I lean against the wall next to the bathroom, waiting my turn. I close my eyes and let my head fall back as my mind replays what he said. Like isn’t a strong enough word.
He more than likes me? Is that what he meant last week when he said he was falling for me?
But this is our third date. Maybe he more than likes everyone on third dates. Maybe that’s why he has the rule to begin with.
No, that’s not him. That’s not us. We’re different. I know we are.
But I have to be sure.
I’m wondering what’s taking so long in the bathroom when I hear several voices. One girl slips out the bathroom door, but there must be three others still in there, and she left the door cracked. I turn away as one sits down to pee. They are probably too drunk to care that someone walking by could see them. I suppose I could shut the door, but I don’t. If they don’t care—why should I?
“He is beyond gorgeous,” one of them says. “I’d give anything to snag him. Hell, even if I could just have him one time. It would make my entire year.”
“So, go for it, Cindy. I mean, it is your birthday and all.”
“You’re right. God, he would be the best present, wouldn’t he? But did you see that tramp he walked in with? I’d have to get past her.”
“You are so much prettier than she is, Cin.”
“Still, he might not go for it.”
I turn and peek through the door to see if they are making any progress. I really do have to pee. I see one girl rustling through her purse. She pulls out a pill bottle, opens it and hands a pill to one of the other girls.
“Here, this will mellow him out. Crush it up and slip it in his drink. Then give him a half hour for it to kick in and we’ll distract the tramp so you can get him into a bedroom. It’ll be our present to you, right Kylie?”
My mouth hangs open. They want to drug someone? Oh, my God. I’m about to go tell Caden what I heard so he can warn all the men who are here. But before I turn away, the girl who is Kylie nods her head then looks speculatively at the others. “I don’t know, Caden is a big guy, you might need to give him two.”
My heart almost stops when they say his name. Without even thinking, I burst through the door, loudly crashing it into the wall behind it and then I slap the pills and the pill bottle out of their hands, sending them flying across the floor.
“You bitch!” one yells at me.
“Me?” I point to myself. “I’m the bitch? You are planning on drugging Caden so he will sleep with you. I’d say you’re the bitches. Not to mention criminals. You know that’s a felony, don’t you?”
“What’s going on here?” Caden asks, standing in the doorway behind me with Brady and Sawyer behind him.
I motion to the pills scattered across the floor that one of them is on her knees cleaning up. “Caden, they were in here conspiring to drug you.”
“What?” I can see fury in his eyes.
Brady and Sawyer look pissed, too.
“That one” —I point to Cindy— “said she wants you for her birthday present and the others were going to help her spike your drink with two pills and then distract me so she could take you to a bedroom.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?” Sawyer says, eyeing the three guilty-looking girls.
“Oh, relax,” says the girl whose name I don’t know yet. “We just wanted to liven up the party.” She holds her hand out with some pills. “Anyone want one?”
I grab the pills from her and throw them into the toilet.
“What the hell?” she says, leaning down to pick up some others at her feet.
“You were seriously going to give that shit to me without me knowing it?” Caden asks the girls. “Do you think that’s funny? I know a girl who had it happen to her. It’s anything but funny. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“You’re a guy,” Kylie says. “It’s different.”
“How is it different?” Caden asks. “You think because I’m a guy it’s okay to fuck me without my consent?”
My skin starts to crawl. “It’s called sexual assault in case you were wondering.” My angry eyes bounce between Cindy and her friends. “You know … rape.”
“Rape?” Cindy says, rolling her eyes. “Right. Like little old me could possibly do that.”
“Well then,” I take a step forward and say to her face, “what do you call it when someone is forced to have sex against their will?”
“Whatever,” the girl with no name says, then she turns to her friends. “Let’s go get a drink.”
They scoot their way past Caden and me when Brady takes Cindy’s arm. “How about I show you the door instead? You and whoever you came with.”
Sawyer escorts the other girls behind them and then Caden puts his hands on my arms. “Are you okay?”
I shake my head because I’m not. “What if I wasn’t standing out here? What if I never heard them and they drugged you? Oh, my God, Caden.”
He pulls me into his arms. “It’s okay,” he says into my hair as he caresses my back. “I’m fine.”
“This time,” I say. “But what about next time? What if next time nobody is around to hear?”
He pulls back and looks down at me. “I could say the same thing about you, Murph. You’re a beautiful woman. Women get drugged all the time. I personally know one who did. Hell, I know a guy who did, too, although that one didn’t turn out so tragically.”
“You know two people who’ve been drugged?” I ask in abhorrence.
He nods. “Sadly, I do. It happens a lot. But they aren’t my stories to tell.”
“Of course they aren’t.”
“Are you okay, Murphy?” Brady asks, walking back down the hallway.
“I’m fine. I’m just glad I was standing here when I was.”
“We all are,” Brady says, crouching down to pick up a stray pill and toss it in the toilet. “Come on. Those bitches are gone and the party is better for it. Let’s go grab you guys a drug-free drink.”
We both laugh at his joke, but then Caden and I look at each other, knowing what just happened is far from being funny.
We sit around Brady’s living room, playing a silly word game where someone holds their phone up to their forehead and the others try to get them to say the word displayed on it.
When it’s Brady’s turn, he puts the phone to his head and Sawyer says, “Talking about a no-hitter.”
Brady shouts out his guesses. “Jinx! Superstition! Not fucking allowed!”
He guessed right—the word was ‘jinx.’ He finishes his turn and we take a break to replenish our drinks.
“Why can’t you talk about a no-hitter?” I ask.
The eyes of every baseball player in the room snap to mine. They all look at me as if I told them the moon is green.
Sawyer throws a bottle cap at Caden. “Kessler … dude, educate your girlfriend.”
Caden laughs.
I’m glad he laughed instead of stiffening uncomfortably when Sawyer called me his girlfriend.
“You can’t talk about a no-hitter when there is a possibility of having a no-hitter,” he explains. “Not even the announcers will say the words. In fact, the players won’t even talk to the pitcher between innings once he’s getting close to one. A no-hitter is one of the rarest things in baseball and we don’t do anything that could jinx it.”
“And don’t even get me started talking about a perfect game,” Brady adds. “That’s like the holy-fucking-grail of baseball.”
“So you think talking about it will make it not happen?” I ask.
“Yes!” all the players in the room say collectively.
I can’t help my giggle.
Caden nuzzles his face close to my ear. “Have I ever told you what that sound does to me?”
Instantly, my body is at complete attention. I’m aware of his hot breath flowing over my shoulder. His firm grip on my waist. His possessive stance at my side.
And I want nothing more than for him to show me.