Believing Lies (11 page)

“Yeah, it is. How much time do I have?” I looked at her bedside alarm clock. “Is your clock accurate?”

“Yes.”

“Then three minutes.”

“Screw you and your stupid bet.”

She put in a final bobby pin with excessive force. Her hair and makeup looked flawless, but she still needed to get dressed. She went into her walk-in closet. I laughed as clothes began raining out of the closet door, while obscenities were raining from her mouth.

“I’ll be in the living room. Good luck.”

Adam and Conner were watching a baseball game while they waited for us. I was pleasantly surprised that the dinner table had been cleaned up. They turned around at the sound of my stilettos on the hardwood floor.

Adam let out a low, drawn out whistle. “I take back my previous comment. I’m glad you had your fifteen minutes.”

“Not too slutty, right?”
Why am I asking him that question?

“I like slutty, but not on you, Princess, because you aren’t a slutty girl. So no, not too slutty. More like drop dead gorgeous.”

I just had one of the sexiest men I’d ever seen call me gorgeous. I could feel my cheeks flush at the compliment. “Um, thanks,” I said a little too gushingly.

I sat down on the couch and looked at the clock. Sophie was currently at eighteen minutes. Conner begrudgingly handed Adam a twenty dollar bill. Two minutes later, Sophie came into the living room in black shorts and a silver sequined tube top. She was wearing black wedges, and all of her jewelry was silver and sparkly. Her auburn hair and red lipstick stood out beautifully.

I opened my mouth to tell her how amazing she looked, but Conner beat me to it. “Wow, Babe. You are absolutely stunning.”
These boys sure know how to give a compliment
. She blew him a kiss.

Adam waved his newly gained twenty bucks in front of Sophie. “Conner’s right, you do look stunning, but you took twenty minutes, so your boy-toy lost our little side bet.

Sophie stuck out her lip. “I’m sorry, Conner. I didn’t know you bet money.”

He pulled her close and gave her a light kiss. “The way you look, who cares about money?”

Adam laughed. “I’ll use the twenty to buy us all a round of shots when we get there. Are we driving or walking?”

I looked down at my red shoes and quickly answered, “Driving.”

Adam followed my line of sight. “Those
fuck-me-shoes
stay on your feet no matter what, so driving it is.”

My entire body turned the color of my shoes. Sophie out right laughed at my embarrassment. At least Conner tried to muffle his laugh with a pretend cough.

Sophie went to the kitchen and came back with four toothpicks. It was time to pick a DD for the night. She broke one and then held them out to us, the bottoms hidden in her fist. I grabbed first. Unbroken.
Thank God
. I didn’t think I could get through tonight without some liquid courage backing me up. Conner picked next and also earned the privilege of drinking.

“Okay, Adam,” Sophie said. “Who’s having more fun tonight? You or me?” Adam snatched one of the remaining two toothpicks, and it came out broken. “Ooh, tough luck,” Sophie gloated. “You know the drill—two shots when we get there, and then you’re cut off.”

“Yeah, yeah. Got it.” Adam grabbed all of our toothpicks. “This sucks. Should have had a beer with dinner,” he mumbled under his breath as he turned away to take them to the garbage can. When he walked back to us, he was still sulking a bit, looking like a little boy who had just lost his favorite toy.

“It’s almost ten o’clock. Let’s get out of here before I turn back into a pumpkin,” I said, wanting to get there before eleven when all of the tables near the bar would be taken.

Sophie grabbed my arm, looped it through hers, and we walked to the door. Adam and Conner followed behind us, and I heard one of them turn the lock before closing the door.

Chapter Ten

Conner usually worked the afternoon shifts at The Turning Point, but he still knew the night bartenders. I learned that he and Adam usually started out their nights here because Conner got discounted drinks. The Turning Point at night was completely different than during the day when it served mainly as a restaurant. Nighttime was loud music, dancing, and lots of drinking. The main room was full of booths and tall tables, along with a bar. This was the room we dined in the first time we met Adam and Conner. The second, larger room was closed off during the daytime. Along with a second bar, this room had a dance floor on one side, a couple of pool tables and dart boards on the other side, and tables in the middle.

