The Deal

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “It doesn’t feel right. Let’s find you someone else.”

  “Fine, how about that one,” Jacob said without losing a beat as he pointed to a brunette at the other end of the bar.

  “Sure, let’s go get you that one.” I laughed.

  As Jacob and I flirted and talked to the group of girls on the opposite end of the bar, I couldn’t help looking back over at Lilli and watching her. She had switched to water and stayed sitting for a bit but then was back on the dance floor with her friends partying and taking control of the floor. All the guys had their eyes on Lilli and her friends, and I was no different.

  Her delicious curves fit perfectly in the tight black dress she had on. It was just as short as the last one and drove me crazy with desire. My body was hardly contained as I watched her dance around to the music, and a young guy slid up behind her and started grinding on her. She let him dance with her for one song and then pushed him away as she returned to her friends. Lilli didn’t seem to be at the club to pick up guys; instead, she was there to let off some steam and dance. I kept my distance though as I stayed with Jacob and continued to talk with the girls that he was hitting on.

  Two hours later, I was holding a rather mundane conversation with a girl whose name I couldn’t remember. Jacob and his girl were out on the dance floor, and I had a line of sight to Lilli and her friends as they laughed and hung out together.

  Lilli had stopped drinking, but she still seemed pretty smashed when the group of girls finally got up to leave. Her legs wobbled with the tall hi-heels she had on, and again I felt the urge to rush over there and help her.

  “I better get going,” I said to the woman next to me. “It was nice meeting you.”

  “Here’s my number; call me sometime,” she said as she handed me a piece of paper and gave me an awkward hug.

  I hurried onto the dance floor, let Jacob know I was leaving for the night and then slid out the front door and behind Lilli and her friends. I walked quickly to my car and waited until the girls were in their Uber before I went home. Something inside me told me to get home before the girls got there, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that Lilli was going to need my help to get inside.

  I backed into my garage and turned the light off as I stood near my car and watched Lilli and her friends drive up in their Uber. Unlike the last time she was dropped off, Lilli’s friends didn’t stick around for long and quickly left her standing in the driveway.

  Her legs wobbled on the cobblestone rocks as she tried walking up the driveway and then ended up leaning against her parents’ car while she tried to take her heels off. I watched from a distance just to make sure she was able to get into her house. I’d seen her having trouble with her key on more than one occasion.

  It took her nearly five minutes to get her shoes off as I watched her talking and swearing at herself. It was pretty damn adorable as she finally tiptoed up the two front steps and then looked through her purse to find her key.

  Her hands worked their way around the inside of her small purse, but she just couldn’t seem to find the key. Finally, she started to ring the doorbell to her house, but no one came to the door. When she slid down the front door and sat on the wet ground, I finally couldn’t take it and went over to help her.

  “Can I help you get into your house?” I offered.

  “Oh, hot neighbor guy,” she said as she sat on the ground.

  I couldn’t help laughing as she looked up at me with her gorgeous eyes and sexy little dress on. The honesty that came out when a woman was drunk was sometimes very enlightening. Gently, I grabbed her hands and pulled her up as she held onto the railing for support.

  “Is there a key in there somewhere?” I asked as I pointed at her purse.

  “Oh, I don’t think so. I’ve looked all over,” she said seriously as if the purse was larger than the size of a piece of bread.

  “Would you mind if I looked?”

  “Sure thing hot neighbor guy. Oh, wait, Devin, your name is Devin. I remember now.”

  “Yep, that’s my name. And your name is Lilli; I remember that very well.”

  Her face turned bright red as the memory of how she had stood teasing me must have flashed through her mind. She quickly looked away from me as she handed me her purse to see if I could find the key. I couldn’t stop smiling as she was absolutely adorable. The way she had tried to be seductive but now was so shy, it drove me nuts and made me want her more than I cared to admit.

  “That damn blue curtain,” Lilli said under her breath as she waited for me to find her key.

  “Is your family home? Maybe one of them will wake up?” I asked as I couldn’t find her key.

  “No, I forgot, they went to Cancun for the week. They left me their car, and I put my house key on that. But I was drinking tonight, so I didn’t bring the car keys. I don’t drive if I’m drinking,” she announced proudly.

  “That’s a responsible way to drink. Is there any other way to get into your house?”

  “Probably, but I can’t really think straight right now.” She giggled and then started to slide back down so she could sit.

  “It’s wet out here. Let’s have you stay standing for a minute,” I said as I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her up. “Were you celebrating something tonight?” I said to try and keep her talking.

  “No, just out with my friends.”

  “Yeah, you seem to like partying.”

  “I’m not some crazy party girl, you know. I’ve got a job. And I don’t miss work. I just broke up with a crappy boyfriend and had to move home. It hasn’t been a good few weeks for me.”

  Lilli wrapped her arms around my neck as she leaned in close to me. I couldn’t help it as my body reacted firmly to the touch of her skin and the prospect of having her lips against mine.

  “I think we should get you inside,” I offered as I did my best not to give into her.

  “We could just go to your place,” Lilli offered.

