"Now, Ms. Bennet, I intend to get you drunk."
I laughed, and snuggled in closer to him. "Are you sure you want to? You have no idea what kind of drunk I might be. And besides," I said, poking his arm. "As a physician, shouldn't you be advocating for moderation?"
"Moderation in most things, yes," he said and poured two shots. "But in love and when it comes to vodka, there's a time for indulgence."
Then Drake proceeded to get me drunk, as we did shot after shot of vodka. Luckily, I had eaten and so the alcohol was slower to affect me than if I had been drinking on an empty stomach, but I felt it.
"I'm not much of a drinker," I said after the third shot. "I can't do anything more or I'll throw up. How romantic would that be?"
He laughed and put the bottle of vodka down. "OK, OK," he said, his voice betraying reluctance. "I'll let you off the hook for now. I really need to relax and forget everything for a while. Doing a scene requires my total concentration and I have to be sober. I feel like getting drunk tonight. I hope you don't mind too much."
"Whatever you need or want, Drake." I laid my head on his chest, his arm around me, pulling me against him as we sat on the couch.
In the end, he didn't get too drunk, at least that I could see. He wasn't a huge man. At six feet tall and a medium build, he could drink a lot more than I could, but he didn't strike me as a hard drinker.
The alcohol did make him slur his words a bit. He had a karaoke app on his phone and got up in front of the fireplace and sang along with an old song that played on the sound system – "House of the Rising Sun" it was called. I felt tipsy enough that I laughed and clapped for him. He played the whole song out, acting the lines, his face overly dramatic.
When it was my turn to sing, I tried to refuse, claiming I had a terrible singing voice.
"No, no, no," he said, taking hold of my arms and pulling me up. "You have to sing something. What's your favorite oldie?"
I tried to wrestle out of his arms, but he grabbed me from behind and wrapped his arms around me, laughing.
"No escape, Ms. Bennet. You must sing or I'll have to go all Dom on you."
"All Dom," I said, giggling when he tickled me. "Oh, all right!" I said, giving in. I had only sung karaoke a few times with my friends from college. "How about something by ABBA?"
"ABBA?" he said, making a face of mock disgust. "The 1970s? Sacrilege…"
Then he searched through the songs on his karaoke app and found 'Take A Chance On Me."
"Here," he said, handing the phone to me. "This is perfect."
"Oh, God," I said, standing in front of him while he took a turn sitting on the couch, acting as my audience.
He sat back, his arms on the back of the couch, and nodded. "Sing."
I sang the song, enjoying it after the first verse. I had enough vodka in me to relax and let go and started to dance to the music while I sang, remembering videos I'd seen of the band in all their 70s disco glory. He wolf-whistled and clapped when I was done and I was so pumped and enjoying myself, I sang the next song on the ABBA karaoke playlist. "Fernando."
After Drake took one more turn singing, Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf, we collapsed onto the couch and listened to some 60s music on one of Drake's playlists. I was feeling quite tipsy by that point, a little giddy, and relaxed enough that I didn't really care what happened.
Drake had kept up the shots of vodka for himself, and soon, he was so drunk, he fell asleep on the couch, his head back, his mouth open. I shook his shoulder and he blinked awake.
"Maybe you should have some coffee," I said. He shook his head.
"Water," he mumbled, getting up from the couch, pulling me along with him. "And aspirin."
We went to the kitchen where he fumbled in the cupboard for a glass and then almost dropped it in the sink. I took over, pushing him gently out of the way.
"Let me do this," I said and poured a glass for him from the Brita he had in the fridge. He drank the water down while I watched.
"Nurse Bennet, are you taking care of me?" he said, an amused expression on his face.
"You're lucky it's not Nurse Ratched."
He laughed out loud at that and when he was done, he put the glass down and pulled me into his arms.
"Let's go to bed," he said. "I'm not up to much good so I hope you're OK with us just sleeping."
I squeezed him tightly. "Whatever you want, Drake."
He took my hand and led me to the bathroom, where we both stood side by side and brushed our teeth.
I turned to him, helping him undo his shirt buttons.
"I'm sorry if you're disappointed that we didn't do our scene," he said, his voice low, his eyes on my face while I undressed him.