10 Months Later

Eva

I sliced my way through the crowd until I found an open seat at the bar. I took it, drawing looks from both of the men on either side of me.  I was dressed in high heels and a black scoop neck dress so tight I had to wiggle for a minute to fit into it, so I wasn’t surprised that I was being ogled. The men tried to be sly when they stared at my curves by looking away the moment I glanced in their direction.

Nice try, boys.  I smiled. If you are going to look, just look.

I ordered a tequila on the rocks with a lime. The man to my right leaned over and poked me on the arm.

“That’s quite a drink for a lady,” he said.

I smiled back and batted my eyes.

“Well I’m not your average lady.” I put a hand on his as I took a sip of my drink. Putting the glass down, I lowered my voice and whispered in his ear. “I want to party. Can you help me?”

He raised his eyebrows in a surprised look. “You want…to party?”

“Yes. You understand what I mean, right?”

I put my finger to my nostril and sniffed; the universal symbol for needing to order the world’s most expensive white powder.

“Why yes of course,” he said. “Come with me.”

I followed him down a stairwell and into a hall where the bathrooms were.  The light dimmed and a wave of nervousness flowed through me as he opened a door with no window.

We were the only ones inside the bathroom. He shut the wooden door and locked it with a click.

“How much do you want?”

“A half pound.”

He laughed. “You don’t have that much money.”

“You don't think so?” I said, and pulled out a wad of hundreds. He took the money from me and counted it. “Two thousand dollars is not nearly enough. But I think we can arrange something.”

He snapped his fingers and two other men appeared from behind a secret door in the back of the bathroom.

“Jose, Manny, what do you think? This whore worth an extra three thousand?”

“I say we pay her a thousand for each of us.”

“One thousand for each of you? What do you mean?” I scrunched my face in confusion. “Two thousand should be plenty.”

Goddammit, why does this happen every time?

The men closed in on me from three different angles. The lock started rattling.

“This bathroom is occupied,” the man fumed.

Even though I knew it was coming, I flinched as the wooden door was literally ripped from its frame, and Corbin appeared.

“Who the fuck are you?” the main man asked Corbin.

Corbin saw the men touching me and let out an honest to God snarl.

I flinched again as he threw a punch so close to my face I felt the wind from Corbin’s fist as he hit the first man, who fell into the toilet and stopped moving. Corbin spun around and hit another one of the attackers in the nose and the man fell limp into a heap on the ground.

I stood behind the third man, who pulled out a gun and pointed it.

“Stand down, asshole,” he said, taking a step toward Corbin.

My heart thumping, I delivered a hard left hand chop to the man’s neck, striking precisely the place I wanted at his Adam’s apple. He reacted automatically, beginning to wheeze for air. I pounced on his arm and disarmed him of the gun. Corbin gave him a right hook to the nose and the man’s body went down to the ground like a brick thrown in a river.

Corbin and I stood back to back, all three of the men out cold around us. He wiped the blood from his fist off on his pants.

“Baby, you okay?” I asked.

“It’s not my blood,” Corbin answered. “It’s that dumbass’s. I think.” He raised his chin toward the guy whose head was in the toilet.

There was a loud bang on the bathroom door, and Ned entered with his gun drawn, followed by a S.W.A.T. team of ten men.

“Shit, looks like you guys took care of em’ already. They dead?”

Ned ambled over to the man and took his pulse.

“Nah,” Corbin answered. “Alive. I didn’t hit him too hard. You might want to get him to a hospital, though.”

Ned shook his head. “I gotta hand it to you, I never thought you two would play such a convincing couple. The bad boy and the good girl.”

I rolled my eyes. “The good girl?”

“Yeah, of course,” Ned responded. “You’ve always been the too nice girl, Eva.”

I really needed to think of a way to tell Ned that what Corbin and I were doing wasn’t an act anymore. I mean, it had been ten months since Corbin and I had started ‘playing’ work partner to take down a record number of criminals. I was surprised Ned hadn’t figured it out yet himself, but he had the ability to be quite dense at times.

“Ned, I know when we were dating I was a good girl. You know, sex only missionary style in the dark and all that, but…”

Corbin scrunched his face and gave me a confused look, knowing I wasn’t a big one for confessionals. After all the time we’d spent hanging out the past few months, I knew it took a lot to catch him off guard. And I loved doing it.