  Oh, how quickly I would have taken her up on that offer only a few years before. She was clear headed enough to hold a conversation, and she obviously wanted me. But I wasn’t that kind of guy, no matter how badly I’d love to have her in my bed. It wasn’t at all the appropriate thing to do that evening.

  “You are so beautiful Lilli, and I’d love to talk about having you over to my place sometime, but I think for tonight we better just get you up to bed.”

  “I think that you would enjoy having me in your bed,” Lilli said as her hand slipped down to the front of my pants and started to massage my throbbing body.

  I let out a breath of frustration as her hand moved up and down and I pulled it away.

  “I’m getting you into your house. Let’s have you lean up against the car for a minute,” I said as I walked her over.

  I ended up lifting her up and putting her onto the hood when her legs looked too wobbly to hold her. She quickly took advantage of this position as she pulled me toward her and held her arms around my neck. I noticed her pierced tongue, and it only made me throb harder as I imagined her tongue gliding up and down my shaft.

  “Lilli, I’m going to leave you here for a minute while I check your back windows. You don’t have a security system turned on do you?”

  “I think you should stay here,” Lilli said as she wrapped her legs around me and pressed her body and mine together. “Don’t you want to stay here with me?”

  “More than you can possibly imagine. But I’m still going to go check those windows. Is there an alarm?”

  “It’s not on. It always scares me when I come home late, so I didn’t turn it on.”

  “Okay, you stay here. I’ll be right back,” I said as I reluctantly pulled myself away from her and went into the back yard.

  I was light-headed from the desire I had to take Lilli right there on that car. The energy between the two of us was absolutely undeniable. I wanted her; I wanted to taste her, touch her, screw her, but I wasn�
��t giving in. She was in no shape to be making that sort of decision, and I was no longer the guy who took advantage of a woman when she was clearly intoxicated.

  As I tried each of the windows in the back of the house, I finally found one that was open. It led into a bathroom and was barely big enough for me to squeeze through. I fell right into a large bathtub and then had to find my way back to the front door to let Lilli into her house.

  “You got in!” she exclaimed as she slid down off the car and her dress slid up her body.

  She quickly pulled it back down but not before I got a glimpse of her black lace panties. At least she was wearing panties; the last time I’d seen her out front she had clearly not been wearing anything under her tiny dress.

  “Let me help you,” I offered as I held out my hand and she grabbed it. “I’ll get you to your room, and then I’m heading home.”

  Lilli didn’t respond as she climbed the steps to her room, and I stayed closely behind to make sure she didn’t fall. Her walking was very unstable, and I didn’t feel confident at all that she would have made it to her room without assistance. Sure enough, she slipped at the top step and nearly fell face first onto the carpet. I quickly grabbed her and held her up as I steadied her and we walked toward her bedroom.

  With my right hand, I reached in and turned on the light, but Lilli quickly turned it back off. She closed her eyes at the bright light and then opened them after she had flipped the light back off again.

  “No lights.”

  Lilli grabbed my pants by the waist and pulled me toward her bed. She bit her bottom lip as her eyes looked at my bulging pants. There was no hiding it – I was rock hard thinking about how fun it would be to have this girl naked.

  “I think you are safely in your room. I better get back to my house.”

  Lilli grabbed the top of her dress and slid it down over her shoulder while she kept eye contact with me. I swallowed hard as the stretchy fabric moved past her breast and she grabbed the other side and pressed it down too.

  “I think you want to stay,” she said softly as she leaned in and let her lips press against my neck. “I think you want to help me take this dress off. Then you want to slide those big strong hands of yours all over my body.”

  “Yes, actually I do want to do all those things.” I smiled. “But I’m going to go back to my place.”

  “Shhh, don’t go,” she whispered as she grabbed her dress and pressed it down to the ground.

  Her black lace bra and panties were begging for attention from me as she stood there waiting for me to change my mind. But I could tell by the sway of her body and the way her eyes wouldn’t stay open; Lilli needed to go to bed more than she needed me to make love to her.

  “I’m going to grab this blanket here, and you are going to lie down.”

  “Oh, party pooper.” She giggled but followed my orders and climbed into bed. “Don’t go.” Her hand reached for mine and held onto me.

  She had a good grip of my hand as she rolled over, and I sat next to her in her bed. I looked around the room, and it was hard to tell what Lilli was into. She was too old to have posters of boys on the wall and too young to have family photos. There were random photos of cities, and a few other photos on a bookshelf on the other side of the room. The walls were a neutral tan color, and she had a large area rug that was in the middle of the room.

  I sat with her for about five minutes until I was sure she was asleep. She was hard to resist, but I was glad I’d been able to. As I’d gotten older, my standards had changed quite a bit. No longer did I think it was fun to bring a drunk girl home. In fact, I preferred them sober and able to hold a conversation.

  I’d certainly changed a lot over the years. Probably just a natural process of getting older, but perhaps it had something to do with being a father and not wanting any women to be treated badly. Lilli was someone’s daughter, and she deserved to feel safe with me helping her to her room.

