Hector (30 page)

Refusing to give into her natural instinct to tell Drew that just
being out of the car and hearing the music coming from the party she was
already having second thoughts, Charlee remained calm. She continued walking
alongside of her best friend ready to do this. Even though she wasn’t quite
sure what
this
would consist of
exactly.

Once inside the packed backyard, Drew wasted no time filling both
their cups with beer. She said it would save them the time having to stand back
in line to get
Charlee’s
next cupful. She also
reminded Charlee to not sip so slowly because the beer in the cup Drew would be
holding for her would get warm.

“I don’t care what you say, Charlee. You don’t like beer, and
there is nothing worse than warm beer. So drink fast.”

“I’ll give you that warm beer is bad, but I’m telling you I don’t
have a problem with beer,” Charlee sipped from her cup, wiping the foam from
her top lip. “See?” She smiled.

It really wasn’t bad at all. She actually liked the taste. She
sipped an even bigger drink for good measure then placed her hand over her
mouth and burped.
Now
she remembered
what she didn’t like about beer. Drew laughed, making Charlee laugh too.

They began their stroll around the backyard. Charlee couldn’t get
over how blatant the guys were about checking her and Drew out as they walked
past them. Their leering smiles as their elevator eyes took them in before stopping
at their faces were almost comical.
Almost
.
As ridiculous as they looked doing it, Charlee
couldn’t help feeling a bit unnerved by it all. She was so not used to any of
this.

Drew leaned into Charlee after one good-looking and well-built
guy in particular stopped talking to the group he was in and stared at them.
“He’s not bad,” Drew whispered. “Not bad at all. Even looks a little like
someone we’re not talking about tonight.”

Charlee finished the last of her beer as she glanced in the guy’s
direction. He smiled as soon as their eyes met. No, he wasn’t bad at all. The
vest over a t-shirt with jeans look was sexy and he wore it well. And, yes, he
did look a little like Hector because he was tall with dark hair and somewhat
of a buff guy, but that’s where the resemblance ended. Still, Charlee wasn’t
here looking for someone just like Hector. In fact, she should be looking for
someone totally different. She reminded herself the whole point of being here
tonight was to get over the guy already.

One thing was for sure. Charlee would need more beer if she was
going to get the nerve to
hang loose
like she’d come here to do. Already she felt like spinning around, bolting
through the
crowd,
and running back to the safety of
Drew’s car.

Absentmindedly, because she needed any reason to look away from
the guy staring at her, she glanced around for a trash can and found one. She
started toward it, but she felt Drew’s hand her arm.
“Where
you going?”

“Trash can,” Charlee responded.

“No! We paid for these cups, remember? It’s what we’re going to
use to refill all night.” Drew traded cups with Charlee. “Here you go. Drink up,
buttercup. We’ll go refill when you’re done.”

The second cup went down a little smoother than the first, but
then Charlee remembered the other reason why she didn’t like beer. “Maybe I
should’ve thought this out a little better.”

Drew looked at her a bit exasperated. “What? Don’t tell my you’re
changing your mind already.”

“Sort of,” Charlee admitted, but seeing the beginning of a reprimanding
glare from Drew, she added quickly. “Not the having fun part, but I forgot beer
makes me pee like crazy.”

Ironically, the only other time Charlee had drank enough beer to
have her running to and from the ladies’ room was last summer at a party
similar to this one where Danny first approached her. She hoped this wasn’t an
omen.

“Not a problem,” Drew said, taking her by the hand. “The guy we
paid to get the cups said only girls get to go inside to use the restroom.”

Charlee followed her through the crowd to the backdoor of the
house. Not surprising, there was a line for the restroom, but it wasn’t as long
as she expected. After getting her turn to use it but before she left the small
room, she reflected on tonight’s turn of events: the smile Hector had given her
and how the stupid lump in her throat hadn’t allowed her to so much as lift a
corner of her lips in response. This was the first time she’d had a moment
alone
since seeing him with that girl
.

