8.
Eddie
The night was off to a fairly shitty start. If that was what Lucy was here to do, I didn’t want to watch. She is my friend and I care about her and I couldn’t stand to see her throw herself at some guys she barely knows.
I know that sounds like a double standard, but it’s not. It’s got nothing to do with her being a woman. If Alex was behaving like this, I wouldn’t be happy about it either. She’s not doing this for the right reasons, and trust me, there are right and wrong reasons. I have plenty of experience of both.
If she told me she was out for a good time, or looking for some fun, that would be one thing. But she’s not. She’s got some warped idea in her head and I am genuinely worried she’s going to regret it.
So I stepped back. I let her do what she thought she needed to do, and maybe I should have left, but I couldn’t. I wanted to be there for her, I didn’t trust some of these douches. And I want her to be safe.
Instead I looked for Alex, but he was too busy apologising to and appeasing Elizabeth to be much of a distraction. Annie was good company for a while. But eventually I grow bored.
I leave as she is telling a couple of women I don’t know where she got her dress. One of them had been giving me the eye and a couple of weeks ago I would have been all over that. But now she doesn’t hold my interest.
Walking into the front room I see Lucy talking to some guy I’ve not seen before. He looks like a jackass. His jeans are too new and his hair too waxed. After just one look I hate the guy. She’s leaning up against a wall, her fingers fidgeting in front of her, and he has one hand resting on the wall beside her head. They would be the same height if she weren’t wearing heels; but as it is his position looks forced and awkward.
Everything in me wants to march over to him and pull her into my arms, pull her to safety, rescue her. But I’m not the rescuing kind. As we’ve already established, I’m a coward. So I lean against the doorframe and watch. I don’t trust this guy and I’m not letting him out of my sight with Lucy.
From where I’m standing I can see her face clearly. She laughs politely at something he says and I can almost feel her holding back her eye roll. She’s trying so hard, too hard. If he were paying attention to her, making her genuinely laugh then maybe I’d leave her to it, resign myself to being there for her afterwards. Maybe.
Who am I kidding? Of course I wouldn’t.
To my right someone knocks over a glass, to a round of applause and a couple of cheers from his mates. Lucy looks up towards the ruckus and sees me watching her. I smile and hold up my bottle towards her in a semi salute. I told her I’d support her and I will. She doesn’t need to know that it is mainly because I’m too much of a fucking coward to do anything else. When she returns my smile relief rushes through me and I feel a surge of something else. Something I can’t put a name to.
I raise my eyebrows and nod towards the guy, who appears to still be talking. He hasn’t glanced my way, which means he probably isn’t having his conversation with her face. Arsehole. He could at least pretend he wasn’t staring at her chest.
I’m trying to gage her mood, find out if this is how she wants to spend her evening, listening to some guy soliloquize at her breasts all night. With the smallest, subtlest shake of her head I have my answer.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I call her. I watch her from across the room as I ask, “Is that guy as boring as he looks?”
“Yes, this is she,” she says, but I notice the twitch of her lips.
“Even his back looks dull, I can’t imagine he’s that interesting from the front.”
“My mum?” There is shock in her voice, and I can see her faked reaction.
“Wow, that bad huh? Fancy escaping?”
“Oh my god!” The guy must be buying it because his hand has moved from the wall, but he’s doing fuck all to console her. And she looks genuinely upset. If I wasn’t on the other end of the line I’d be properly concerned about her. Jackass.
“There’s a chippy around the corner. I’ll meet you there in five. My treat.” I turn and leave the room, walking slowly through the front door.
“Absolutely. Thank you so much for calling. I’ll be right there.” She hangs up and I meander down the road towards the fish and chip shop.
About a minute later she catches up with me. “Thank fuck for that, I thought he would never shut up.”
“He didn’t look that scintillating.”
She’s tottering a bit on her heels so I offer her my arm. “Thanks,” she smiles at me and takes it. Her skin is soft and warm and slightly sweaty and it takes a lot of willpower to keep my hands to myself. “He kept talking about salmon fishing.”
“Salmon fishing?”
“I know! You’d think it was only a five minute conversation topic.”
I laugh, “If that.”
“Turns out you’d be wrong.”
I love her sense of humour. “How did you get stranded with him?”
“Mills abandoned me.”
“Where did she go?”
“He has an older brother,” she says rather ominously.
I laugh. Of course Mills was hooking up with someone. It made perfect sense. “Friends, eh?”
“Who needs ‘em?” She grins. “Seriously, though. Thank you. I’d been trying to think of a way out of that conversation for the last half an hour before you showed up.”
