Now what? Meet me at the club, he’d said. She hadn't considered what to do once she got there. She pushed her way through the crush, hanging on to her backpack. The main bar was jammed, so she changed course, thinking a corner upstairs would help her to get her bearings.
Then Theo was there, his lips to her ear. "Hey, gorgeous. I was worried you changed your mind." He pulled her bag off her shoulder and grabbed her hand and took her to the smaller bar at the rear of the club where it was incrementally quieter.
There was a bar stool at the side with a jacket on it. Theo helped her take her coat off and draped that over the stool as well and she sat down.
"Remember Fran?"
"You keep a yarn stash back there?" Ester asked.
"I wish." Fran took Ester's bag from Theo and stowed it behind the bar.
Theo rested a big warm hand on her leg. His face was inches from hers, a lusty gleam in his eye. "I'll check in on you when I can. You dancing?"
"Unless someone can stop me," Ester said. Already her shoulders were shimmying in time with the music.
"I look forward to that." And he was gone again.
Fran set a frosty glass of beer in front of her and winked. The back bar was crowded too, and she was fascinated to watch Fran work. She always seemed to be doing three things at once, taking a drink order while pouring into the glasses lined up in front of her, then running a card, and tossing a napkin down to mop up a spill.
Ester sipped the beer and turned her attention to the dance floor.
Fran stopped by and said, "If you want to dance, go ahead. I'll save your corner."
Ester jumped off the stool and made her way to the dance floor. She had danced by herself before but not in a place like this. She danced her way into the middle of the dance floor like she owned it and bumped along with the beat.
Rayanne liked to say it was hard to make sense of the Ester who was quiet around strangers when she became a flailing dancing queen the minute the music started. But she liked the sensation of finding the beat and following it with her body. She danced until she was breathless, threading through the crowd pulsing to the music. When she returned to her bar stool, it was open as Fran had promised.
The crowd at the back bar had eased a bit. She scanned the room but didn't see Theo.
Fran brought her a fresh beer. "Someone got unruly. Theo had to walk him out. Most everyone backs down when they see him."
Talking to the tall blonde women made Ester nervous but hearing her talk in the park about her troubles made her seem like a friend.
"How long have you known Theo?"
"We worked together a little over a year but it took a while to get to know him. He's so…" She used her arms to indicate tall and wide, then crossed her arms and made a mean face. "He terrified me at first." She laughed. "Now he's a good friend."
She couldn't help asking, "Has he had lots of girlfriends?"
Fran shook her head as if the thought was absurd. "You're the first one who's done a number on him. He's got it bad for you." Fran covered her mouth with her hand as if she'd said too much. She went down the bar to serve a customer.
Ester had it bad for him, too, which Fran had already figured out. Ester kept alert, hoping for Theo to reappear. Hanging out at the club alone was fun at first but now she was ready for the next part of the night to begin.
Someone stopped at the bar. She assumed it was a customer, so she paid no attention until he said, "You waiting for someone?"
"More or less," Ester said. A guy about her age stood next to her. It was too early to tell whether he was creepy, but he was unsteady on his feet.
He moved closer. Whatever magic line divided personal space from too close, he was teetering over it. "You're not sure?"
"My boy— My friend—" Her mind garbled over her status with Theo. They hadn't talked about what they were. "I'm here with someone," she said.
"Sure," the guy said, unconvinced. "You mind if I get a drink while I wait for my friends?"
Nope, he was creepy.
"Do whatever you want," Ester said. Unfortunately the guy took that as encouragement.
Theo liked the idea of having Ester at the club, but now that she was there, he couldn't stay focused on the job. His eyes would scan the room and then drift until he found her. He wasn't sure how much time he spent watching her do her thing on the dance floor shaking her tail with her arms pumping up and down. She would have caught his eye even if he didn't already know her. Later she'd stayed back in the corner, pushing her hair out of her face. She sipped her beer and laughed at something Fran said.
