole asks in a droll tone. Those three words hold a whole lot of meaning.
I laugh with heavy sarcasm. “Ha ha ha. Yes. Blaze the bartender. We can’t all be assistant directors like you.”
I reach out as if to straighten his name tag for maximum teasing effect, but then I think better of it. We shouldn’t touch. My fingers curl into themselves, and then I drop my hand back by my side.
He clucks his tongue and then tucks his hands into his suit-pants pockets. “Well, I hope that works out for you.”
“It will,” I say with absolute certainty.
“You should probably get back onstage.” He nods his chin toward the front of the room. “Your adoring fans are waiting.”
“Right, but you have to leave. You’re not allowed to watch me make a mockery of myself.”
His tilted head and the knowing glint in his eyes say, Paige, I’ve seen you make a mockery of yourself a million times over.
And it’s true, he has.
Cole has seen the very worst of me.
Chapter Five
PAIGE
Six months ago, on a random Saturday night, I got really drunk at the Conch Bar. To my credit, it was ladies’ night, and the bar was running a Jell-O shot promotion: two for the price of one. As someone who enjoys a good bargain and the taste of sugary alcohol, I simply could not turn down the opportunity life had presented me. Unfortunately, prior to this, the night was already headed south. There was a big group of us out on the town, all girls from the resort. We started with dinner that included copious amounts of wine. After that, we decided to go out and let our hair down, dancing, sharing stories of past sexcapades, and generally just acting like fools. The Conch Bar was our last stop of the night, and that first Jell-O shot was the beginning of the end for me. I was having so much fun until I wasn’t.
I remember the tipping point. I was standing on the dance floor thinking, They should really turn the strobe lights off in here.
Of course there were no strobe lights.
Then the next thing I remembered, we were back at the resort, and I was being dragged down the pebble path through the dense forest that leads from a private circular drive down to staff housing near the beach. It was Camila and Lara who were lugging me down the path, but they were drunk, too, and we kept falling over and laughing. Everything was funny. The shapes of the trees. The color of the moon. The fact that my dress was riding up around my hips.
“My panties are showing! This is so bad!”
This was accompanied by peals of laughter. I couldn’t stop if I tried.
I was lying on the ground, staring up, fully convinced that it would be fine if I just stayed there all night, asleep under the stars, right when a face suddenly cut into my view of the night sky.
Condescending frown, thick dark eyebrows furrowed in disapproval, full lips tugged into a flat line.
“COLE!”
My first gut instinct was sheer excitement that he was here. My archnemesis! My favorite person!
Then reality set in, and I repeated his name, this time with as much disdain as I could muster.
“Cole.” Lying on the ground—in no position to argue—I shook my head. “Nope. No. Someone else. Anyone. In fact, just leave me here and let the wild animals have me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut like I was prepared to meet my demise. “Make it quick.”
“What’s wrong with her?” he asked my friends.
His tone wasn’t chock full of concern like it might have been if he were a normal human with normal emotions.
Those assholes ratted me out in a heartbeat. “She’s drunk.”
“Can you two get back on your own?”
“Yeah, and we can get Paige back, too, if you help her stand up.”
“It’s fine, I’ve got it from here.”
Lara and Camila didn’t even put up a fight. They willingly left me there with Cole, which meant it was just him and me, alone on that dark path. We could have it out for real, finally. Guns drawn. Knives out.
I expected no mercy from him.
Instead, he heaved a deeply annoyed sigh and then bent down so we were more on the same level.
“You have to get up.”
“Do I?”
Most likely realizing that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with me, he took matters into his own hands, hooking his forearms underneath my armpits and lugging me to my feet. “Up and at ’em, champ.”
I groaned as my world spun around and around. Vertigo on its max setting.
“Get me off this Tilt-A-Whirl,” I complained with an audible gag.
He looped one arm around my back, under my armpit so he could take most of my weight.
“Can you walk?”
I didn’t answer.
“If not, I’m going to carry you.”