Love Me to Death (6 page)

“Hey.” I hear Bobby’s excited voice as he swings open the car door and slides in next to me.

“What’s up?” I nod in Bobby’s direction and then turn my attention to the driver. “Hey, do you know Eccentric?” He nods. “Great, that’s where we’re going.” I turn back to Bobby. “Why are you smiling so much?”

“I saw
her
today.”
Oh gosh, not this again.

“The chick from the clothes store?”

“Yup,” he says with a sickly smile on his face.

“You look creepy when you smile like that. And how much longer are you going to stalk her for?”

“I am not stalking her,” he says seriously.

“Bobby, you go into her store every day and never buy anything.”

“Not true, I bought a pair of pants the other day actually.”

“I know, and then you returned them.”

“I still bought something.”

“Yeah, just so you had a reason to see her again.” I raise my eyebrows at him. “Why don’t you just ask her out?”

“She scares the life out of me! I can’t; if she rejects me I’ll be mortified. She’s the first girl I don’t want to take to bed.”

I look at him with raised brows.

“Ok, I want to take her to bed but I’d like to see her in the morning too.”

“That makes more sense.”

“It does?”

“Well, not to me, I never want to deal with the morning after, too much drama but if it works for you then great.”

“Did anyone ever mention that your words of encouragement suck?”

“Nope, ’cuz I don’t usually give any out.”

“Nice.”

“So, where are the twins?”

“They’re meeting us there later. Lacey’s mine, you can have Tracey.”

“Rhyming names, their parents run out of imagination?”

“I know, right.” He laughs.

“And what’s wrong with Tracey?” I ask suspiciously.

“Nothing, Lacey’s just more flexible.” He chuckles.
Fair enough, I can still work with that. Tracey might not be flexible now …

“How do you even tell them apart?”

“I can’t. I just plan to call out Lacey’s name and whichever one answers is mine for the night.” I shake my head at his twisted logic.

“So, how did your interview go?” I have to remind myself that I signed an NDA.

“Yeah, good.”

“Just good? Dude, you haven’t had a job in the past seven months. Aren’t you excited?”

“Yeah, of course I am. I’m just more excited about tonight.” I lie. I’m definitely more excited about what Ned’s going to be wearing next time I see her. I wonder if she’ll look even hotter than today.

“What is it? A TV show, theater …” Oh boy.

I hesitate. “Yeah.”

“Yeah what?” he asks suspiciously.

“Yeah, it’s an online TV show.” Good save, Brennan, good save.

“When will it be aired?”

“Don’t know yet, the producers are just working on the pilot and script. I’ve got to wait and see how it goes.”

“Oh, then h—”

“Ok, we are here.” Saved by the voice of a taxi driver. Thank God!

We pay half of the fare each and leave a little tip for the driver before jumping out in front of Eccentric. I love this place. We walk straight to the front of the line. Bobby says our names to a gigantic bouncer and before I know it, I’m in the comfort of my favorite bar.

Bobby goes straight over to talk to his cousin, Jonathon, who also happens to be the co-owner of Eccentric. I nod my head at him before heading to the bar and leaving them to talk.

“What can I get you, handsome?”

She’s a brunette and she’s hot, just not the hottest brunette I’ve met today. I push thoughts of Ned away so I can flirt.

“What do you like to drink?” I flash her my panty-dropping smile.

“Malibu and Coke works for me,” she answers in a sultry voice.

“Then I guess that’s what I’m having.” I wink.

“Single or double?”

“Make it a double.”

“Good choice.”

“I make excellent choices, babe, trust me.” She blushes before spinning around and going to make my drink. I take a seat on one of the stools at the bar and face the crowd. This place is pretty swanky, and that’s what I like about it. It’s not wild like some bars, it’s almost exclusive. Leather chairs, booths, quiet music, and a good atmosphere. It’s exactly what I need after whatever I got up to last night. Don’t get me wrong, I intend to take someone home tonight but this time, I intend to remember so that I can make sure they leave before tomorrow morning. And before you judge me, let me remind you that nobody knows about me and Ned yet so it won’t do any harm to our little arrangement.

“Here you go,” the bartender says, sliding my drink toward me. I turn and face her. I stop the glass with my left hand and grab her wrist with my right.

“I haven’t seen you here before.” I lower the tone of my voice.

“I started on Friday.”

“What days do you work?”

“Just on Friday and Saturday.” I can feel her pulse speeding up under my fingertips.

“Good, now I know exactly when my favorite time to come here is.” I slowly remove my hand from her wrist and watch her blush. I smirk. I take out my wallet, pay her and then pull out my phone. “Keep the change.”

I log on to my online banking app and wait while it scrolls. After we signed the contracts earlier, Ned instructed me to leave my contact details with Misty. That included my number, address, and bank details.

When the screen pops up, I stop breathing for a moment as I look at my balance: $5261.23.

