I didn't even care if they were talking about boring wedding shit or discussing the stock market. I'd have killed just for an excuse to hear her voice. I knew it would be pointless to ask Zack about it, since he was still sitting there glowering like a wounded puppy dog. Poor guy looked like he'd been punched in the nuts by her, and yet, I noticed he kept watching her too.
It shouldn't have surprised me, since we usually had the same taste in women. There was no way he was thinking about her the same way I was, though. He probably just wanted to take her upstairs and bang her. Sure, I wanted to do that, but I wanted to do so much more than just that.
Hell, even if I never got to bang her, I still wanted to get to know her.
"Maybe I should just go and talk to her," I said, more to myself than anyone. For the first time in my life, I was actually nervous about going over to talk to a woman.
Zack heard my question and snorted. Then he glanced over and gave me a curious look. "Good luck with that, dude. You'll be lucky to get the time of day out of her."
Meanwhile, Josh continued to babble on about God knows what. Neither of us had been paying him a lick of attention, not that he seemed to mind in the least. Then again, he was probably still so drunk that he didn't even notice we weren't paying attention. Somehow, I found it hard to believe I'd been quite that drunk. And even though I'd continued to drink, I still wasn't as drunk as he was.
Something about Janine kept my brain focused and awake, like alcohol couldn't touch it. There was no way in hell I'd try to drive a car right then, but I was pretty sure I could make it over to her table without falling flat on my face.
Pretty sure.
"It's gotta be worth a shot, right? I mean, what else am I going to do, just sit here and stare at her? That's totally not creepy at all." Spoiler alert: it was creepy. Super creepy.
So going over and giving it a shot had to be the better option, right?
Fuck it, I said to myself. If I was going to get rejected, I might as well get it over with. Otherwise, I'd just sit here all night wondering about what could've been. So I downed the last of my drink, even though I'd already had more than enough liquid courage for the night, and stood up.
Zack looked at me with a raised eyebrow. Something in his facial expression told me he couldn't believe I was actually going to just go over there and talk to her. As if we hadn't done that with tons of other girls over the years. We couldn't just sit there all night and hope they came to us!
"Wish me luck?" I asked, giving him a half smile.
Zack nodded and tried to smile back. He gave me a thumbs up. "Good luck, I guess. You can't do any worse than I did!"
With that, I made my way across the bar to where Carla and Janine were sitting. They were still sipping glasses of wine and judging by the number of times I'd seen the waitress go over there, they had to have polished off at least a bottle by now. And yet, they didn't appear to be the least bit tipsy, much less drunk.
Maybe I should switch to wine, I thought to myself. At least then I won't have to worry about getting completely smashed….
Carla looked up as I approached and smiled. "Hey, Drew! How's it going? Josh pass out yet?"
"No, not yet. He's stuck in story telling mode right now." I grinned at her. Josh was lucky to have a girl like her. Most women probably would've been pissed at their husband-to-be going out and getting wasted, but she just seemed to take it all in stride. "I just figured I'd come over and say hello and escape his story for a bit."
"Well, you're more than welcome to sit with us for a while. We're just going over some of the last minute stuff for the wedding. Speaking of, have you met Janine? She's my maid of honor and a total lifesaver. This wedding would be in shambles if it wasn't for her managing it."
Janine looked up from her laptop and blushed. Then she rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You'd have managed just fine without me. It's not like I've done all that much." Then she turned and looked at me, offering me a shy smile. "Hi, I'm Janine."
Oh, a modest one! She was starting to sound more and more perfect to me. I extended my hand. "I'm Drew. One of Josh's groomsmen. And currently one of his babysitters until he sobers back up."
Janine let out a laugh as she shook my hand. "Does he always drink that much?"
"Only when he's out with us," I admitted. "We seem to have that kind of effect on him, it seems. Sorry about that."
Carla laughed and waved away the comment. "Oh, don't worry about it. He's a grown ass man. If he wants to get plastered once in a while, let him. It's not like he turns into one of those angry or belligerent drunks. He just starts to ramble and shit."
Janine rolled her eyes. Something told me she wasn't thrilled with Carla justifying Josh getting drunk. If it wasn't for the wine she was drinking, I'd have thought she had something against alcohol. Maybe just hard alcohol? Either way, it made me curious. Then again, everything about her made me curious.
"So, how did the two of you meet?" I asked, hoping to find out more about my mystery woman. Because even though I knew her name now, she was still a mystery to me. There were so many questions I had to get the answers to.
Carla beamed at me. The look on her face told me she was more than happy to talk about her past with Janine. "Oh, we've been best friends since kindergarten. There was this boy, Erick I think his name was, who liked to try and steal the girls' dolls and hide them. Well, one day, Janine and I had enough. When we were out on the playground one day, we tackled him together in the sandbox and made him eat sand until he promised to leave us alone."
Carla and I both laughed at the story. From what I knew about Carla, that sounded just like something she'd do. She was laid back, but she wasn't the kind of girl to take shit from anyone. It sounded like Janine was the same way. Though while Carla was laughing about the story, Janine's face was red, like she was embarrassed about her act of childhood heroism.