Then she would glance around the room.
He'd invited her to come to a club filled with people trying to hook up, and asked her to sit by herself or dance by herself. It didn't seem like such a terrible idea at the time.
He got called to escort someone out and then there was a scuffle on the sidewalk. By the time he took care of that and returned to the main room, there was a guy talking to Ester at the bar.
Something fierce jabbed at him and he crossed the room in a flash. He stood next to her with his arm behind her on the bar, giving the guy a cold stare. In seconds the guy backed up and disappeared into the crowd.
"Oh no, you made him forget his drink," Ester said, her eyes teasing. "I should go find him."
"He can come back if he wants it," Theo said, nuzzling her as much as he dared at work.
"Told you," Ester said. "It's always the creeps and goofballs who talk to plain girls like me."
"You're not even close to plain, Ester."
"With crazy hair and gangly limbs," Ester added.
"Your limbs are perfect," Theo said.
"You have to say that. I let you touch them."
"And only me," Theo said, surprised by his protective impulse.
"Look at you. All worked up and chest-thumpy. Do I need to worry about that?"
"Never. You are free to leave with anyone you want or go home alone."
"Good to know." She pretended to scope out the room. Then she grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him close and said so that only he could hear, "I'm going to be very aggressive with your man-thing later."
Theo's man-thing stirred at the words and hot breath in his ear. "I can't wait."
Fran caught his attention and pointed across the club. There was a woman crying and pulling another woman's arm.
"I'm needed," he said. "Leave a note if you decide to leave without me."
Ester put her finger to her mouth as if to think about it.
As packed as the club was when Ester arrived, once it was last call, things wound down quickly. Theo cleared people out from upstairs. Fran put away freshly cleaned glassware and wiped down the bar. The music changed over to classic rock. The houselights came on and everything magical about the club disappeared.
Fran returned her backpack and she pulled her coat back on. The sweatshirt on the stool belonged to Theo, and she hugged it to her.
Theo came and found her. "Lucky me, you're still here."
"I didn't get a better offer," she said and handed him his sweatshirt.
Fran came out from bar. "Invitation stands. Pete's for burgers and beer. You want to join us?"
Ester hoped he wouldn't ask for her vote. Fran was so nice, it might be rude to blow them off.
"Nope." Theo put on his sweatshirt and took Ester's hand and led her out the door.
"You didn't ask me if I wanted to go," she said.
"Do you?"
"No."
"We're out of here," Theo said.
The trip back to his apartment happened in a rush but once they got there, everything slowed down, like the plan for the evening had changed and no one bothered to tell her. Theo yawned and fell back on the bed. He put his hands behind his head and watched her with sleepy eyes.
"You ready for bed?" she asked.
He nodded. She kicked off her shoes and sat on the edge of the mattress.
"You're sleepy?"
He
nodded again. Disappointment flooded through her. At least cuddling was better than nothing. "Should I turn off the light?"
"Do you want to do it in the dark?"
"I thought you wanted to go to sleep."
Theo grinned. "What were you thinking?"
"You have done this before?" she teased. She took her time pulling off his shoes.
"Not like this, with you," Theo said.
"What's like this?" Ester said.
"I never bring anyone here," he said.
Ester stopped. "What do you mean you never bring anyone here?"
"I've never brought anyone here. No friend, family or other person has seen where I live. Except for you."
Ester's heart cracked open another level. She crawled up to him and hugged him. "That's kinda sad."
"Sometimes you need to stay focused on getting through the day," Theo said, his hands still behind his head.
"This tender moment is nice and everything but I've got some itching I'd like scratched," Ester said.
"I'm waiting for you to get aggressive with my man-thing," Theo said.
Her eyes traveled to the place where his man-thing was, currently hidden in his pants. "I said that, didn't I?" She didn't want to admit she was uncertain. It was obvious what she wanted; it would be nice if he got things going.