  Slowly, I made my way downstairs and grabbed a cup of orange juice and a couple Tylenol and brought them back up to Lilli. She was definitely going to need them when she woke up in the morning. There was no way she was getting out of having a hangover after the night of partying she’d just gone through.

  Chapter 5

  Lilli

  The way my lips were stuck together was the first reminder that I was in the midst of a really good hangover. I stuck my tongue out through my dried lips and slowly parted them as I licked the skin. This was the part of drinking that I didn’t like, but it was also the part I conveniently forgot about whenever I was out with my friends.

  “I’m never going to drink again,” I muttered as I rolled over to grab my phone.

  Unfortunately, my phone wasn’t on my nightstand, so instead, my hand dipped right into a cup of liquid. I peeked through one half closed eye as I noticed there was a cup of orange juice sitting next to my bed with a sign in front of it.

  -DRINK ME — the small piece of paper read. My eyes darted back and forth as I searched my memory for what had happened the night before and who had written the note. My parents were out of town for the week; I remembered that much.

  I pressed the palms of my hands against my eyes as I tried to remember what had happened. My feet dangled near the ground as I rolled all the way over and pressed my body upward. The more I tried to remember, the bigger the sinking feeling in my stomach got.

  -TAKE ME — I read on a second note with two Tylenol on top of it. I looked over the pills and verified they both had the familiar Tylenol logo on them and then decided it was a good idea to take them with the orange juice that was there. My mind was starting to wake up, and bits and pieces of my night were rushing to me.

  I knew who had left the orange juice for me.

  Quickly, I jumped up and pressed the blue curtain open as I looked over toward Devin’s house. His car wasn’t in the driveway, though. As I stood there in my bra and underwear, the bulk of my evening came to my mind.

  The embarrassment was rapid as I sat down on my bed and dialed Anna’s number right away. She wasn’t going to be much support in the matter, but at least she could help me figure out how I should handle things from this point forward.

  “Why are you calling me? You know I need like twelve hours of sleep each day,” she said grumpily.

  “I woke up in my underwear, in my bed, and Devin left me an orange juice and Tylenol.”

  “Who’s Devin?”

  “The hot neighbor guy!” I screamed into the phone. “The hot neighbor guy had to help me get into my house because I’d forgotten my key, and I basically accosted him, and he did nothing. Instead, he left me some juice and medicine for my hangover. Oh, my God, I’m going to die of embarrassment.”

  “I hear you talking, but my brain is not working. So the hot neighbor guy, Devin, was in your bedroom?”

  “Ugh! Anna. You don’t understand. I basically threw myself at him more than once, and he did nothing. More than nothing, he felt so sorry for me that he got me an orange juice and Tylenol.”

  There was a long pause as I heard Anna moving around a little and hoped it meant she was waking up enough that she could actually hold a conversation with me. I took the time to grab some workout clothes and change so I could go for my run when we were done.

  “How much throwing did you do?” she finally asked as I heard her drinking something in the background.

  “A lot. I tried to kiss him. I grabbed his um … private area. I wrapped my arms around his neck and told him I wanted him. I think that’s it, but I’m not sure. It’s still a little fuzzy.”

  “Oh, that’s all?” Anna laughed.

  “There’s no coming back from this, is there? I’ve ruined it. Now he thinks I’m some lush that throws herself at any guy who happens to be nice enough to help me out when I’m drunk.”

  “No, we can work with this. He’s obviously a good guy. I mean I don’t know many guys who would say no to you grabbing their cock
. You were drunk, right?”

  “Yes, you know I was.”

  “This is good, Lilli. This is awesome. He has so much respect for you that he didn’t sleep with you. This means he’s into you.”

  I wasn’t quite wrapping my brain around her logic, but it still gave me a little comfort. Embarrassing myself around Devin was becoming a thing, and I really didn’t like it. Not that my hot neighbor guy was going to be anything to me in the long run, but I just hated looking like someone I wasn’t.

  “So what should I do when I see him again? Because knowing my luck, I’m going to end up seeing him, and I’ll make a total fool out of myself.”

  “Hmmm, well there are two options. You could play naive like you don’t remember at all, but that means you would have let any guy help you into the house. I don’t like that plan …” she continued as if talking to herself and not me. “You’ve got to own it. Thank him for being such a gentleman, but you have to balance that with letting him know you’re still very into him.”

  “Oh, that seems simple enough,” I said sarcastically. “I can hardly talk to the guy. There’s no way I can be thankful and flirt all at the same time. You’re overestimating my abilities.”

  “Shut up Lilli! You can do this. But you need to be ready. It has to happen the very next time you see him. If you see him in his house, you have to go knock on the door. The very next time he lays eyes on you, you have to be ready.”

  Anna sounded extremely serious, and I pictured her pacing around her room as she hatched the next step of my plan to get Devin to think of me as something more than a little girl. I was going to have to practice what to say, there was no way I could think of something off the top of my head.

  “What do I say to him?”

  “Hmmm … Appreciative and flirty … let me think …” her voice trailed off as I heard her in the bathroom. Anna certainly didn’t have a filter on what she did and who was on the phone while she did it.