We agreed to start out our night in the main room. I went to get us a tall table near the bar while they went to get shots and drinks. Sophie found me first and handed me a vodka cranberry. Adam arrived shortly after her, setting down a Corona and a bottle of water.

“Water already?” I asked. “What about your two shots?”

“I gave Conner money for shots. He’s bringing them.” As soon as he finished his sentence, a tray slid onto the table.

“Adam chose the shot. Since he bought, I obeyed,” Conner said as he grabbed the last stool and started to pass out the shots, putting two in front of each of us. I wasn’t sure what they were until I noticed the limes.

My eyes widened as I stared at the shot glasses, which were filled with my recently acquired nemesis: Tequila. My stomach churned just looking at the stuff. My eyes darted from the evil liquid to Sophie. Surely she didn’t want to drink this any more than I did. She was worse off than I was the last time we drank tequila. I gave her a tiny head nod toward the shot glasses, hoping she would understand.
Nope, no such luck
. She picked up the saltshaker from the tray, licked her wrist, salted it, and then slid the shaker to me. I pushed my bracelets up my arm and did the same before passing the shaker to Adam. I felt a spark when his fingers brushed mine. Our eyes met, and I took my hand back like I’d been electrocuted. He licked his wrist slowly and then shook the salt onto it. His eyes stayed glued to mine the entire time. I stopped breathing as I watched him. I gulped and averted my eyes toward the salt sparkling on my wrist. Conner must have finished with the salt because, out the corner of my eye, I saw the shaker had made its way back to the tray.

“Cheers!” Sophie exclaimed. “To a great night ahead.” We all raised our glasses and tinged them together before licking the salt off our wrists, downing a shot, and biting into a lime wedge. My lips puckered, and my eyes watered. The liquid burned as it coursed down my throat.

“Thanks for the shots, Adam,” Sophie said, smiling brightly.

“No problem. Conner mentioned that you and Sienna have a history with tequila, so I thought it’d be fun. Although I’m pretty sure there aren’t any bathtubs to sleep in around here.”

Sophie playfully hit Conner on the arm. “I told you that in confidence. Okay, not actually in confidence per say, but I didn’t think you’d tell anyone.”

Conner was rubbing his arm, laughing. “It was too funny not to share. Sorry, Babe.”

“It’s okay. If the roles had been reversed, I would have told Sienna about it too.”

“What embarrassing thing did you do that night, Princess?” Adam questioned.

Sophie had already been asleep in the tub, so she didn’t even know what I had done in my drunken state. I needed a little more alcohol in me if I was going to fess up. Forgoing the salt and lime, I grabbed my second shot and downed it in one gulp; this time embracing the burn. I stared at the empty glass for a moment before bringing my attention back to the three people staring at me.

“I flushed my engagement ring down the toilet,” I said quickly before losing my nerve.

Sophie fell off of her barstool. Her foot must have slipped or something because, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, she was on the floor. Conner scrambled off his stool to help her up.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now!” she screeched at me as she got back onto her stool. Her eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of her head. “Please, please, please tell me that magnificently beautiful diamond is not currently swimming in the sewer,” she pleaded.

“It’s gone. Half a bottle of tequila made me think it was a great idea.” My face scrunched. “But it was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done.”

“Holy Hell, Sienna!” Sophie followed my example, shooting her second shot without salt or lime. She then dramatically threw her head into her arms on the table. Conner seemed to be concerned and started to rub her back.

I was so preoccupied by her reaction that I had forgotten it was Adam who had originally asked me the question. “Damn, Princess. Remind me to never piss you off after buying you anything nice.” He was shaking his head back and forth chuckling. I’m not sure if he was chuckling more at me or at Sophie’s reaction. Probably both.

“First, stop calling me Princess. Secondly, it was a mistake.”

He stopped laughing, and his eyes narrowed. “A mistake because it was a very expensive ring, or a mistake because you still want to be engaged?”

Sophie’s head popped back up at Adam’s question. All eyes were once again on me. When did this conversation turn so intense?
Hmmm, probably when you decided to open your big, fat mouth to confess something that you should’ve taken to the grave
.

“Because it was expensive. It was a waste. I wish I would have given it back to Trenton.” Coming out tonight was a really bad idea. I was feeling like total crap now. I started to suck down my drink faster.