“I thought you seemed a bit desperate. Half an hour on salmon fishing? I can understand why.”
“It’s not nice to call a woman desperate.”
“You made out like your mum was dying.”
She grimaces. “I did lay it on a bit thick, didn’t I? He just didn’t seem to be taking any of my more subtle hints.”
“So you went for the concrete block to the head approach?”
She hits me on the arm playfully. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”
I chuckle. I like her like this, fun and happy, and so damn sexy. Her hair is glistening in the moonlight and her brown eyes are sparkling. “How did you persuade him not to accompany you to the hospital?”
“No persuasion required. He simply stepped aside.”
I shake my head. “Fucking jackass.”
I buy her a large portion of cheesy chips with curry sauce and mushy peas, which she mixes together into an unappealing mush. I watch her out of the corner of my eye as I pick at my own chips. We order a taxi, but being a Saturday night it takes ages to arrive and we have both eaten our fill before there is any sign of it.
We’re still sat on the bench waiting when out of the blue she says, “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?”
“You know.”
“No, I really don’t.”
“I don’t know how you go from talking to someone one minute, to making out with them the next.” She sighs. “It’s baffling.”
I can’t keep the smile from my face. “Are you asking me about hooking up?”
She fiddles with her clutch. “I guess.” Then she looks up at me, a newly found vigor in her voice. “Actually, fuck it. Yes, I am, Eddie. You said you’d help me and this is me asking for your help.” Confidence is a good look on her.
“Alright.” I turn to face her. “I tend to start with a light touch somewhere innocuous.” I move my right arm to rest it across the back of the bench, brushing her arm with my fingers as I do so. “If they like it, I keep touching them.” My fingers reach the bare skin on her shoulder and I stroke her lightly.
She leans into my caresses, her eyes locked on mine, and whispers, “Then what?” I see my own desire reflected in her expression.
“Then I amp it up a notch.” Edging towards her, I smile. Raising my left hand towards her face I say, “You’ve got a little…” Wiping the imaginary sauce away from the corner of her mouth with the pad of my thumb, I bring my hand to rest on her cheek. My eyes haven’t left hers, and I see hers widen as I say, “You really are beautiful, Luce.”
I know I promised myself I wouldn’t kiss her again, that this was absolutely the worst possible thing for our friendship. I can’t seem to help myself. Something about her pulls me in.
But even if I wanted to stop I couldn’t, because she closes the gap between us suddenly and without warning, covering my lower lip with both of hers. How am I supposed to resist her when she’s the one kissing me? My whole body is throbbing, intensely aware of her hands, her skin, and her hot, wet mouth. She is sweet and spicy from the curry sauce and when she tentatively slips her tongue into my mouth I can barely contain myself.
But I have to. I force myself away from her and catch the rejection in her eyes. “Lucy,” I whisper, stroking her cheek with my thumb. “If you keep that up, I’m not going to be able to stop myself, and I don’t want to be arrested for indecent exposure.” She relaxes a little, but I can still see she doesn’t believe me. I rest my forehead against hers. “I want you, Luce. I want to fuck you. Believe me, if we were somewhere private right now, I wouldn’t be having to convince you that I want you.”
“Why?” There is disbelief and surprise in her murmur.
“Because I’d be showing you exactly how much I want you.” The hand from her cheek strokes her arm. Drawing her hand across the front of my trousers, I let her feel for herself exactly what she’s doing to me. Her eyes widen and she rocks back slightly, staring down at my crotch. She rubs me through my trousers. My cock pulses under her gentle touch and I let out a small groan as she licks her lips.
In an instant I know what I have to do. Damn the consequences. I want this, she wants this and she is totally ready. “Come back to mine.”
She blinks, her hand stilling. “What?”
“Come back to mine. Let me show you how fucking sexy you are. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but please come back to mine.” In my head I’m already trying to rationalise it against my previous objections. “We could write it off to stop it from ruining our friendship. Just a one night thing. Not friends with benefits, just this once, one friend helping another,” because she would definitely be helping me out right now. The way my body is whirring nobody but her is going to be able to satisfy it. “What do you think?”
She is silent for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Finally she says, “Just a one night thing?”
I nod fervently, and then hesitate, “That’s what you want, isn’t it? That was part of your plan? You said you wanted a one-night stand. That’s what this would be.” I hear the taxi pull up next to us, but I don’t take my eyes off her. “Lucy?”
She nods, “Just a one-night stand.”
I hold up my hands, I need to make this clear. “But we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
She glances at the taxi and then back at me. “I want to.”
I can’t keep the grin from my face as I stand and pull her towards the car. “Good.”