I continued. “Ned, there is something you need to know about me. All of that ‘acting’ I was doing with Corbin? Well…”

I walked over to Corbin with an authoritative strut.

No more little Miss Nice girl.

I pushed him into the wall, wrapped my leg around his waist and pulled his head down to mine for a wet, sloppy kiss. I grabbed his hand and placed it directly on the fabric of my dress that was barely covering my ass.

During our make out, I opened the corner of my eye and I could see Ned’s mouth completely agape. 

I released Corbin and turned to Ned.

“You’re just gonna have to get used to the new me, Ned. And I’m not really a nice girl. I’m sorry. No actually, I’m sorry I’m not sorry.”

Ned came down off his shock cloud and managed to say a few words.

“I thought I noticed something in your attitude, and well I guess…”

Corbin had his arm on my back, and it was slipping downward toward that spot just below the small of my back he always liked to grab. In the past four months I hadn’t gone two days without having his big hands all over me.

“Well…?” I said, tapping my toe once.

“And whatever you’re doing, you’re catching the shit out of these criminals. We’ve busted more with you two undercover in the past eight months than in the past four years. Shit, who am I to judge. Perez, Gatsburg, let’s get these guys on cots and get them out of here.” Ned signaled to his S.W.A.T. officers and they carried the criminals out. Corbin and I lingered.

“Alright,” Ned said, “Good work here. As a reward, we’re giving you a month off. Take a vacation. Do something that doesn’t involve taking down drug dealers for a change. For the love of God, lay low. I need to give you two a break.”

I nodded. Ned exited the bathroom, leaving Corbin and I alone.

“Damn, what are we gonna do for a month?” I said as the door clicked shut. I moved to follow Ned out, but Corbin grabbed my wrist and twirled me back toward him like I was doing a spin move on the dance floor. I hit his chest and he wrapped me up with his arms.

“I can think of a couple of things,” he said with the trademark sparkle in his eye. He clicked the lock on the bathroom door shut.  I smiled and gripped his shirt, tugging it upward in a not so subtle ‘take it off’ signal. He unbuttoned it and I ran my hands over his chest.

Nothing is hotter than a man with scars that he got saving your life.

I thought back to the pep talk I gave myself that changed it all, and I smiled.

No more Miss Nice girl.

Now it was more like Miss Bad girl. And I couldn’t be happier. I ran my hand along his muscular leg, and accidentally scraped the outline of his jean's pocket and felt something hard and tiny inside.

“Hey,” Corbin grabbed my wrist before I could wrap my hand around whatever it was. “You really have turned into a bad girl, haven’t you.”

“What is that in your pocket? I must know!” I laughed.

Corbin had a look on his face that I’d literally never seen him have before. He looked…nervous and shaky.

Suddenly I was confused.

“Well, fuck,” Corbin said. “I wanted this to be a surprise, but..fuck it.”

Corbin got down on one knee and pulled a ring out of his pocket.

“Eva Napleton, I love you. I love you as Eva and Alexa. I want all of your craziness for the rest of my life. No, take that back, I don’t want it. I need it. Will you upgrade from being my fake mistress and real girlfriend to my wife?”

I looked down in amazement at the man kneeled in front of me. Old me would be pissed that this moment was so totally imperfect, that it was taking place in a bathroom, and that Corbin basically started this whole proposal with the words fuck it.

But the new me understood that the perfect moment never came, except when you weren’t looking for it. And in a weird way, this imperfect, tattooed, scarred young man was perfect for me.

“Get up here.” I said, needing Corbin to not be kneeling, needing his arms wrapped around me.

Corbin stood up and slipped the ring on my finger. It was huge. He ran a hand through my hair and gave me an especially tender kiss. I made a mental note to figure out how Corbin got the money for this. I was guessing it wasn’t from the meager government salary the DEA paid us. For now, I’d let it go.

The tender kiss led to tonsil hockey, which led our hands all over each other and eventually to my dress coming off over my head.

I sat on the sink and arched my back feeling Corbin’s hard, sweaty body against mine, and a peculiarly naughty thought crossed my mind:

Best one night stand ever. I couldn’t wait to have a one night stand with Corbin every night for the rest of my life.