Escaping Eden (3 page)

“Oh. Shit. I guess I overslept. Come in,” I said, stepping back.

Simon kept his eyes on me and I saw his lips twitch again.

“What the hell is so funny?” I asked.

“Where’s your bathroom?” he asked.

I pointed and he put his hands on my shoulders, steering me inside of it. Once he stood me in front of the mirror, I felt absolutely mortified. My bright red lipstick was almost a dark pink now and half smeared up my face. My hair looked like a rat’s nest and I looked like I had been punched in both eyes.

“Oh my God,” I said in embarrassment. “Out please.”

“Oh come on, I think it’s adorable,” he said.

“I look like the Little Heroin Addicted Hooker Clown That Did. Out, I need to take a shower and fix this mess,” I insisted giving him a gentle shove.

I closed the door behind him and heard him laughing. In spite of my current appearance, I smiled.  Simon’s laughter was never cruel so I knew he wasn’t laughing at me in a mean way.

I spent twenty minutes in the shower scrubbing my face off and vowing silently to myself that I would never wear makeup again. I wrapped a towel around myself when I was done and used another one to dry out my hair as much as I could. Forgetting I had company, I walked out of the bathroom in my towel and headed into my bedroom to pick out an outfit for the evening.

I decided on my black leather pants, and a light blue shirt with a shredded back. A silver necklace with a giant, chunky cross would pull the outfit together nicely, I decided as I laid out my choice of clothes on the bed.

I turned and walked out of my room. I was almost to the bathroom again when I damn near screamed.

Simon was sitting on the couch leafing through a magazine. I had completely blocked out the fact that he was here already here and that I had let him in.

He looked up at me and smiled, but his smile faltered a bit when he saw that I was standing there in a towel, giving him a terrified look.

“You okay there?”

“Sorry. I just forgot you were here,” I said before disappearing into the bathroom again.

God he looks good tonight. Not that he didn’t look good earlier, it’s just ... damn.

Simon was wearing a dark gray and white plaid shirt that showed off his arms. How the hell he was able to hide those arms was beyond me, but the Nerd King was buff. I’m pretty sure he was wearing dark blue denim jeans and dark gray Converse shoes.

Yum.

I felt my lady parts perking up at how he looked tonight.

“Don’t even think about it,” I whispered looking down. “He’s a project, not a conquest. Besides, one more disappointment and you’ll probably sew yourself up.”

It took me another twenty minutes to blow dry my hair and straighten it. Then another ten to dry myself off and lotion my body so that I wouldn’t be sticky once I started to sweat tonight.

When I walked out of the bathroom to go into my room to get dressed, I saw Simon had gone from flipping through the magazine to watching TV.

Ten minutes later, I stepped out of my room dressed and ready to go. I had pulled my hair back into a high ponytail and decided that the no makeup rule I had given myself earlier would probably be a good idea for tonight.

I still put on a little bit of light lip gloss so that I would look semi decent.

“Ready?” I asked him.

Simon glanced over at me and for a moment, his eyes got big. He recovered quickly and nodded.

“I thought you might’ve fallen asleep again,” he teased.

“Oh shut it,” I grumbled as I grabbed one of my smaller purses and walked out.

We got into the car.

“Wanna walk?” I asked him suddenly.

“Um, sure,” he said.

“Well the only reason I ask is because if I drink too much tonight I don’t want to drive and I don’t want you to not be able to have a good time because of it. It’s not too far. Come on,” I said, jumping out and leading the way down the block.

The walk took about half an hour, but we made it to TAO. The line was long as usual and Simon looked completely nervous. I looked up at him and winked, taking his hand in mine, I walked us straight to the front of the line.

“Eden! Long time no see, where you been?”

Nick was huge, bald, and the stereotypical bouncer at a nightclub. He also had the final say on who entered and who didn’t. Luckily I had saved the day one night when he came into the Game Cave to get a video game his son had desperately wanted, and pulled some strings to get it for him in a couple of days. Ever since then I was guaranteed free access to TAO along with anyone that came with me.

“Working mostly,” I replied with a laugh. “This is my friend Simon and we came to party!”

Simon smiled nervously and Nick shook his hand, giving him a pat on the back.