"Change your mind?"
Ester shook her head. She ran her fingertips along his forearm, tickling the soft skin at the crease of his elbow. "I thought you'd work your moves," she whispered.
"Anything particular?" Theo said. "Maybe you can think of three things."
Ester's cheeks went pink. "I can think of more than three things," she grumbled.
Theo lowered his face to hers and bit her lower lip. Her heartbeat pounded down to her feet.
"Tell me what you want," Theo said.
"More of this kind of thing," Ester said.
"You can do better than that," Theo said. He gazed at her with steamy lust, but his hands stayed put.
"I want you to rub your man-bits all over me," Ester said.
Theo broke into a lazy bad-boy smile but didn't laugh. "That's a start." He pulled her on top of him so she straddled the man-bits. "Anything else?" he asked.
Ester rocked her hips until his breath hitched. She made a rolling motion with her hand.
Theo narrowed his eyes. "You want to change the sheets?"
"Finally. You guessed," Ester said, pretending to be cross. "I hung out at a meat-market by myself all night and now I'm sitting around some cute guy's apartment because I want to help him with the sheets."
"You think I'm cute?"
"You're okay," Ester said. She leaned forward, her hair swinging into her face and after the briefest hesitation to make sure she lined their lips up, she kissed him. His lips were warm and soft and tasted like sunshine on a warm summer day. She kissed him again, this time stroking her tongue along his lower lip.
Theo groaned.
"Oh yeah?" Ester said. "Hold that thought." She flipped off the overhead light and switched on the desk lamp. She grabbed a bunch of condoms from her backpack and threw them on the pillow.
"I have some of those this time," Theo said.
"Good for you," Ester said. "We don't need to get all of them out at once."
"We might."
"Stay there and look pretty. I'm about to have my way with you," Ester said.
Theo cracked up. "About time."
"If you're laughing, I'm doing it wrong," Ester said.
"No, you're not. You're doing it perfect. I watched you in the computer lab and you were so quiet and methodical. And now you're here with me and you're wide open and amazing."
"The sweet-talking will get you nowhere," Ester said. She yanked at his sweatshirt until he pulled it over his head, then pushed his shirt up until he peeled that off, too.
Theo couldn't think straight with Ester stroking her hands across his chest, that intense look on her face, like she was defusing a bomb. Her cheeks were flushed, and her breath came out in short, hot bursts. A trembling in his knees surprised him; this woman had that much effect on him.
He reached to catch her mouth, but she ignored him and, instead, kissed a trail down from his collarbone—skipping a huge swathe of skin to bite down on his nipple.
"That was a manly grunt," Ester said. "Do you need me to stop?" She flicked her tongue over it while she waited for him to answer.
Theo mumbled a sound that he hoped she could interpret. He put his hands back behind his head and forced himself to keep them there. He was about to burst out of his pants. He thrust his hips forward until she noticed and shifted her attention. She lightly stroked the back of one hand over the front of his jeans.
"Ester," he gasped, his hands reaching for her, "I can't wait any longer."
He pulled her sweater off and unclasped her bra while she tugged at his waistband. In short order they were both pantsless, bodies entwined.
"Give me a sec, Theo."
She put on the condom then squirmed beneath him. Just the sound of his name in her scratchy voice made him crazy. They moved together, a blur of heat and sensation. He couldn't get enough of her mouth, her tongue sliding against his. He slid one hand down to her ass and angled her pelvis up to his. The sounds that came out of her urged him on faster, the bed thumping beneath them. He shook everywhere at once, all the waves cresting in one place—mind, body, and spirit in the same place at the same time. He came down from it slowly, his face pressed into her neck. Her legs remained hooked around his waist.
Ester sighed. "Wow, it's been a long time since someone did that to me."
Theo propped himself up to look at her.
She grinned. "Just kidding. Only you." She tangled her fingers in his hair and kissed him.
