Needing Me, Wanting You(52)
I like this girl. Just met her yesterday and I'm already interested. Like Austin was in Amy.
“I ain't ready to fall in love,” I groan as I push into the hallway and pause, my gaze following the blue sign on the wall to the pool. Normally, I'd venture down there, check and see if there might be any ladies lookin' for some company. Tonight, I got Tease, and I feel good about that. Even if she is asleep. Huh. I shake my head and turn in the opposite direction, pausing as one of the doors on my left opens and Kimmi emerges. She's dressed in a pair of black leggings and a purple tank that displays her black bra with ease. “I like the yellow heels,” I tell her as she hooks her arm around mine. “Those new?”
“I got them off a chick I banged last week.” I laugh. Unapologetic, crude, just as pervy as me. That's my Kimmi. “She left them¸ so I decided to keep them. As a souvenir, of course.”
“You going to be able to give all that up when you fall head over heels for Christy?” Kimmi snorts and shakes her head, orange hair flying every which way.
“Like that's ever going to happen. I so much as speak to the girl and she spooks. This could be a very long process.”
“But you're committed?” I ask as we move down the hallway. “I mean, you really do think you and this chick have a magic spark?” Kimmi pats my hand and grins wide, twirling her free hand around in the pearls she's got draped around her neck.
“Funny you'd be asking me that. What about the Seventy-seven Brothers bitch? You seem pretty into what she's selling.” We hit the lobby, and I find myself surrounded by some sort of fancy party. A weddin' maybe? It's somehow migrated from the ballroom, into the lobby, and now over to the bar. There are bridesmaids fucking everywhere, and I'm hardly tempted. You know that whole phrase, why go out for burgers when you got steak at home? Fuck, these bitches are like McDonald's and Tease is a Goddamn filet.
“I like her, Kimmi. She's hot shit in the bedroom, and her soul is old, like she's lived a hundred lives before this one.”
“Do you feel her though? Do you get that sense of other when you're around her? Don't think too hard about this. It shouldn't be a difficult question.”
“I met her yesterday, Reynolds,” I say, taking my place at the bar and ordering a whiskey sour. Kimmi orders a stout beer and we sit in silence for a minute.
“Yes, but you already feel something, don't you? There are only two ways fires can burn, Beck. One's a slow burn, a coal, an ember, that you have to feed until it grows into a raging flame. The other's an explosion. Did you have an explosion, Beck? Because since I met you, I've never seen you get that face.”
“What face?” I ask, slapping a wad of cash on the bar and grabbing my drink. I toss out the cherry and the fuckin' lemon wedge and drink it down like a shot. Kimmi leans back and gives me her best no bullshit look.
“Like you want to own her,” she says with a smirk. “Like you see something in her you've never seen in anyone else.” I laugh my ass off at that one, slapping my hand on the bar and drawing curious eyes in our direction.
“Kim, would you listen to the crap that's spewing out of your throat? I don't even know how you get laid with that romance novel bull. I like the girl, and I'm interested, and sure, I'm curious. I wonder what might happen if we had more time together.”
“Ah. The Monday thing makes sense now,” she says with a slight smile. “But I don't know that Tease's brother is going to go for it.”
“What is he going to do, tell us no? If he wants his sister back, he'll wait. I have to follow this thing through or I don't know, I'll always have that question in the back of my mind.” I gesture loosely at the air around us, like that could explain how fucking weird I'm being right now. “When I imagine her walkin' away from me, I … don't know. Never fucking mind.”
“Hey,” Gaine says, swinging onto the stool next to me. Mireya takes up the one on his right and leans her elbows on the counter. “Did I just hear what I thought I heard? And you're always making fun of me for talkin' fairytales?” I lean over the bar and give him a look.
“Ain't nobody heard nothin',” I say to him, daring him to question that shit.
“I fell in love over years, and I'm the overly romantic one?” Gaine asks, shaking his head and ordering a beer for him and Mireya. I don't even look over at her ass. I think the bitch is smirking at me.
“You better be talking about Austin and his little Miss Amy. Nobody said nothin' about love.” I steal Gaine's drink when it comes to him and order another. “So fuck off, and shut your damn mouth.”