“Don’t tease if you can’t deliver.”
Nicole dropped her beer. It hit the ground and spouted fizz. She put her hands on the back of his neck. “I’m not a teaser.” She pulled his face to hers and kissed him.
Casey’s hands were all over her, and after a minute he pushed her backward onto the table. Her earlobe was in his mouth when he whispered, “How old are you?”
Nicole grabbed his face and looked into his eyes. “You duct-taped my mouth and threw me in a shed overnight. This can’t be any more illegal.”
He pushed her farther onto the table. Besides their voices and their moans, the only noise came from the generator outside that gave life to the single, isolated bulb that cast the brewery in shadows.
CHAPTER 17
August 2016
Two Weeks Before the Abduction
Diana Wells was good and buzzed. A nineteen-year-old freshman at Elizabeth City State University, getting into bars was never a problem. Her fake ID said she was twenty-two, the picture was close enough, and it hadn’t failed her yet. The ID came from a friend’s sister, and Diana flashed it to bouncers with confidence. She didn’t like that it listed her fake self as 160 pounds. She was 145 since cutting carbs this summer, and could again fit into the skinny jeans from Christmas.
Out with two friends tonight, the flirting had started an hour before. First, the guy ordered them a round of lemon drop shots and waved when they all looked over. Then, he’d said hi on the way to the bathroom, ignoring all of them but Diana. With her two best friends, both size two and the ones who usually captured guys’ attention, Diana loved the spotlight tonight.
He was older. Maybe a grad student, and Diana was happy to expand outside the circle they always hung with. It was a drag to see her two friends flirt with a group of guys and casually pick the ones they thought were cutest. Diana was left with the scraps. The quiet guys who also hung in the shadows and waited for the end of the night to see what was left. Diana was it.
Tonight, though, things were different. She was finally living the college social lifestyle, crushing on a guy who was into her from the beginning, not by default.
He was with another couple, a guy and a girl who were sitting next to him at the bar. They both were obviously in on what was happening.
“Are you going to talk to him,” one of her friends asked.
“I don’t know,” Diana said. “He looks older.”
“Probably a grad student.”
In the middle of their discussion, he waved his arm, inviting her over. Diana’s eyes widened, and he waved harder. He gave her a look. Come here. I gotta beg you?
Her friends laughed and pushed her out of their circle. “Go! Lover Boy calls,” her friends teased.
Diana, drink in hand, walked shyly toward him.
“I’ve only been buying you drinks all night,” he said when she was close enough.
“Thanks for the shots,” Diana said.
“I’m Casey,” the guy said.
“Diana.”
The bartender lined up four shot glasses and poured them full with a sticky red concoction.
Casey pulled them over. “Fuzzy navels. Here.” He handed a shot to Diana.
The couple next to him grabbed the remaining shot glasses and held them up.
“These are my friends,” Casey said. “Nate and Nicole. This is Diana.”
“Cheers,” Nicole said, and they all tilted their heads and slammed the shots.
“I’m so friggin’ buzzed,” Diana said. She took the shot in one swallow and laughed. “God, that’s good.”
“I could drink these all night,” Casey said. “Or those lemon drop shots.”
“Yeah,” Diana said. “Those are good, too.”
“Sit down with us.”
Diana took a seat. They had to yell over the music. “You go to school here?” Casey asked.
“Yeah. You?”
Casey nodded. “I’m a grad student.”
“Really?” Diana asked. “In what?”
“Math.”
“Oh God! I hate math.”
“Me too,” he said.
Casey ordered more drinks and they talked for thirty minutes. He was so unlike the other guys she’d met at school who talked mostly to their friends and never directly to her. Casey asked all about her. When Diana had to use the bathroom he went with her, then waited when he was finished so they could walk back together. After another twenty minutes, Diana’s friends came over.
“We’re taking off,” they said.
“Okay,” Diana said.
Casey cocked his head to the side. “Total drag. But if you’ve gotta go, maybe we could hook up next week or something.” Casey looked at his friends, then back to Diana. “Unless you wanna hang for a while here. I’ll make sure you get home okay.”
Diana smiled at Casey, then looked at her friends. “I’m gonna stay for a while.”
It felt so good to be here at the end of the night, to be the one staying behind to talk with a guy while her friends headed back to the dorm.
“Cool,” her friend said. “See you when you get back.” Their faces carried smirks as they walked away.
“If you gotta go, that’s cool,” Casey said.
“No,” Diana said, brushing a hand at her friends. “They’re just going to get burritos.”
Casey held up his beer and Diana clinked her vodka. “Cheers,” he said.
Diana took a sip. God, he’s gorgeous.
One o’clock came in a hurry. The bartenders hollered last call and a rush of students lined the bar to order one final drink before they spilled into the streets and headed to after-hours. There was talk of a Theta Chi late night. Diana laughed as the crowd squashed her and Casey into the bar to place their orders.
“We’re gonna get trampled,” Casey said. He took her hand and pulled her away from the bar, off her stool and toward the door. Diana felt his fingers intertwine with her own, the way she always saw couples on campus hold hands. She allowed him to pull her out the front door. The summer air was thick and sticky. Buzzed and dizzy from the shots, she felt herself walk the sidewalk with heavy, wobbly steps toward the end of the building and into the walkway that separated the bar from the dry cleaners next door.
Casey pulled her into the narrow space. “Sorry,” he said. “I had to get outta there.”
“Yeah,” Diana said. “I needed some air.”
“You thinking about going to the frat party?”
Diana shrugged. “I don’t know. You want to?”
Casey came close to her, until her back was against the bricks. “Not really.”
His face was close enough to smell the beer on his breath. Cigarettes, too. As if he could read her mind he said, “You smell like fuzzy navels.”
This made her laugh. “That’s ’cause you bought me, like, four of them.”
Casey moved closer. “Smells good.”