She hated to even think about it, but she couldn’t help wondering
exactly what he was doing at that very moment. Was he kissing that girl the way
he’d kissed her? Were they somewhere very possibly doing more? Was he telling
that girl that she was different too? She shook her head roughly, willing the
tears that were beginning to well in her eyes away.

Standing in line before she’d gotten into the restroom, she’d
overheard some of the other girls in line talking about their ex-boyfriends, guys
they’d gone on vacations with even. One of them even talked about her baby’s father
who apparently was seeing someone new now. They all spoke so casually of these
guys whom they’d clearly had much longer and deeper connections with than
Charlee had with Hector. There was no hurt in their words, no mention of not
being able to move on, no stupid tears. Here Charlee had shared a few kisses
with this guy who had said few nice things to her, and she’d already been a
mess over the guy more than once.

These girls would not only think her a wimp but a total joke that
here she was at a party, trying to get over something that never even was. So
what if he looked deep in her eyes and made her heart stand still. Hector
obviously knew what and how to say things to girls. And, of course, she’d
fallen for every bit of it instantly because that sort of interaction with guys,
especially a guy like Hector, was so foreign to her.

Even more determined now to snap the hell out of it, she made
sure when they got back to the party to
not
look away from any guy she found attractive; in fact, she would smile. Within
minutes of smiling at that same tall guy Drew had mentioned resembled Hector
earlier, he and a friend began walking toward them.

“Here we go,” Drew said through her smile as she glanced at the
guys coming toward them.

Charlee took an extra-long drink of her beer. She needed liquid
courage right now if she was going to do this. She wasn’t sure if it was maybe
too big of a drink or her nerves, but for a quick moment there, she felt
completely nauseous. Thankfully, it was fleeting, and by the time the guys made
it to them, she was just absolutely nervous but no longer nauseous.

“Hello,” the tall guy said as soon as he reached them. “I’m
Raul.” He motioned to his friend who was just a few inches shorter than he was with
wavy hair and a small piercing on his lip. “This is Joseph.” Raul smiled at
Drew but then turned to Charlee and smiled even bigger. “I apologize for
staring, but it’s not often someone catches my eye the way you did tonight.
You’re breathtaking, and that’s not a line, I promise.”

Joseph laughed. “Yeah, Raul doesn’t do lines.” He assured Charlee.

Charlee felt her face warm instantly but smiled despite the
discomfort she felt about being the center of attention even in this small
group. “Thank you,” she smiled but for the life of her couldn’t think of a
single thing else to say.

“So let me guess,” he said. “I’ve been trying to figure out what
your name could be.” He put his fist against his lips and stared at her for a
moment, and, of course, Charlee made a note of how it felt nothing like when
Hector stared at her. “Scarlet?”

Drew laughed and Charlee knew exactly why. Charlee had lost count
of all the times people had told Charlee she looked like any name that remotely
suggested the color red.

“Am I right?” Raul asked, bright-eyed.

“Nope,” Charlee said, taking another big swig of her beer. “Not
even close.”

“Cherry?” Joseph offered.

“Ooh, close.” Charlee said, lifting her cup at him and sipping
again, glad that she was starting to feel a little more relaxed.

“Sherry,” Raul said quickly.

“No, you’re getting cold now,” Charlee smiled, glancing at Drew,
who winked at her. She knew that meant she was doing well, and for the first
time that evening, she felt somewhat at ease. Maybe coming here had been a good
idea after all.

Both Raul and Joseph looked stumped. “I’ll give you a hint,”
Charlee said, feeling silly. “It starts with C H and it rhymes with Bob Marley.”

Of course, the line about her name rhyming with Bob Marley was
compliments of her pot smoking stepdad.

“Charlie?” Joseph asked, looking at her weirdly.

She knew he was thinking what everyone always thought. That’s a
boy’s name. So she clarified. “Actually, it’s Charlotte, but everyone calls me
Charlee, and I spell it with a double
e
not an
ie
at the end like the male version.”

Annoyingly, thoughts of Hector were instantly in her head again.
The thought of him calling her Charlotte and the look in those intense eyes of
his when he said it were enough to make her down the rest of her beer.

