“I understand.” He pulled a white business card out of his pocket and offered it to me. “Hit me up anytime you like. Again, it can be super chill. Do you like sailing?”
“I don’t know,” I laughed. “I’ve never been.”
“Perfect.” He grinned, showing off a row of straight, white teeth. “I could give you a lesson.”
I glanced down at the card in my hand. Seth’s name, phone number, and e-mail was printed on it, but nothing else.
“I hope to hear from you soon.” He gave me a kind of two-finger salute as a goodbye and walked away. I watched him cross the floor and exit the bar.
Not five seconds later, Delphine was at my side. “Was that creeper hitting on you?”
“He was actually nice.”
“Hmm.” Delphine’s lips twisted. “If you say so. Hey, table four just got sat. You want it?”
“Yeah, I’ll take it.”
I tucked Seth’s card into my apron and went to greet the new party. Business picked up slightly, and I spent the rest of the night stabbing tickets and refilling beer pitchers. The whole time, though, I was aware of Seth’s card burning a hole in my apron.
I probably wouldn’t call him up, even once I felt ready to date again. Still, being asked out was nice. It brought back a little bit of the hope I’d felt earlier in the day. My life would feel right again soon. Knowing I could be in the dumps but still look forward to the future brought the first genuine smile in a week to my face.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
Xavier
I weaved my way through the crowd and toward the DJ booth. Benji saw me coming and removed his headphones.
It’s too loud, I mouthed at him. He nodded and sent a signal to the guy in charge of the speakers. I turned and stalked back to the bar, where nothing had changed. Enigma was crowded as fuck. Somehow, despite the fact that we distributed a set number of invitations each day, the club was packed. Every person invited tonight must have also brought a plus three.
Seeking to get away from the throng, I wound my way upstairs. I’d been spending every night of the last week at the club. Basically, if I wasn’t at work or the gym, I was here. With the exception of the necessary car rides, there was no in-between time. It was good. I preferred it this way.
Because Riley hadn’t gotten in touch since she basically ran out of the coffee shop, I had to assume things were good and done between us. One week was too much time. I refused to wait around for her to come back and agree to take me up on my offer to keep things low-key between us. I’d never waited around for a woman for more than five minutes, and I wasn’t about to start now.
Unfortunately, my subconscious wasn’t of the same mindset. Each night spent apart from Riley had been marked with dreams about her. Mostly, we were back at the lake in Connecticut, either sitting in front of the fire or down in the water.
The water scene was the most frequent one. It played more or less as it actually happened, except in the dream I said more than I did in real life. I told Riley that I didn’t want her to go, that her belonging to me was inevitable and that I planned on doing whatever was necessary to make things right.
It was all pretend, of course. The dreams were representative of the weaker side of myself. We all had a fallible side to our psyches. I was just usually much better at keeping mine in check.
Throwing open the door to the office, I found the place empty. I thought I wanted to get away from the noise downstairs, but the second I saw the bare room I realized nothing would make me feel better. I probably needed to just give up for the night. Neither Julian or Davis were there, and they were about the only two people I could see myself able to have a conversation with.
Backtracking, I went back to the mezzanine. There was a new group in the VIP section, but one of the heads was more familiar than the others. Seth stood up from his table and waved me over. My feet itched to turn around and keep walking, but I hadn’t spoken to him all week. Not since we put Riley’s information into the database. And damn it if I wasn’t curious to find out what was going on with him.
He sidled away from his table as I made my way over to him. One of the girls, who looked like a supermodel, watched after him with a pout on her face. Seth blew her a kiss and turned back to greet me.
“Hey, man. How’s it hanging?”
“How many invites were sent out today?” I barked out.
Seth recoiled. “Jesus. Hello to you too. I’m not in charge of the invites. That’s Matt’s area.”
“It seems like a lot.” I looked at the main area below us.
He shrugged. “Again, fuck if I know what’s going on. But it’s a real party tonight. Hey, two of these girls over here are Victoria’s Secret Angels. You wanna get in on this? The brunette is your type.”
I glanced past Seth’s shoulder and saw the girl from before still eagerly watching him. “I’m heading home.”
“Your loss.” He took a swig of the beer in his hand. “Oh, hey. I saw that girl. Riley.”
An electrical current ran through me, paralyzing my limbs and mouth.
“I like her,” Seth went on. “She’s kind of feisty. I bet she’s wild in bed. Am I right?”
I pressed the tip of my tongue against my teeth, feeling more like biting Seth’s head off than answering his question.
“Well?” Seth asked.
“You… asked her out?”
It was the PG version of the question I really wanted to ask. Although I willingly gave Seth Riley’s information the week before, something about it didn’t seem real. There had been the possibility of him getting up with her, but I hadn’t allowed myself to think about that. But now, hearing that he’d actually made a move made a world of difference.
Seth was wrong for Riley. She didn’t deserve to have a smarmy bro like him pawing all over her. Fuck, no woman did.
“Yeah, yeah,” Seth said, looking extremely pleased with himself. “I asked her out. She kind of played hard to get. She likes to be that way, huh?” He grinned wide. “I love that shit.”
Heat rolled in my stomach and shot into my hands. I curled my fingers in tight. I was two seconds away from punching Seth in the face. The guy was oblivious to my mood. He went on and on, waving his beer bottle around while running his mouth. He was probably still talking about Riley, but I didn’t hear anything he said. The noise of the club had turned into a buzzing similar to that of a beehive.
Without saying goodbye, I turned and took the stairs at a run. I already knew where I was headed. Questioning myself was unbearable. The pounding in my temples and the tightness in my chest made it impossible to think straight.
Seth. Riley. Together. Riley with other men.
It was wrong. It was all so, so wrong.