“Go on in guys!” he said, unclipping the velvet rope and we walked right in.

“How do you know him?” Simon shouted over the pounding dance music.

“Video game emergency!” I shouted back. “Come on!”

I gripped his hand firmly and made my way to the bar. I wasn’t going to let him go anytime soon until I could tell he was completely comfortable with being here.

Maybe this isn’t the best place to do this. I feel like I’ve shell-shocked him.

The bartender came over with a big smile, “Hey Eden! What are you having?”

I smiled at Jake, “The usual for me. Simon?”

“Um, what’s the usual?” he asked me.

“Screwdriver!”

“Yeah, that definitely sounds good,” he replied with a big smile.

I held up two fingers to Jake who nodded and took off down the bar to make our drinks.

As I stood there holding Simon’s hand, I started to shimmy a bit to the beat which made him laugh.

I felt a tug on my arm and turned. Jake slid our drinks toward me and I smiled. I reached for one and handed it to Simon, then went into my wallet to pay for them, but he already had his arm behind me handing Jake cash and waving to let him know that he didn’t need change.

Jake waved the bill to say thank you and I squinted trying to catch a glimpse of what he handed him but, it was already in the register with the tip being tossed into the silver bucket that sat in the middle of the bottles.

I tugged Simon’s hand and led him one of the tables near the dance floor that I liked to hang out at until the drinks hit me and the “fun Eden”, as Liora once said, came out to play.

I pulled myself up onto one of the high stools and turned to face him. He was standing there looking around a bit uncomfortable.

That’s problem number one.

“Stop looking like a scared child,” I leaned over and yelled to him.

He nodded and took a deep breath, trying to relax. I tilted my head for a moment and scanned the group of people around us. There was a petite brunette who was standing there dancing with her friends and was stealing glances at Simon already. I looked up at him and saw that he was completely oblivious to it.

With a wicked idea, I set my drink down on the table top, hopped down, and made my way over to them.

I tapped the girl on her shoulder and she turned to face me with a raised eyebrow.

“Hi! I’m Eden! Have you met my friend Simon over there?” I asked leaning in and shouting.

“I’m Eliza, no I haven’t. He sure looks hot though,” she yelled back.

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to him!”

I smiled when I saw Simon looking around in confusion; he hadn’t even realized what I was doing until he saw me walking back toward him with Eliza on my heels.

“Hey, this is Eliza and she wanted to meet you,” I shouted over the music.

Simon looked down at her and gave her a curt nod.

“Hi. Simon right?” I heard her ask with a wide smile.

“Yes.”

“Um do you want to dance?” she asked pointing to the dance floor.

“Well - -”

“Yes, he does,” I replied grabbing his drink and giving him a shove.

Simon turned and gave me a dirty look, “Actually, I don’t dance,” he said to Eliza as politely as he could.

“Come on, I can teach you!” she said with a big grin.

I looked at him.

I saw the Simon Smile trying to fight it’s way to the surface, but he just kindly shook his head, grabbed his drink, and turned his attention back to watching the people in the club.

Are you kidding me?

I looked at Eliza and mouthed “I’m sorry”. She shrugged looking stung, and retreated to her group of friends. I felt terrible when I watched them all leave so early. I knew it was because she felt humiliated.

I looked up and smacked Simon on his arm.

“What’s the matter with you? You know she was into you, right?”

He nodded.

“Well, if you would’ve put just the tiniest bit of effort into that, you would’ve gotten laid tonight!” I yelled in frustration.

Simon scoffed and looked down before he leaned over. I felt a little weird with his arms on either side of me.

“I didn’t come to a club to get ‘laid’, Eden. This really isn’t my scene,” he said.

I looked at him, “Then why the hell are we here?”

Shrugging, he said, “Liora said you hadn’t been out in a while because you couldn’t afford it and I wanted you to have a fun evening.”

I sighed and put my drink down.

I hopped off the stool and made a beeline toward the door.

I was pissed.

I needed a cigarette STAT.

If he wasn’t going to put any effort into changing and trying new things, then he was going to have to find a new “guide”.

“Hey!” Simon said catching up to me as I made it to the door.

I held up my cigarette and he nodded.

