The closest bartender set a drink in front of a girl down from me, and the second he saw me, he headed straight over, effectively skipping everyone ahead of me.
It might have been the fact that I’d hopped up a little, caging my rack in my arms to put it on display. Oldest trick in the book.
I told you — I was absolutely shameless.
With drinks in hand, I gave the bartender a smile, and the girls and I headed away from the fray to look for a table. A group was just getting up, and we swooped in like birds of prey just ahead of a pack of bitter chicks wearing painful-looking shoes.
I sipped on my tequila — it was chilled: I’m not that hard — looking around at the mass of people, soaking it all in, as “Pretty in Pink” by The Psychedelic Furs played.
And then time stopped, and the crowd parted like the universe wanted to point right at him.
It was Blondie from the ice cream parlor.
The music stretched out, people slowing under the red and white striped fabric, the naked bulbs of the carousel painting him in golden light. He stood right there like he’d been placed in that spot just for me, tall and beautiful, his skin tan and smile bright as he laughed at something his twin had said.
I almost fell out of my chair. There were two of them. My insides turned into raspberry jelly at the thought of what kind of damage they could do to a woman.
But my eyes found Blondie again — his twin was wrong somehow, which was bizarre in itself because they were identical. From where I sat, they were night and day. There was something about Blondie, some vibe that hit me even more now than it had at the ice cream parlor. He felt … familiar. Something about him I couldn’t quite place caught me, something in the line of his profile and the curve of his lips. But I was certain I’d never seen him before — I remembered all of the Adonises I’d met and arduously logged them in my mental bank of spank.
He was tall and jacked with a smile like a lightbulb and hair like spun gold. It was a little long, curling around his ears, and I wondered if it was soft, wondered what it would feel like between my fingers as I rode his face like a pony.
I didn’t realize I had slipped off my stool and was walking toward him — I had locked onto him like a goddamn target — until he met my eyes, froze for a split second, and then walked toward me like he was caught up just as much as I was.
I should have known right then that I was in big Blondie-sized trouble. But I couldn’t seem to find a single fuck to give.
* * *
Bodie
The pinup girl from the ice cream shop had the reddest lips curled into an irresistible smile, and my feet, which had been moving entirely of their own accord, didn’t stop until we met in the middle.
I knew her somehow, but I couldn’t place her and wondered if it was just that I’d been thinking about her since I saw her a few hours before.
Shock and awe, man. She was standing there in front of me like a dream, but up close and personal where I could see her. In a split second, I’d catalogued everything about her — her gold septum ring, the black gauges with tiny cat ears, the curve of her plump red lips, the shine of her hair, and the tattoos across her chest, her shoulders, her arms, her thighs. I wondered where else she was tattooed and found myself smiling down at her, imagining the answer.
“Heya, Blondie,” she said slyly. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were following me.”
One dark brow rose with one corner of her lips. “Who says you know better?”
I chuckled as my eyes combed over her face like it was the first face I’d ever seen. She was so familiar to me, but I’d have remembered the purple hair, the piercings, the tattoos. That smile.
I blinked.
I knew that smile.
“I’m Penny,” she said, extending her free hand.
I took it, my smile spreading. “Bodie.”
She showed no recognition at my name — when she had known me, I’d gone by a nickname. Her eyes were on my lips, and I realized fully that she had no idea who I was. I wondered if I’d really changed that much from when she’d seen me last, realizing I had. Sometimes I’d look in the mirror and barely recognize myself. And earlier she’d had on big sunglasses, on top of being far enough away that I couldn’t tell it was her. Eight years had changed her too, but only the colors of her feathers. Everything else seemed exactly the same.
I considered telling her, but dismissed the thought. Because there was really only one thing to do: fuck with her until she figured it out.
“Good to see you again,” I said ambiguously.
“You too, but I’m surprised. I mean, after going down on a waffle cone for you earlier, I figured you would have had plenty of me to last.”
A laugh burst out of me. “Oh, I have a feeling your kind of ice cream is the kind you can’t get enough of.”
She shrugged and brought her drink to her lips. “It’s been said.” She watched me for a second again. “So what’s your story, Bodie?”
“I just moved here from LA.”
“For a job?”
“You could say that. I’m a software engineer.”
She laughed. “Wow, not what I would have guessed.”
“Oh?”
Penny dramatically looked me up and down. “Hmm. I’d say … personal trainer. No, no. That hunky moving company I always see commercials for.”
“Manly Movers?”
She lit up and snapped. “Yes! You definitely look like the Manly Mover type. All those muscles.”
I chuckled. “That’s super sexist.”
“Male model. That would have done too.”
I couldn’t stop smiling, and I hated thinking that my dimple was on display. “I guess I should be flattered that you think I’m hot enough to be a male model.”
Her eyes twinkled. “Oh, you definitely are.”
“How about you? What do you do? Where are you from?” I asked, baiting her.
“I’m a tattoo artist,” she offered but didn’t elaborate, and I sensed a story there. “I’ve lived in New York since I graduated high school, but I grew up in Santa Cruz.”
“Me too.”
Her eyes widened, and she smiled. “No way. I went to Loma Vista. What a small world.”
She still hadn’t figured it out, and I found myself grinning like an idiot, wondering how long it would take her to put it together.
“Ever surf?” I asked.
She laughed. “No way. Sharks.”
“That’s what my buddy Phil says too.”
She glanced behind me, twiddling her fingers, presumably at Jude and Phil. “So, you’re a twin, huh?”
I nodded and took a sip of my Maker’s as “Rock the Casbah” kicked off, and everyone around us started bouncing and dancing. “Since birth.”
She laughed. “What a win for the universe that there would be two of you.”
“Double your pleasure, double your fun.”
That caught her off guard, and her bottom lip slipped between her teeth as a flush rose on her cheeks.
Just like that, I had one objective, and it began and ended with her lips.
“Although I should tell you now,” I stepped closer, slipping into her space, and her eyes widened, pupils dilating as she leaned into me, “I don’t like to share.”
The tip of her pink tongue darted out to wet her lips, and her eyes were locked on to my mouth.