Down to Business (Business Series) (8 page)

“Drink!” Lindy urged, placing her hand beneath my cup and moving it toward my face.

I took a small sip and frowned. The taste of cheap beer sent me on a trip of déjà vu. Right back to high school; right back to the worst night of my life.

I remembered it like it was yesterday, well most of it. The beer tasted horrible, but I drank it anyway. It was my first high school party, my freshman year. It happened just after my parents’ divorce. I wanted to be happy again and partying seemed to make everyone else happy, so I thought I would try it too.

Lindy had a crush on a guy named Paul Frankman and I had a crush on his friend, Zack Myers. Zack was on the soccer team and had the signature blond hair and bright blue eyes that made girls drop their panties. That night I not only drank myself stupid, but also attempted to impress people that weren’t even important. I smoked marijuana and took a pill given to me by some girl in my algebra class that I barely knew. The mixture of all the drugs made me feel invincible.

I spotted Zack in the crowd, talking to his soccer friends and I went right up to him and asked him if he knew who I was and if he thought I was hot. When he said my name and told me he thought I was kinda cute, I took that as a good signal to throw myself at him. I gave him my first kiss, tongue and all. Laughter erupted around me and he pulled me off him, looking shocked. I was too high to realize that when his friends goaded him on, it wasn’t because he really liked me. We went off to a dark corner to make out, the next thing I knew I was upstairs in a little girl’s Pepto-Bismol pink bedroom. I remember laying on the bed while he gave me a hickey and reading a sign on the wall that said Amanda’s Room. I must have read it fifty times and might have even read it aloud once or twice in my drug induced state.

I can’t remember when my pants and underwear disappeared, but I do remember when he laid on top of me and forced himself on me. I started screaming for him to stop and tried to get away, but I was uncoordinated and he was strong. I vaguely remember him grabbing my arms, holding them down, and him telling me to stop crying. Instead of letting me up, he kissed me so hard that his teeth dug into my lips and he penetrated me. I felt so violated and it burned like nobody’s business. I gave up and lay there sobbing and looking up at his face, the face I had fantasized about. I waited so long to look into his eyes, and all I saw staring back at me was frustration and hormonal lust. By the time he finally got off, I was a sobbing mess. He replaced his clothes and told me he was going to get me some tissue and some beer. I don’t know how long I waited, but he never came back. I got up from the bed to go find Lindy and collapsed on the floor. The pain between my legs and the drugs were a toxic combination. The need to vomit suddenly came over me, so I crawled to the bathroom across the hall. 

I reached the bathroom and emptied my stomach. Afterwards, I was coherent enough to use my phone, so I called Lindy, but I got her voicemail. I called her seventeen times before I gave up. Defeated, I locked the door and curled up on the bathroom rug, too sick, violated, and helpless to go find her. I wondered why I had done this to myself.

I’m not sure how long I was alone before she finally came to my rescue. I had passed out and when I woke up, I was laying with my head on her lap. She was crying and calling my name while using a damp wad of toilet paper to wipe my face. She kept saying she was sorry and she promised me that she would never let it happen again. After that night, we decided we would rather drink alone in her basement than go to parties…until tonight.

Tyler took Lindy by the hand and dragged her off toward the backyard where the wet t-shirt contest was happening. I had no interest in seeing that, so I hung back.

The moment I was out of her grasp, she turned around and looked at me with concern. “Come with us!”

“I’m fine. I’ll wait here!” I shouted back.

She frowned at me and disappeared out the sliding glass door after Tyler.

I moved aside as more people pushed their way to the kegs. Just when I was starting to regret letting Lindy out of my sight, Vinny stepped through the doorway and a shock of excitement went barreling through me.

My elation only lasted a moment, as two girls came in after him hanging onto the back of his t-shirt. He walked right past me without even a glance and got them all drinks. Afterwards, they left the kitchen, heading for the front of the house.

I found myself unable to quell my curiosity as to where he was going, so I followed his footsteps, ending up in the living room. I scanned the crowd for him, but all I found were random strangers staring back at me. I squeezed through the crowd doing my best not to spill my beer, and ended up in a room with three ping-pong tables.

Half-dressed guys were assembled at each table with their own cheerleading squad. I realized there was a beer-pong contest happening. One of the contestants was only wearing his boxers and a giant yellow foam cowboy hat. He was really good at ping-pong.  After beating two opponents, he got up on the table and did a victory dance. It was short-lived however, as his weight caused the table to collapse and fold up on him like a sandwich.

Ping-pong balls and beer cups went flying as he crashed to the floor in a loud clatter. I covered my mouth and laughed with the rest of the crowd. He climbed out of the debris, and stood back up with his hat down over his eyes. A hush fell over the room until he threw his arms up and let out a howl of victory. Everyone cheered him on while he removed his boxers, tossed them in some girls face, and went streaking out of the room in only his cowboy hat.  I shook my head and laughed again, thinking this party was much more amusing than I thought it would be.

As I turned to leave the room to see where ‘Woody’ went, I collided right into a guy’s chest and spilled my beer on him. 

“Whoa!”

“Shit! I’m so sorry!” I said, watching my beer run down his shirt. I turned around, my face burning as I frantically looked for napkins, paper towels, anything I could sop the mess up with….and somehow I ended up with a girls discarded shirt.

“I’m so sorry,” I apologized as I held out the discarded shirt. “This is all I could—” My words caught in my throat and shock trickled over me as I looked up into Vinny’s familiar light brown eyes.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said, swiping his hand over his soaked shirt.

“Vinny?” I cried out, my voice laced with that annoying excitement that kept springing up whenever I saw him.

He paused and looked up at me, obviously just recognizing me. “Autumn?”

