Worth the Chance(41)

“Hi.”

“You look beautiful,” he says, his voice low and sultry. He gazes slowly up and down my body approvingly, making no attempt to conceal his appetite. Oddly, it’s one of the things that I find so attractive about him. He’s confident, real, no beating around the bush. Pure, unfiltered honesty.

“Thank you.” Taking a compliment in stride has never been something I was comfortable with, but Vinny makes it easy…because I believe he means it.

“So who’s having dirty monkey sex?” He grins and I feel my face heat with embarrassment.

“It was just a made up story. A game Ally and I like to play.”

Motioning for the bartender, Vinny orders a beer for himself and gestures in the direction of Ally, “And two of whatever she’s drinking.”

“Ummm…I wasn’t drinking.” I hold up my water. “Water. I’m being the responsible one tonight. Someone has to carry Ally home.”

“I’ll carry you both home. Have fun. I’m not taking my eyes off the two of you in here anyway.” Surveying the room, he takes the water from my hand and places it on the bar, replacing it with the drink the bartender delivered.

Grinning, I sip the drink, “Okay, but you don’t know what you’re in for. Ally is crazy when she drinks too much and I’m a lightweight.”

Taking a pull from his beer, Vinny redirects the conversation to a place he’s not going to let me off easily from. “So. Monkey sex?”

“Not going to let go of that one, are you?”

“Nope.” His devilish grin and boyish dimples combine for a face that’s simply irresistible.

Sighing dramatically, I gulp a heaping sip of liquid courage from my glass before delving into the game Ally and I have played since we were kids. It all started at a party we were bored at in high school, but our game has morphed into something more creative over the years. “Bar Forensics.”

“Bar Forensics?” Apparently, Vinny’s not heard of our wonderful game.

“One of us picks a couple and the other has to make up their background…a story about the history between the two.”

“Who had monkey sex?”

Sheepishly, I point to the couple sitting on the other side of the room, still looking terribly uncomfortable.

“They didn’t have monkey sex, Babe.”

“How do you know?”

Raising an eyebrow as if to say “duh…” he takes a swig of beer and turns to canvas the room.

“Tall skinny guy in the black sport coat talking to the brunette wearing...,” he falters, looking for a word, “not much.” Vinny moves to stand next to me. Our backs to the bar, both of us lean casually with elbows supporting our weight. I guzzle from my glass and waste no time in developing my story.

“Brendon.” I turn my head to look directly at Vinny, a mask of seriousness readily in place. “That’s his name.”

Vinny’s eyebrows arch and he smirks, amused, waiting for more.

“Is a computer programmer,” I continue. “He was with his ex, Julie, for six and a half years. Being a computer programmer, he spends a lot of time on his laptop. Julie was feeling frisky one night…”

Vinny interrupts me, “Frisky?”

“Yes, frisky. There’s no interrupting during a forensic recreation, Mr. Stone.” I smile, arching one eyebrow, silently daring him to challenge me.

Playfully, Vinny puts his hands up feigning surrender and motions for me to continue.

“So anyway, Julie was feeling frisky one night and went looking for Brendon in his home office. Not expecting anyone, the door was cracked open, giving Julie a front row seat to his show. She caught him red-handed, getting himself off as he video chatted with a woman he had been secretly chatting with online for almost a year.”

I pause and drain more from my glass. Damn this thing tastes good, it’s so easy to forget how potent it really is until you feel your head begin to become weightless.

“And the woman there, is she Julie or the video woman?”

“Neither. Julie left him. Moved out the next day. Turned out the video woman was married herself, so poor Brendon got dumped twice in twenty-four hours.”

“So who’s the girl then?”

“He met her at Nordstrom’s. He went in to buy a sports jacket. Was planning on spending about $300, but met her. She works in the men’s department, sold him that overpriced $1,500 jacket. He had to put it on a credit card because Julie took everything from their bank account. Sweat was starting to form on his brow as little miss no clothes rang him up…worried his card would decline.”

A real, full laugh tells me Vinny appreciated my story. “You made that whole thing up just now from your head?”