Conner took his second shot and stood up. “I’m going to go get another round of shots before it gets busy in here. Adam, come help me carry.”

“Nah. Take Sophie with you. She can pick out the next round.”

Sophie stood up and grabbed Conner’s hand. “Ladies choice. Let’s go, sexy,” she said to Conner as she pulled him away from the table.

I was very aware of the fact that Adam and I were the only ones left at the table. I scrambled for something to say—anything that didn’t involve ex-fiancés or rings. I noticed his second shot was still sitting in front of him.

“You didn’t take your other shot,” I pointed out, my attempt at an ice breaker.
He didn’t respond. He was just looking at the table. No, he was looking at my hand. Before I had time to wonder why, he took my hand in his and brought it to his mouth. He placed his lips on the skin between my thumb and pointer finger and gently sucked. Tingles exploded from my hand all the way down to . . . let’s just say it was all the way down. He took his mouth away and sprinkled the spot with salt. He lifted my hand back to his mouth once more, and his tongue caressed my skin as he licked the salt, before slowly releasing my hand back to me. He tipped his head and took his shot before biting into a lime wedge.

“Delicious,” he said with a devilish smirk.

“Huh?” I squeaked out.

“Cat got your tongue?”

My eyes shifted to his mouth. “Tongue?”

He chuckled, and I finally snapped out of my lust-filled stupor. I didn’t know what to say or how to react. Luckily, Sophie returned.

“You kids get along while I was gone?” she asked playfully, looking between us. My heart was pounding out of my chest.
Did she see?

“You could say that,” Adam replied, shooting me a naughty grin.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yep.”

Conner came back holding a tray with six, small, black shots. I instantly knew they were Jaeger, Sophie’s favorite.
Tequila chased with Jaeger. Are they trying to kill me?

“I want to go dance, so let’s take these quick,” she said to me, bouncing up and down anxiously on her stool.

Sophie, Conner, and I slammed our shots. The guys decided to go talk to some friends they recognized at the bar, and Sophie dragged me out to the dance floor. I could feel the alcohol flowing through my veins as I lost myself to the beat of the music.

Sophie and I were sweaty after several songs of non-stop dancing. A couple of times, random guys tried to dance with us, but Sophie shooed them away like annoying flies. I was feeling dehydrated and needed to stop to get some water. We were laughing and having a great time as we made our way to the bar. When I got my water, I chugged it, letting the cool liquid refresh my parched mouth.

We scanned the room and found Conner and Adam playing a game of pool with two other guys. Adam was lining up his cue stick, and my imagination was running wild at seeing him stretched across the pool table. Sophie ran up to Conner and jumped into his arms, wrapped her legs around his waist, and gave him a huge kiss. It made me smile to see her so openly affectionate with him. Adam missed his shot due to the distraction Sophie had caused, but he didn’t seem to mind. He was looking at them, smiling as much as I was.

A fairly pretty girl with black hair, fishnet stockings, and a short, plaid skirt walked up behind Adam and put her hands over his eyes. Adam turned around, and she grabbed his shirt in her fists, and planted a kiss on his lips.

Jealously hit me like a sucker punch to the gut. I wanted to rip her fucking face off.
Whoa. Where did that just come from?
I was being completely irrational. I was absolutely nothing to Adam in any sort of romantic sense. We were friends who liked to give each other shit back and forth. That’s all. Heck, I didn’t even want anything with
any
guy right now, so why was I getting my panties in a bundle? He could kiss as many girls as he wanted.

Conner set Sophie down, and I walked the couple of steps to reach them.

“Please say that Adam’s not going to ditch us, leaving us without a ride home, to go have sex with some bar fly,” she said to Conner, clearly agitated.

Conner nervously laughed. “It wouldn’t be the first time. If he does, you and Sienna can stay at our house. It’s only a short walk. You two can take my bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Sophie pointed at Adam.

Adam had stepped back from the girl, and by the expression on her face, whatever he was saying to her wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She started to raise her voice, and I could make out “asshole” and “jerk” before she slapped him.
Ouch
. My jealous side did a little happy dance knowing that he wasn’t going home with her tonight. She stormed off, and he turned to us. There was now a red mark on his cheek on the exact same spot as the yellowing bruise.
Double ouch!