“Yeah!” I said and laughed.

“I barely recognized you.” He smiled and looked me over. “Did you get a haircut?”

“Yeah.” I nodded enthusiastically.

“You look great.”

“Thanks...” I replied, feeling another burst of heat flow over my cheeks. I covered my beer with my hand to keep it from splashing him again as more students filtered into the room.

“Are you here with Tyler and Lindy?” he asked, bracing one hand on the wall over my head to keep from smashing me.
His clean sexy scent filled my senses and made me forget where I was.

I nodded, feeling the heat radiating off his body and I suddenly needed to sip the half-spilled beer in my hand.

“I thought you said you didn’t like partying?” he asked with a laugh, watching me sip my beer.

I looked up into his face, and lost myself in his eyes. “Yeah, I guess I changed my mind. I thought I’d try something new. Are you here with someone?”

“No,” he answered, his face skewed by the ambient light, “I wasn’t planning on staying long.” He rubbed at the front of his wet shirt again.

I frowned. “I’m really sorry about your shirt.”

“It’s okay, I have a clean one in the car. I just got done at the laundry mat before I got here.”

He leaned into me as another horde of people pushed into the room.

“It’s getting claustrophobic in here,” I said, not minding him getting closer.

“Yeah, no kidding. Did you want to get some air? I need to go to my car and change my shirt.”

“Yeah,” I answered without hesitation and abandoned my beer on the nearest table. I felt sparks travel over my body when his warm hand captured mine and he led me through the crowd.

When we reached the front door, a comforting gust of cool air carried us out onto the porch. I drew a deep breath of clean air, glad to be out of the house.

He released my hand and I followed him across the lawn strewn with discarded cups. We crossed the street and followed the sound of an automatic door unlocking somewhere in the distance. Once we reached his sleek black Nissan GT-R, he popped the trunk and pulled a clean white t-shirt out of a clothesbasket. I could not help but notice everything was folded neatly. He did his own laundry and folded it? Vinny was one in a million.

I nearly salivated as he peeled his wet black t-shirt off and tossed it into the trunk. He replaced it with a crisp white one and then turned to me and smiled. “Much better.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, thinking I wouldn’t have minded if he didn’t have a replacement shirt.

He removed his phone and looked down at it. “I have to go. I promised I’d visit my uncle. He’s in a home and I told him I’d swing by with dinner.”

“Oh, okay,” I replied trying not to sound disappointed.

He slid his phone back into his pocket. “Did you want to come with me?”

Shocked by his offer, I simply blinked. “Uhm..okay.”

“It’s not far, just over near the hospital.”

I had no idea where the hospital was, but I didn’t really care.

He walked to the passenger side of the car and held open the door for me. “Hop in.”

And I did.

I
slid into the passenger seat and he closed the door after me. I inhaled the aroma of new plastic meshed with the leather. It was new car smell, one of the best smells in the world. The driver’s side door opened, and he slid in, immediately turning the key in the ignition. The digital dashboard lit up giving everything a blue tint. Our location showed up on the GPS situated on the console.

“Nice car.”

“Thanks, I just bought it this summer.”

He leaned over my thighs and removed a black case from the glove box. I felt the corners of my lips curve up as he opened it to reveal a pair of glasses.

“I can’t see for shit at night,” he admitted awkwardly as he slid the glasses on.

“They look nice on you,” I said, admiring how they didn’t deter from his sexiness, only gave him a more intelligent edge.

He reached for the gearshift and we rolled from the curb in a smooth glide.

“Are you cold?” he asked, his left wrist resting on the top of the steering wheel while he reached over to mess with the various knobs.

“I’m fine,” I said as a comforting rush of warm air, fresh with new car smell, washed over my face. I clamped my hands between my thighs and felt my whole body relax into the warm leather seat. The car barely shifted gears as we turned out of the neighborhood and onto the main street.

As we drove, I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him and his glasses made it feel far less intimidating to stare. Tingles of excitement traveled from my palms to the bottom of my feet while I studied him. His hair was thick and lustrous even in the dark. He had long lashes and lips that looked perfectly kissable. His straight, perfect, Roman nose actually fit his face, unlike the big nose Italian stigma. His masculine jaw line and defined cheekbones seemed to fade into his light stippling of five o’clock shadow.

Would his unshaven chin chafe my skin if I were to kiss him? Or would it feel soft and sexy?

A jolt of humiliation zapped through me as he caught me staring. The corner of his lips pulled into a smile. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just enjoying the view,” I blurted. “I mean, the view…outside.”

He laughed and a burst of heat flushed over my face.

“I’m gonna to call in an order at Dino’s Pizza for my uncle. Did you want anything?”

“No thanks, I already had dinner.”

“You don’t look like it. You’re a toothpick.” He dialed a number into his phone with his thumb while he steered with his opposite hand.

“I eat a lot actually,” I defended.

“Hey Mike. It’s Vinny,” he said into the phone. “I need a twelve inch meatball sub with extra sauce, and an order of spaghetti with meat balls. I’ll be by in a few to pick it up. Yeah, thanks, bye.”

He set his phone into the cup holder between us and shifted gears. “Do you like spaghetti?”

“Yeah...I like it. Why?” I answered hesitantly.

“Because I can’t finish a whole order of spaghetti alone,” he said with a wink.

No way. There was no way I was eating spaghetti in front of him. Spaghetti was a lot like ribs; messy and reserved only for friends and family.

I laughed at him and shook my head. “I’m not eating spaghetti with you.”

“Why not?” he asked as if I was crazy.

“Because!”

“Because why?” he asked, smirking.

“Just because…” I said looking away with a smile.

“Because isn’t a reason.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“That answer I’ll accept,” he said with a grin, making me laugh.