Cameron

I woke up with a groggy head and I couldn’t even think straight. It took me a minute to remember why I felt this way. I had way too much to drink when I went out with Carol and more than that, my body was sore from all of the gyrating. I didn’t want to think about what all I did, but I knew I was going to have to. Carol was most likely going to tell me about it when I talked to her later. It felt like it had been an embarrassing night for me and I remembered kissing some bald guy that I was dancing with.

Getting out of bed, I made some coffee and waited for the slow drip to wake me up. I looked at the clock and I at least had woken up in time for work. I hadn’t even bothered with the alarm clock and even though it was Saturday, I still had to go into work for a while.

The coffee had me feeling a little bit better, but as soon as the night before started to come into focus, I was more aghast than I would have thought. Not only had I kissed some random guy at the club, but if I remembered correctly, the apartment manager had to let me in because I couldn’t figure out which key it was that I needed to get in the front door. Even worse, he had carried me up the stairs like a damsel in distress. In my drunken stupor, I remembered how I felt in his arms and I knew that it was a good feeling. Why had he helped me though? That I just didn’t understand.

I didn’t have time to worry about it because all of my musing was eating up time that I needed for other things. I jumped in the shower and washed off the body glitter that had rubbed off on me from God only knew where. Getting dressed, my head was still a little weird feeling, but the shower had made me feel a little bit better. I wasn’t looking for everything to be better, so with less pounding in my head, I was just going to take that as a good thing and go with it.

Leaving the house, I looked around, hoping that Joel wasn’t up on the second floor. While I knew that I was going to see him around, today was not the day that I wanted to see him at all. I was going to have to say something, but right then I didn’t think I could take his verbal sparring.

Making it out of the building without running into him, I sighed in relief. It was short lived though because the next thing I know, I almost literally ran into him in the parking garage.

“Sorry.”

“Are you still drunk?”

My defenses went up because I was so embarrassed from before. “No, I am not drunk.”

He put his hands up like I had a gun and backed up a little bit. “Sorry, you just seemed to be a little out of it and most of the time that I have seen you, you were drunk.”

It was most likely true. I had been so worried about him, that I had literally almost run into him. What was this guy doing to me?

“No, I am sorry. I didn’t mean to be snippy with you. Thank you for helping me last night. I appreciate it.”

“Well I am surprised you remembered. You were about three sheets to the wind. If I would have known that you partied like that, you could have come over last night when I had a few people over. There were lots of other women from the area here.”

The last thing that I would have wanted to do was go to his house for anything. I knew that he was most likely the type to have a party that I would have never been caught dead in. I didn’t live the way he obviously lived. I had seen what or who had come out of his apartment early in the morning. “Thanks but I really don’t drink like that. I don’t know what got into me last night.”

I was trying to side step him, but the man was not going to budge. He just had this look on his face that drove me a little crazy. He enjoyed making me feel this way, I was sure of it.

“Thanks again Joel, but I am going to be late for work.”

“Where does a pretty thing like you work?”

“Not too far from here at an accounting firm.”

“You guys work on Saturday? Seems like such a waste to work away your weekend when you could be having fun.”

I shook my head that we did and looked at my watch. I was going to be late if I didn’t leave soon. There was always something that sidetracked me from where I was going and I hated to be late.

“Yeah, most Saturdays, though I don’t think I like to have the same kind of fun that you do.”

He didn’t say much for a moment and I waited to see what it was that was on his mind. You could tell there was something that he was thinking about and I wondered what it was. I felt like I was waiting an eternity for his words, but none came forth.

“Have a good day Cameron. I guess I will see you around, hopefully it won’t be at the door when you are drunk at two in the morning.”

I was a little disappointed as he started to walk away. I don’t know why I was, but there was a moment where I wanted to stop him and say something. I didn’t have a clue what to say though and I knew that I shouldn’t say anything, not after what happened the day before. I was just going to be better off steering clear of the man, no matter how hard it was going to be living in the same building as him.

***

Getting home, it was almost three and I was tired. The drinking from the night before had made me feel tired and foggy most of the day and I was thankful to see the apartment building. My eyes scanned the garage, half expecting to see Joel there. He wasn’t and surprisingly it was a little disappointing when I didn’t see him. I told myself that I didn’t want to see the arrogant man that had picked me up like a sack of potatoes and thrown me over his shoulder the night before, but I did. I wasn’t sure why, but it didn’t change the fact of the matter I felt drawn to him.

When I saw him inside of the building, I pretended that I didn’t notice him and walked past him without saying a word. He looked good and his shirt was off again. I couldn’t help but see the small trickle of sweat that was coming down the hard, tanned abs. Pulling my gaze away before I was caught, I stopped at the base of the stairs when I heard his voice.

“How was work Cameron?”

I shrugged and told him that it was fine. I waited for a heartbeat for him to say something more and realizing that I wanted to keep talking to him, I asked how his day was.

“Hot.”

His answer made me look at his sweaty body and I could tell that he was hot. I could also tell that I liked him that way. He was far too handsome for me to ignore and it took everything in me to pull my eyes away again. Did he know how badly I wanted to touch the ripples on his chest?

“Well you have a good night Joel.”

“Where are you going?”

I was already up to the fourth step when I turned around to answer him. It was rather clear in my eyes where I was going. “Up to make some dinner I guess. It is too hot to do much of anything else.”

“We are going to the beach later to have a bonfire and drink some beer, you want to come with and have some real fun for once?”

My first thought was yes. I loved going swimming, but then I had to remember that I didn’t even really know him. Sure I knew his uncle, but the man was obviously a bad boy, something that I told myself that I had to stay away from. While they were fun, they were also heartbreakers as well, something that I needed to steer clear of.

“No thank you. I think after last night, I just need to take the night off and rest a bit.”

He looked like he wasn’t happy with my answer and every part of me wanted to change it. It was in my best interest not to though. That man was trouble and that was all that I knew to be true.

I walked up the stairs and there was a part of me that wished that I had said yes. When I got into my apartment, I looked around and I was already bored with everything. My quiet night of dinner and a movie didn’t seem all that enticing anymore and I debated seeing if he had left yet. I was fighting with myself and finally I just went to bed early, trying to save myself from doing something that I was sure to regret later.

Joel was just bad news and I needed to stay far away from him. Why was that so hard to sink in? Even with everything I knew of men like him, something inside of me wanted to play with fire. I wanted to know what it was like to be with a man like Joel. Just once.