I pushed my way through the smoking crowd and settled into a corner near the barricade. Simon wiggled his way through everyone and stood in front of me.

“You’re angry,” he observed.

I took a deep breath and began to tap my foot against the floor. I wanted to be careful of what came out of my mouth, because he really was a nice guy.

“Listen, are you going to put any effort into anything? Or should I just give up?” I asked.

“Eden, just because you throw a girl at me doesn’t mean I’m going to act on it. Maybe I didn’t find her attractive, maybe I did. That’s just not how I do things. When I see a woman that I want, I guess you could say, I have no problem acting on it. It’s just harder for me sometimes. Don’t give up on me yet?”

I looked up into his now puppy dog eyes and smacked him in the chest.

“That’s your freebie. Now that I know how you operate, you’ve got the full three strikes left. Got it buddy?”

“Deal,” he grinned.

He stood there patiently while I smoked in silence. I watched him with a smile on my face; Simon was a people watcher. I liked that, because that meant he watched more how people behaved rather than what they looked like.

“I’ll be right back,” he said suddenly.

I raised an eyebrow and watched him disappear back into the club, then as he shot out the front door and went down the street. I got up on my tip toes and craned my neck.

Good boy
, I thought to myself with a satisfied grin.

Simon was talking to Eliza. Apparently she had still been in the area and he spotted her. I moved to the edge of the barricade and leaned over so I could watch them. I watched Eliza talking to him shyly, then suddenly burst into laughter and put a hand on his chest briefly.

That deal was definitely sealed.

I took one last drag from my cigarette, then dropped it on the floor and stomped it out happily. Now that I helped Simon, maybe I could help myself.

I made my way back into TAO and back to the table we were sitting at. My drink was still there and so was Simon’s. I pulled myself back up onto the stool and glanced around. There had to be some guys here, I just needed to find them.

“Anyone sitting here?”

I glanced to my left and saw my ex-boyfriend standing there, looking sexy as ever with a big smile.

“Nope,” I replied, with a smile.

As he settled down into the stool opposite me I found myself reassessing him. Finley was gorgeous; tall, dark blonde hair, honey brown eyes, strong manly face, and a body to die for. He was dressed in a pair of black, fitted jeans, a white V-neck shirt, and a black button over shirt. I knew he was wearing his favorite pair of black chucks; that was always going to be a give in when he went out.

He was also the first person I ever had sex with, and I maintained that after him, sex with anyone else went downhill. It was absolutely amazing and set my standards way too high for anyone else in the bedroom. Part of the reason was because he was the first and last person to ever give me an O and partly because he always would have that piece of me that no one else would have.

“You look good, Eden,” he shouted over the music.

“You too!” I replied, sipping my drink.

“Who’s that guy I saw you with outside?” he asked, leaning closer to me.

“Oh! That’s Simon! That’s one of Liora’s friends. She wanted me to take him out and show him a good time. He’s not from around here,” I explained.

“So you’re not seeing anyone then?” he asked, with a sexy grin.

I shook my head and smiled on the inside. I could only hope that Fin wanted what I was hoping he wanted.

Dirty, hot, mind-blowing sex.

“Are you?” I asked.

He shook his head and leaned closer, “Wanna dance?”

I smiled; I knew what Fin was up to. I looked at him, tilting my head to the side and nodded. I sipped the last of my drink and hopped off my stool. Fin took me by the hand and led me to the dance floor, where he pulled my arms up over his shoulders and pulled me close against him as we began grind against each other to the dance song that was pulsating throughout the club.

I closed my eyes as Finley slid his hands down to my hips and moved against me. I felt his breath on my neck and sighed. I pulled him down closer to me and kept our lips inches away from each other as we moved to the beat of the song. I watched his lips slowly curve into a smile which told me that I still had it when it came to Fin.

We looked at each other and laughed when the song was over. Nothing about being this close to Finley ever made me feel uncomfortable. He was genuinely a good guy and we had a lot of fun together, but he slipped once and when he admitted to me that he cheated on me with a stripper as his brother’s bachelor party, I immediately broke up with him without hesitation. He spent days, weeks, even months, trying to get me to forgive him. Apology after apology; flowers, jewelry, gifts... anything he could think of. I hadn’t spoken to him ever since.