"And we've been best friends ever since." Carla threw her arm around Janine's shoulders. "After that, no one dared mess with the two of us."
Kind, loyal, and modest. All great traits in a woman. That short little story told me so much about Janine and made my heart pound even faster. I wanted this woman like I'd never wanted a woman before. It wasn't sexual, not really, it was just plain need.
"It sounds like you two fit together perfectly." I glanced over my shoulder at Josh and Zack. "Sadly, back then, the three of us probably would've been the ones hiding the dolls. Our parents used to say how we were a group of hellions when we were younger.”
Janine snorted. Something about the way she looked at me told me she thought we were still a group of hellions. I couldn't really deny it, though, since we'd just gotten back from a strip club completely drunk off our asses. I'd always been perfectly content with who I was, but something about Janine made me want to change, made me want to be a better person.
Jesus, what was going on with me? I'd barely met this woman and here I was ready to become a nun if it meant making her happy!
"Oh, I'm sure you guys weren't that bad," Carla said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "You're just a harmless group of kittens when it comes down to it."
"Oh, you never saw us in our prime. Let's just say our favorite holiday was Mischief Night."
"Is that even a real holiday?" Janine asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It is when you're a teenager who can't sit still!" Thinking about some of the "pranks" we did back then made me wince. Yeah, we definitely weren't the nicest group of guys going. But part of me wanted to think that had all changed, that we'd grown up and were better people now. The other part of me would kill to go out an egg someone's house again.
But then I'd look over at Janine and I'd suppress that childish inner need. My need for her vastly outweighed my need for a childish prank. Hell, at the rate we were going, my need for her was slowly starting to outweigh my need to breathe.
I smiled at Janine, doing my best to appear suave and charming, though judging by her disinterested look, it
wasn't working all that well. "We should get together for drinks sometime. Swap childhood stories about these two lovebirds. I'm sure you've got some great ones!"
"Oh, not really," Janine said politely. "Besides, I've got a ton of work left to do for the wedding."
Ouch. Complete and utter rejection. Well, at least she hadn't been rude about it or anything. As far as rejections went, that was the politest one I'd ever gotten. Which, for some stupid reason, just made me want her even more. Even when she was rejecting someone she was kind and sweet, trying not to hurt them.
Could she be any more perfect? I wondered to myself.
Now I just needed to gracefully bow out so she wouldn't think I was a crazy stalker or something. I'd gotten her hint loud and clear, and I wasn't going to force the issue. I wasn't going to stop hoping she'd change her mind though. We still had a few days here, and I was going to use them to my advantage and hope for the best.
"Well, then I'll let you guys focus on the wedding stuff and see you later. Don't work yourselves too hard." I winked at them, then headed back over to the table where Zack and Josh were waiting. Okay, Zack was waiting. Josh was still babbling on and probably hadn't even noticed I'd left.
"How'd it go?" Zack asked the moment I was within earshot. He looked like a hopeful puppy, begging for treats from his master. "You were over there for a while."
I shrugged, then took my seat. "Well, I'm not getting laid tonight, if that's what you're asking."
Zack rolled his eyes. Clearly, that hadn't been what he was asking, but then, I hadn't really thought it was. Janine wasn't the type of girl to go upstairs for a one night stand, and something told me Zack already knew that. "Looked like you got more than a couple words out of her at least."
"And all of them were used to turn me down." Okay, so maybe not all of them. But most of them. "Still, she didn't seem completely against it. Maybe we should find a way to help her with some stuff for the wedding. We are groomsmen, after all. It wouldn't be that out of the ordinary for us to help out."
Zack raised an eyebrow. "We?"
"What? Have you given up already? I didn't think you were the kind of guy to walk away from a challenge."
Zack watched me for a moment, fire appearing in his eyes. Oh yeah, he certainly wasn't going to be giving up that easily. "Is that what this is? A challenge?"
"Can you think of a better way to decide who gets her? We're both grown men. I think if she chooses one of us over the other, we're adult enough to handle it without bloodshed. Besides, she might decide to choose neither of us."
"You're on."
Zack stuck out his hand and we shook on it. The games were on, it seemed, and the first place prize just also happened to be the one judging the contest. I just hoped at least one of us would be going home a winner, even if it wasn't me.
Janine was quite the prize and I'd hate to see her go home alone.
Chapter 6
Janine
With a sigh, I watched Drew walk back to his table over the lid of my laptop. It'd been tempting to take him up on his offer, but with all the shit I had going on with the wedding, I really didn't want to add that to the mix. He was hot, for sure, but the wedding needed to be my priority right now.
"You okay?" Carla asked, nudging my shoulder with hers. When I looked over at her, she had an amused smile on her face. Damn, I hated how easily she saw through me. "If you wanna go with him for the night, I won't stop you. Maybe a night of fun will help you relax."
My cheeks flamed. Okay, so I had been thinking it, but there was no way I was going through with it. I'd barely met the guy. If I hadn't still been a virgin, it might've been more tempting, but I was already set on having my first time with someone I really cared about. Not with a guy I wouldn't see again after this week.
Even if he was smoking hot.