He rolled over to his back and pulled her onto his chest and stroked his hands along her back.
"Are we a thing?" she asked.
"What's a thing?"
"You know."
"I don't know. Is there some official thing we're supposed to do?"
Ester sighed. "Yes. Theo Dunne, will you be my boyfriend?"
Theo's heart sped up, all the protections he'd laid there went creaky. All the stories he'd told himself about why this shouldn't happen were forgotten. "I am your boyfriend. Will you be my girlfriend?"
"I have to think about it," Ester said.
She joked, but the sentiment was the correct one. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, imagining he could feel her heart beating against his. "Tell me when you decide," he said.
25
Ester was still weak in the knees after Theo dropped her off. She watched his car drive away, ticking off all the morning-after things they had done. Fooling around when they woke up. Check. Fooling around in the shower. Check. Tidying up the disarray of the bedclothes and fluffing the pillows. Check. Making cow eyes and kissy faces over a bowl of oatmeal. Check.
She could get used to this boyfriend thing.
As delightful as advertised, she would tell Rayanne when she saw her.
She floated into the house in a blissful haze, remembering the sense of his skin brushing against hers. The way he spoke, his voice soft when they were intertwined together. The way he whispered her name. He had spent so much time hanging back and now it was like he didn't want to let her go, always a hand on her hip or his fingers searching for hers.
Inside the house, the door to her room—which had been firmly shut when she left—was ajar. Inside, nothing looked out of the place, but she had so much crap stacked around there was no way to be sure.
She emptied the dirty clothes from her backpack and pulled out her laundry. She sorted out enough for a load and headed to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs, she found MacKenzie dumping dirty clothes into the washer.
"Oh, hi. You must have just gotten home."
MacKenzie could do laundry anytime. She could do it at her own damn place.
Ester turned around to go back upstairs, determined to
hang on to her euphoria.
"You going to be around all day?" MacKenzie asked.
"I live here," Ester said.
"No problem," MacKenzie said, as if it had anything to do with her. "I wondered since you have a boyfriend now."
Ester went back upstairs. Dennis's bedroom door was wide open. On the bed sat the hard-to-miss silver and blue shopping bag from Big Stop Outdoor Store, the same store of her missing gift card. Next to the bag sat pair of winter boots. Not a pair of make-do, get-you-through, practical boots. No, these were fancy leather boots, with a fuzzy trim.
"You like those?" Dennis said, finding her. "She had a gift card and picked them out at the end-of-winter sale."
"They're lovely," Ester said, picking one up. The tag had one of those goofy high-tech names: WinRTech Performance Boot with breathable lining. "Did you give her the gift card?"
"I have no idea where she got it," Dennis said. "Listen, I don't want this to be weird but she thinks you don't like her."
Ester put the boot back down, wondering if now was the time to say something like, Does your girlfriend steal soup? Instead she said, "I didn't mean to give that impression."
"She thinks you hide when she's around, like you're avoiding us."
Ester did avoid them but perhaps it wasn't their fault. Maybe she needed to try harder to get along with MacKenzie. The Big Stop Outdoor Store was a popular store. The boots didn't prove anything, but it was hard to ignore her suspicions.
"I'm glad you found someone," is what finally came out.
"I'm glad you found someone, too," Dennis said. "We're going out this afternoon but we'll be home tonight. Will you be at Theo's?"
Ester shrugged. "He has to work. I have a work thing tomorrow. I planned to watch movies."
"That sounds fun," Dennis said. "We can do like the old days and have a theme. Initiate MacKenzie into movie night."
"That sounds great," Ester said, wishing she meant it.
She went back to her room and closed the door. The spy cam was back in its box since she'd discovered Tommy's mournful presence in the office late at night. That was enough unwelcome discoveries. Dennis liked his girlfriend and wanted them all to get along. But she wanted to be sure. She set up the camera in her room.
Lovesick Braves Page 17
