“Here you go, girls,” Damien said, appearing with our drinks. I shot Gracie a pointed look before thanking him and taking my cocktail. Gracie took her beer from him with a forced smile.
We drank our respective beverages in relative silence. The bar was pretty busy with the after work crowd but even in our noisy surroundings, the lack of talking at our table was almost deafening.
Damien cleared his throat. “So, how was the flower show, Ri?” he asked.
“Probably not as cool as covering the interstate crash. Plus I had an allergic reaction to a huge display of hydrangeas and spent the last half hour sneezing my head off,” I complained. Gracie and Damien each laughed at my misfortune and I grinned, taking one for the team. Hey, if my snot filled afternoon alleviated the weirdness, then I would share away.
“Yeah, well Kim, who was I shadowing, was about to kick my ass. Personally I thought the mucus made that hideous arrangement look better,” I chuckled.
“It seems like you guys are having a good time,” a voice said from behind me. Gracie looked over my shoulder and waved, her face lighting up in a smile. Damien went a pale and gripped his beer tighter as though expecting to have it hurled in his face.
I, on the other hand, felt chills run down my spine at the sound of the voice I had heard not so long ago, as he begged me to watch him as he made me come. I definitely shivered that time. The memory was too much for my poor brain to handle.
But my desire was quickly replaced with irrational rejection as Garrett walked around me, his arm brushing against my back as he went to Gracie’s side. He pulled out a bar stool and sat down. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
He didn’t acknowledge me, however. He didn’t bother to look my way once. He glanced down at Gracie’s beer and leaned forward to whisper something softly in her ear. She looked up at him, her eyes seeming to plead with him. They spoke quietly, only to each other, and I wished like crazy that I could hear what they were saying.
“You want to go play a game of darts?” Damien asked, pulling me out of my masochistic voyeurism. I tore my eyes away from the pair across the table and looked over at him, giving him, or at least what I hoped to be, my sincerest smile.
“Sure, that sounds good,” I said overly loud. Okay, so I was hoping to get Garrett’s attention. Sure it was childish and pathetic. But I hoped he would remember it was just a week ago that he had shown an entire bar how much he wanted me.
The problem was I couldn’t decide if this need was about my feelings for him, or once again about a misplaced sense of pride. Because Garrett had wanted me. And now he seemed to want nothing to do with me. And nothing hurt an ego more than being cast aside for one of your friends.
I scraped my chair back, making a big production of leaving the table.
Look at me, damn it!
And then he did. Garrett looked away from Gracie and finally met my eyes. He glanced from me to Damien and something unidentifiable flickered in their depths. And then whatever I thought I saw there closed off and then there was nothing.
He turned back to Gracie and spoke quietly to her again, picking up her half empty beer and setting it aside. He held out his hand and she nodded, placing her smaller palm into his much larger one.
Gracie looked up at me and there was no self-satisfaction on her face at having Garrett there beside her. In fact she seemed upset. I wish I understood what was going on between them. Were they dating? Or were they just friends as Gracie claimed. And why oh why didn’t I have the guts to come out and ask like I normally would have?
“Garrett’s going to give me a ride home. I’ll see you on Wednesday,” Gracie said and I couldn’t read the tone in her voice.
“Are you sure you don’t want to hang out longer?” I asked, glancing at Garrett who seemed to be looking at everyone but me.