My breath caught in my throat, rendering me speechless. Luckily my best friend Monica jumped between us, pushing the guy back so I got a full view of him and realized he was only wearing a loincloth and a large smile.
“Down, John Boy.” She scowled at him and then turned to me, almost knocking her beret off. “What the hell happened to you?”
“I-I-I spilled my drink.”
Monica’s eyes narrowed as she looked down at the red liquid soaking through my gray sweater. She whipped her head around to the loincloth-clad guy. “Was this your fault? Are you trying to get my friend naked?”
He held up his hands, a cockeyed grin on his face. “Purely an accident, Lib.”
Ah, now I knew where I’d seen him before. He had come into the coffee shop we worked at a few times. I don’t think he even glanced in my direction more than to hand me his student ID to pay, but was always calling Monica ‘Lib.’ I’m guessing because she was an extreme liberal.
Monica’s boyfriend, the governor’s son Trey Chapman, pushed through the crowd. Usually when I saw him he was polished in dress pants and a dress shirt, but his Halloween costume was nothing more than a pair of American flag boxers, a dress shirt, and some gray hairspray. He looked ridiculous. The Clinton and Lewinsky costumes had been Monica’s idea.
“Hey, I’ve been looking for you.” He slipped his arm around Monica’s waist. “What’s going on here?”
“John Boy spilled a drink on Melanie to try and get her naked.”
“Hey!” John Boy yelled.
“It wasn’t his fault,” I piped in. “It’s crowded here and he ran into me. It’s fine.”
“Fine?” Monica raised her eyebrows. “That Hermione costume you’ve been wearing since middle school is covered in Everclear and Kool aid. That’s not fine, Mel.”
“I haven’t worn this since middle school!” Okay, truth was, it was my go-to costume. I’d bought it for the first movie’s midnight showing and had worn it for every movie opening and Halloween since.
“Whatever.” Monica turned her head to Trey and tugged on his shirt. “You can just wear Trey’s shirt.”
He shook his head. “I’m not walking around here just in my undershirt. The boxers are bad enough. Why don’t you give her yours?”
She looked down at the blue shift dress that we coated with white out. “Then I’ll be down to my bra and underwear.”
“Not much more than a lot of the girls here are wearing anyway,” I muttered.
Trey either didn’t hear me or chose to ignore me and nodded his head in John Boy’s direction. “John Boy, do you have an extra shirt that Monica’s friend can borrow?”
The grin spread wider on John Boy’s face before he ran his hand through his spiky brown hair. “I was just offering her the same thing.” His eyes flitted to mine and an electric charge ran down my stomach. “What do you say, Melanie, care to come up to my room?”
I swallowed, hard. I didn’t usually get propositioned by guys, especially guys with bodies that looked good in nothing but a loincloth. Every part of me was hyper aware of the curves of his muscles and I had to keep from staring at where his treasure trail stopped.
“Great, we’re coming with.” Monica grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the stairs.
I glanced back to make sure John Boy was actually following and he was. When he saw me look at him, he shot a wink in my direction.
“I can’t believe you were just about to go upstairs with him alone!” Monica hissed in my ear, forcing me to face forward.
“I was not,” I whispered.
“Ugh, I knew this party was a bad idea.”
Trey squeezed her side and she squealed. “You think everything is a bad idea.”
“Eavesdrop much, Mr. Chapman?”