Chapter 36
Malcolm
Ginger wasn’t standing at the door when I parked my truck. She’d normally be standing on her porch waiting, yet I stood on the other side of the mahogany door waiting for her to answer it. I was getting ready to knock when I heard the click of the lock followed by the rewarding sight of her.
Ginger stood chewing on her bottom lip, then graced me with a nervous smile. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.”
My eyes traveled the length of her body. She wore one of those dresses that looked like a button-down shirt. The dark blue color looked great against her skin tone. It was loose fitting, but the thin brown belt helped to accentuate her waist. The dress stopped mid-thigh, and she wore a pair of knee-high brown boots. Women in boots; I always thought it was a sexy look, the way they seemed to elongate the legs, and gave their asses a little more lift. I was a sucker for a woman in a nice pair of boots, but my Ginger in them was on a whole other level.
She started smoothing down the front of the dress. “Is this okay? I can change. Actually, I did already three times, but if you don’t like it—”
My laughter cut off her nervous rambling. “Baby, you look fine. Better than fine.” I stepped forward and placed my hands on her waist. “But if you like, we can go inside, you can try on more outfits while I watch, but then I don’t guarantee we’d make it out of the house.”
Innuendos were risky, because I didn’t want her to think I was expecting anything sexual from her tonight. I wanted things to be easy and fun, just us hanging out like old times, and flirting was part of that.
She smiled. “Let me get my purse.”
She turned to walk away, and I took pleasure in watching the seductive sway of her hips. I had high hopes for tonight. Progress had been made. She’d opened up to me more in the last few days and I wanted to keep that going. I wanted her to trust me, trust in my feelings for her.
“All set.” Ginger reached behind the door, and the porch light came on. “So, where are we going?” she asked after she locked her front door.
“The Last Laugh.”
“What’s that?”
I opened her car door. “It’s a comedy club, lounge type of place. They have open mic night on Saturday. Hopefully, they’ll have some funny people tonight.”
“Can’t wait.”
I ran my finger along her jawline. I wanted to kiss her. The moment she’d opened the door, I’d wanted to kiss her, but I wasn’t sure I trusted myself.
“Buckle up.” I stepped away and shut her door. “Best behavior, Malcolm,” I reminded myself as I walked around to the driver’s side.
“Were you just talking to yourself?” she asked with a laugh.
“What? No. Maybe.” We laughed as I cranked up my truck. “You have control of the radio.”
Ginger started pressing buttons on the touch screen console, trying to find a station she liked. “What did you say?”
I cast a side glance at her. “I didn’t say anything.”
“When you were talking to yourself. What did you say?”
I gave a short laugh. “I was reminding myself to be on my best behavior.”
“Why would you need to do that?”
I looked over at her, and let my gaze traveled down to her legs. I reached for her hand, and brought it to my lips as I returned my eyes to the road. “Because I have a dirty mind, and a very active imagination.”
“Oh.”
“You asked.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nod.
“What if I rather have your normal behavior? I don’t want you to treat me differently, Mal.”
I thought about how to respond. Things were different, she was different, so it was inevitable that how I treated her would change. “I get that, but you can’t expect me not to take a different approach.”
“Mal—”
“Let me finish. You’re not just Macy’s friend any more, Ginger. You’re my girlfriend. I now can act on all those dirty things that run through my head about you. Mostly.”
“Why ‘mostly?’”
I looked over and smiled. “Not sure on your flexibility yet.”
Her face filled with color as she quickly turned to look out the window. After a few minutes, she turned back to me. “Is that the only reason?”
Reaching over, I held her hand. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I also didn’t want to get into a heavy conversation right now. Tonight was about having fun and getting to know each other again. “Ginger, if you want to talk about this right now, we can. My vote, however, would be to wait. I want us to have a good time tonight, and if we head down this path, you could get upset.”
She bit down on her lip, dropping her gaze to our joined hands and nodded. “Okay. I don’t want to ruin tonight.”
I gave her hand a light squeeze. “Don’t say stuff like that. You aren’t ruining anything. Got that?”
She smiled and nodded again.
The rest of the car ride we talked about safer topics, other than when she informed me Macy had picked up on the fact we’d slept together. That didn’t bother me nearly as much as finding out that Ginger had told Macy about her panic attacks. Or rather the reason why she’d told Macy. Ginger had kept her attacks a guarded secret for so long, so I wasn’t entirely comfortable with her sharing that information as a way to get my sister off my back.
However, it was Ginger’s secret to tell, to whomever, and whenever she saw fit. Voicing my thoughts otherwise served no purpose, therefore I kept my feelings to myself.
I pulled up to the valet station when we arrived at Last Laugh. I unclipped the car keys from the rest on the ring and handed them to the young guy who had opened Ginger’s door.
I held my hand out for her. “Let’s go have some fun.”
The hostess led us over to one of the high back, curved booths. “Watch your step,” she warned, pointing to the raised platform it sat on. “Enjoy your evening.”
“This place is really cool,” Ginger commented, picking up her menu. “How did you find out about it?”
“Google.”
She laughed. “Where would we be without Google?”
Our waitress returned to take our orders and drop off two glasses of water. Ginger ordered a glass of Prosecco, and I mentally hoped it’d be the only one she asked for tonight.
“So, what time do the acts start?”
I glanced at my watch. “Around eight.”
Her phone went off. “Crap. I forgot to put it on vibrate. Glad it wasn’t in the middle of someone’s act.”
I pulled my own out to make sure the ringer was off.
“Macy,” she said after pulling it from her purse. She smiled as she read the text.
“What does she want?”
“To know where you took me.”
Ginger started to respond, but I grabbed the phone out of her hand.
“Hey, give that back.” She tried to grab it, but it was easy to keep her at bay while I sent a message.
“There.”
“Oh my god, you did not just tell her that?”
I shrugged. “She needs to stop being so damn nosy and let us enjoy our date.”
“And telling her we’re at a strip club is the way to get her to stop?”
“Couldn’t hurt.”
Her phone lit up again. I watched a smile spread across her face as she typed a response, I picked up my glass, and took a drink. She turned it toward me so I could see what she wrote. I nearly spit out my sweet tea when I read: Can’t talk, getting a lap dance.
“You’re such a bad influence,” she said with a laugh as she turned the phone face down on the table.
I did my best Darth Vader impression, “Ginger. Join me on the dark side.”
She covered her mouth, trying to muffle her laugh. I loved that sound coming from her. Seeing her relaxed and happy, having a good time, was all I wanted from tonight.
Dinner went great. Most of the acts were funny and had the place laughing their asses off. During the third act, Ginger slid over to sit closer to me, closing the annoying gap that’d been between us all night. I put my arm around her, loving the feel of her body tucked next to mine. I was not expecting such a reaction when she let her hand rest on my thigh, but my cock apparently had a mind of its own. I needed desperately to change position, to alleviate some of the pressure, but I didn’t want to alert her to the issue. I got a reprieve when she excused herself to go to the bathroom, as it gave me time to get myself together.
“Do you want to finish that?” I asked, pointing to her half full glass of wine. It had been the only glass she’d ordered, and to my delight, she didn’t drink it all.
She looked at it and shook her head. “Nope, I’m good. Well, unless you rather I not waste it.”
I signed the credit card slip then slid out of the booth. I held my hand out to help her. “If you’re done, then you’re done. Let’s go.”