A few beers later and a couple of more trips to the restroom
where the line seemed to get longer every time, Charlee decided she’d had
enough beer. She was already feeling very tipsy though she assured Drew she was
still fine enough to hang out as long as she stopped drinking.

Charlee and Drew had already danced with Joseph and Raul a few
times, and Charlee was glad the guys had stuck with them the whole time. She
didn’t have to go through the whole introduction thing again with any new guys.
All she wanted to do now is dance and have a good time, and Raul would do just
fine for that.

The area where everyone was dancing was so crowded Charlee kept
losing Drew. She glanced around and spotted her dancing with Joseph a few yards
away. Charlee and Raul were supposed to be dancing apart, but because it was so
crowded, even though they didn’t have their arms around each other, their
bodies kept touching. At some point, Charlee began to notice he purposely
rubbed his body up against hers. She tried, but because of the tight space, she
couldn’t back up much.

“Where’s your cup?” Raul asked, leaning in against her ear.

“I’m done.” She responded, stretching her neck to speak against
his ear.

“Really?
Why?” She felt his lips graze
her ear, so she took advantage of needing to stretch to speak in his ear to
pull away from his lips.

“I’ve had enough. Plus, it makes me have to keep going to the
bathroom, and the lines are ginormous now.”

Feeling his hand against her lower back, Raul leaned into her ear
again. “Try some of this then.”

She pulled away to see him pointing at his own cup, and she
stared at it quizzically. That whole time she’d assumed he was drinking beer
like everyone else. He pointed toward the area where the kegs were. “They also
have soda over there for the non-drinkers and for those of us who prefer the
hard stuff.” He lifted the flap of his vest open to reveal a flask. “Meet Jack.”

Charlee’s
drinking experiences were few
and far between: the party last year where she drank some beer, but not nearly
as much as she drank tonight; wine coolers with Drew every now and then; and a
handful of other times Drew had dragged her to parties, but she never actually drank
hard stuff
.

“Try it,” Raul said, handing her the cup. She took the cup,
smelling the contents, and he laughed. “It’s just Jack and Coke.” She took a
sip. It wasn’t bad, so she nodded, handing it back. “Drink more than that.” He
said, refusing the cup. Charlee took it back and took a longer drink. It tasted
mostly like soda, but it did have a slight aftertaste. Otherwise, it wasn’t
half bad. “Best thing about it is,” he said, his lip grazing her ear again, but
she didn’t pull away this time letting him finish, “you won’t be running to and
from the bathroom.”

She handed the cup back, nodding. “Good to know,” she began to
say against his ear but froze when she felt his lips on her neck. She jerked
her head back when she felt his tongue on her neck.

“I’m sorry,” he smiled. “But after the second or third time of
having your neck this close, I couldn’t hold back anymore.” He pulled her
closer to him and whispered. “It tastes as sweet as I thought it would.”

Charlee gulped, staring at him.
Nothing.
It felt
nothing
like when Hector’s
lips had been on her neck. Hector working his mouth down her neck had made her
warm and ache in places she never imagined would have any connection with that
part of her body. Feeling Raul’s on it had made her shiver, but not in a good
way.
Stop comparing!

“Thank you,” was once again the only two words she could think of,
but she did think of something else that would help her get through this instead
of running for her life.

She reached her hand out for his cup, and his satisfied smile
made her smile too. Already, she could feel the difference in the buzz this was
giving her compared to the beer. It was faster, but it was also numbing, and
she liked that. Tonight she needed numb.

Chapter 19

It took a while for Hector to find Nestor when he went
back to the training room. Gus and Santos told Hector that Nestor had taken off
almost as soon as Hector had. Since he hadn’t been able to find Charlee, Hector
thought maybe Nestor had pulled a fast one and found her first.

Luckily for his own sake, Nestor wasn’t that stupid. Hector found
him working the girls still lingering around in the crowd again. Once Nestor
told him what party he’d told Charlee and Drew to meet him at, Hector rushed
out of there. He’d already told Lisa that something had come up tonight and
they’d have to grab a burger another time.