No, get yourself together! I shouted in my mind. I needed to focus. Needed to finish going over the seating arrangements so we could make sure everyone was where they needed to be. Seating at a wedding was worse than politics, since everyone took it personally.
Carla continued talking, seemingly oblivious to my embarrassment. "I mean, neither of them seem like great boyfriend material. According to Josh, they're worse playboys than he is, and Lord knows he was a major playboy before we got together. But that doesn't mean they can't be good for a night of fun."
My face was on fire now. Could I get any more embarrassed? I wondered silently.
As supportive as she always was, Carla never did understand my reasons for still being a virgin. She'd had her first time when we were only sixteen and hadn't stopped telling me about how awesome sex was ever since. And sure, I'd been tempted more than once to just get it over with, like now, but I could never bring myself to go ahead and do it.
Like now.
Even if Zack and Drew were both hot men. It was no wonder they were playboys when they both looked good enough to be models. And I had no doubt I'd enjoy things if I actually did hook up with one of them.
But how the hell would I even choose which one? I didn't want the other to pissed that I'd chosen their friend over them. Nor did I really want to hook up with one, then the other. That kind of no commitment sex just wasn't my style, at all. I needed some kind of commitment, even if it wasn't life-long.
And neither of those guys screamed commitment to me.
At all.
Which, again, wouldn't be that big of a deal if I hadn't been so set on losing my virginity to a guy I cared about. The two had been nice enough, but they lived across the country. With them only here for a week and me so busy with the wedding, there was no way I'd be able to get to know either of them all that well.
And yet, the entire night, I could barely focus on anything but the two of them sitting across the bar. It didn't matter that I could barely see them in the low-lit room. I knew exactly where they were. And it may have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I was pretty sure I could hear their laughter drifting across the room over the dull roar of the crowd.
God, I was going crazy, wasn't I?
I shouldn't have been that enamored with two guys I'd just met. Hell, I barely knew anything about either of them, other than their names. I was sure I could ask Carla anything I wanted to know, but there wasn't any chance of that. If I so much as hinted that I was interested in either of them, she'd hound me about it all week.
The last thing I needed was any distractions that might keep this wedding from being one hundred percent perfect. And if they guys were anything, they were distractions.
I put all of my effort into focusing on my conversations with Carla, yet my eyes would still drift across the room to their table. It was a good thing Carla was already tipsy on the wine, otherwise she'd have definitely noticed my lack of attention. Thank goodness for small favors, I guess?
When the bar started to empty out, Carla downed the rest of her glass of wine, then sighed, leaning back in her chair. "I should probably go drag my fiancée back up to the room, huh?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. She'd gone through at least a bottle of wine herself, if not two. I wasn't so sure she was all that much more sober than Josh was at this point. "Do you remember what room you're in?" I asked with a teasing smile.
"Twenty-two thirty," Carla replied before sticking her tongue out at me. You'd never guess she was a grown ass woman about to get married by the way she was looking at me right now. It was nice to know some things still hadn't changed.
"Okay, then I guess you better go drag his ass upstairs before his bar tab costs more than the rest of the wedding." I winked at her. "Or yours does."
Once again, she stuck her tongue out at me. There was no reply this time though, she just headed over to where the guys sat to retrieve her future husband. I busied myself with packing my laptop away so I wouldn't be tempted to sit there and ogle the guys, lest I be noticed.
By the time I looked up again, the table was empty, all of them presumably having gone back up to their rooms. With a sigh
of relief, I leaned back against my chair and closed my eyes. I really needed to get myself under control. They were just guys. Two perfectly normal, regular, guys. They weren't any different than the ones who I'd met in clubs or bars or at coffee shops.
So why couldn't I stop thinking about them?
I considered ordering another drink before going up to the room but decided against it. It was already late enough as it was. And I'd already spent enough time down here sipping on glasses of wine. I really didn't need any more, not tonight anyway. By the time the wedding was over though? By then, I'd need something much stronger than the wine to help get all these kinks out of my back and shoulders from the stress.
For now, though, some good sleep in the comfy hotel beds would suffice.
The bar was practically empty as I left. There were still some people mingling around, but not very many, and none of them were faces I recognized. Apparently all the ones here for the wedding had left already, leaving just the other hotel guests to sip on their drinks. So I managed to get out of the bar without anyone stopping me to chat, thank god, and made it all the way to the elevators.
Standing there waiting for an elevator were the two guys I least wanted to share an elevator with - Zack and Drew.
And, of course, before I could duck around the corner and wait for them to leave, they both turned and spotted me. They recognized me instantly, too, their lips curving up into a smile.
"Hey, Janine," Zack said, his words somehow not slurred at all. How was he not fall down drunk with how much he'd been drinking? The waitress had been over to their table practically every fifteen minutes with more drinks.
"Hey. You guys heading up?" Okay, even I knew how lame that sounded. Of course they were heading up. Why else would they be standing in front of the elevators with the button lit?
Drew nodded. "Yeah. Carla collected Josh from us, so we figured we'd call it a night. It's been a while since we've gotten some good night’s sleep."
Two Bad Groomsmen_An MFM Menage Romance Page 4
