“You got it,” the bartender said. He slid her a look while she tried to remember his name. “Haven’t seen you in a while,” he said.
“Been busy.” Actually, after that debacle at Lacey’s, she’d stayed away from alcohol entirely. It wasn’t good for your body anyway. After a night drinking, she could smell the alcohol-laced sweat when she worked out, and it only added to her embarrassment. What had she been thinking that night? She’d just been so low, and she’d had a momentary blip of really, really bad judgment.
The front bell tinkled, announcing a newcomer. Trini looked over as a matter of course and then froze as she recognized Jarrett Sellers.
He looked around, spotted her, and eased over to the bar, leaning his elbows on the polished surface. “Hey there,” he said.
“I’m not going to believe you just happened to walk in here.”
He hung his head like a bad boy. “Okay, I followed you.”
“Why?”
He lifted his head and said to the bartender, “Jack and Coke.” Then he turned back to Trini and said, “I was driving by your place and saw you walking down the street. When I saw you turn into the bar, I decided to join you.”
“Why were you driving by my place?”
“I kind of thought we left on bad terms at Lacey’s.” He waited a moment, and when she didn’t respond, he said, “Okay, you’re going to make me say it? I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to see you.”
Trini relaxed a little. “No, you don’t. We’re no good for each other, Jarrett. We can’t even be friends.”
“That’s not true.”
“It is true.”
“This is what I like about you, Trini. You always keep everything hidden. Always play coy. Never speak your mind.”
She smiled in spite of herself. At least he was pulling her out of her bad mood. “Okay, maybe we can be very distant friends, but that’s as far as it goes.”
Jarrett’s drink came and Trini sucked down her mojito and ordered another. He had a second as well, but when the bartender offered her a third, she declined.
“I’ve got dinner made at home,” she said, getting to her feet. She tried to pay, but Jarrett wouldn’t let her.
“Is that an invitation?”
“No. God, you’re pushy.” She squinted at him. Jarrett had a nice smile. She’d forgotten that. Why, she wondered, had it not worked with him? Apart from the fact that they really couldn’t get along.
She thought back to their last meeting at Lacey’s. She’d been in a kind of altered state at the time, sick at heart over how things were going with Bobby, and Jarrett had asked all those questions and she’d just wanted him to go away. He’d damn near ruined her game, and all she could think about was Bobby . . . Bobby . . . though that wasn’t his real name. And the bad hair and glasses? A fake. She’d fallen for it at first, before she’d really cared. He’d been a novelty and she’d been amused. But then he’d become a crush and now . . . now he was a drug she couldn’t live without.
But she wanted the deception to be over now. No more games. Since they’d been back together she’d tried to get him to come clean about the disguise, but he’d pretended not to know what she was talking about. And then he’d also been so distracted, and really, all she wanted was for him to screw her brains out, and he’d done that beautifully.
But he’d left her tonight . . . and here was Jarrett.
“. . . one more for the road?” he asked.
“Okay, sure.”
Why not? she figured.
When he brought her the drink, its green contents glowing beneath the lights above her head. She sank back down on the stool. She wished she wanted to be with Jarrett. She almost begged herself to give him a second chance. She needed to get over Bobby and stop being such a rat woman, but all she wanted was to have him in her bed. The true definition of a rat woman.
You’ve got it bad, girl. Really, really bad.
She drank down half her drink, then asked, “Do you ever wish you didn’t have a conscience? That you could do whatever you want and damn the torpedoes? No consequences. Just live your life any way you want.”
“Yes,” Jarrett said.
Trini gave him a long look. She remembered making love with him. It had been good for a while, but then they’d started fighting, and they just couldn’t stand each other as time wore on.
“I want to go home with you,” he said in a husky voice.