I close my eyes and then check one more time. She wasn’t kidding! She paid me. I have to push away the urge to break out into my happy dance. This Ned chick really is rich and she’s taking my role as the “lover” seriously. Well, if I keep seeing five thousand dollars being deposited into my account every month, I’ll be the best damn fake lover she has ever had.

“What’s with that crazy look on your face?”

I turn and find Bobby staring at me.

“What look?”

“You know what I’m talking about. You’ve been acting weird since you picked me up earlier.”

“Sorry, I guess I am more excited about this new job than I thought. I was just checking an email saying that the job’s definitely mine,” I lie. I hate lying but I don’t have much of a choice.

“That’s good, I’m happy for you. Does this mean drinks are on you tonight?”

“Hell yes!”I laugh before he orders three drinks. One for me and the other two for himself.
Typical.

We’ve been here for two hours now. The twins arrived about an hour ago, and I may be a little drunk. I start laughing at the thought of Ned finding out I’ve been drinking, which she won’t.
And why am I even thinking about her?

“What’s funny?” Lacey asks.

“Just a joke someone told me earlier. So, tell me, Lacey, what do I have to do to get you to come home with me tonight?” I whisper as I snake my arm around her waist and pull her so close that my lips are against her ear. I feel her shudder against me.
Nice.
I’m definitely getting some tonight.

“Well, you could start by getting my name right.”

I pull back. “Huh?”

“My name is not
Lacey
.”

I must be drunk.

“Then who in the hell are you?”

“Tracey,” she says in annoyance. “That’s Lacey, my
twin
sister,” she says pointing toward the girl talking to Bobby, behind us.

“There are two of you? Wow, I just thought I was seeing double.” I chuckle to myself. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, stroking the back of my fingers across her face. Well, I think it’s her face; things are a little blurry to be honest.

“It’s ok, you’ve had a bit to drink; I’ll let you off.” She laughs.

“That’s good to know. So, how do I get
you
to come home with me?”

“You don’t.” A stern voice interrupts. Both Lacey or Tracey — I’m still not sure yet — and I turn toward the owner of the voice.

“Ned?” I breathe as she stands there with her arms folded across her chest. Gosh she looks so freaking hot right now, well I think she does … from what I can make out. I imagine she does anyway. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask
you
the same thing.”

“Do you know this girl?” Lacey or Tracey asks.

“Err…sort of,” I mumble.

“Sort of? How?”

“Oh, do tell, Cole,” Ned says.

“Cole? I thought your name was Brennan?”

“It is,” I say in confusion. “
She
just calls me Cole.”

“And who is
she
?”

“Well, she’s sort of my girlfriend.”

“What?” That word leaves several mouths: Lacey’s, Tracey’s, and Bobby’s.

“Since when did
you
get a girlfriend? And a very hot one too, might I add,” Bobby asks, looking Ned up and down.

“Since this morning,” I grumble. “I kind of forgot and stop checking out my girl. So not cool, Bobby.”

“Priceless,” Ned says with an exasperated laugh.

“You forgot you had a girlfriend? You were just begging me to come home with you!” Twiny says angrily.

“Technically I wasn’t begging. You didn’t make me work
that
hard.” I hear Ned start laughing. I love that sound.

“I never said yes and how can you laugh at the idea of your boyfriend taking another girl home?”

“Ah, worse things could happen, some people in the world are actually dying believe it or not,” Ned says and I smile at her for that comeback. Well, the blurry figure that I’m pretty sure is her.

“Have I told you how hot you are?” I ask Ned.

“No, you haven’t.”

“Well, you are.”

“Thanks.”

“
Very
hot.”

“I second that,” Bobby says. I think I see one of the twins slap him.

“Not cool, Bobby,
not cool
,” I mumble.

“Cole,” Ned says softly, instantly commanding my attention. I look up at the beautiful blur.

“Yes, baby?”

“Get up, we’re going.”

“And you’re bossy too; did anyone ever tell you that you’re bossy?”

“Yes.”

“Good because you need to know. Bobby, do you see how bossy my girlfriend is?”

“Err … yeah,” he says in shock.

“Good. I’ll call you in the morning, enjoy the twins. I’m going to enjoy Ned … I hope.” I hear her scoff.

“I will.” He sounds perplexed and his voice is distant. That’s when I realize that Ned is currently dragging me out of the club. I try to focus and can just about make out my arm draped across her. My head falls onto her shoulder and I take in the smell of her hair.

“Damn, your hair smells good.”

“Thanks.” I’m sure she just laughed but I’m not certain since my eyes are closed.

“Like strawberries and cream.”

“Yup.”

“I
love
strawberries and cream.”

“Good.”

“Where are we going?”

“To my penthouse.”

“Am I sleeping there?”

“Yup.”

“Oh, you dirty, dirty girl. You’re taking advantage of the point in the contract about me staying at the penthouse. I’m so shocked.”

“Oh, you’re not shocked yet but in the morning, you will be.”

That sounds a lot like a threat, but I’m not sure because as soon as the sentence leaves her mouth I fall into complete darkness.