Isn't She Lovely (Redemption 0.5)(9)

Maybe that’s why I like her.

Except I don’t like her. Not really. She’s irritable, skittish, and a little weird. But hot. Definitely hot.

I hear an enormous beer belch to my left and don’t have to turn to know it’s Cody Wagner, better known as Wag. He’s a big blob of a guy who’s somehow gotten it in his head that chicks find these nasty beer burps sexy.

Wag is perpetually single.

“Where’s Liv?” he says, taking an enormous swallow from his keg cup.

I tear my eyes away from Stephanie Kendrick’s cleavage and take a sip of my own beer, even though it’s lukewarm and tastes like piss.

Wag sways slightly, but he’s still looking at me as though waiting for an answer. Obviously he didn’t get the memo that Olivia and I are no longer together.

Not surprising. I certainly haven’t been advertising the fact.

“Not here,” I say, keeping my voice neutral.

He nods, as though it’s totally normal that I’m attending a party without my long-term girlfriend. It’s not. Olivia and I weren’t joined at the hip or anything like that, but her sorority girls were tight with my frat guys, so we almost always ended up attending these things together. Hell, half the time we ended up planning them, like some sort of king and queen of the Greeks.

For the first time I realize that if I’m not Olivia’s boyfriend, maybe it means I won’t have to play that role anymore. The thought is oddly freeing.

“Mike here?” Wag says, looking behind me as though I’ve been hiding my best friend.

Former best friend.

This time I don’t bother responding at all, but Wag is finishing his beer and doesn’t notice.

He belches again as he scans the room. “Tits in the corner,” he says, his eyes doing a slow once-over of some poor girl who’s probably about to be subjected to Wag’s legendarily bad come-on techniques. Hope she likes beer breath.

“There are tits all over the place,” I mutter, feeling bored with this whole scene.

“Not like these,” he says, all but salivating.

Being human—no, being a guy—I of course have to turn and look. Ah, shit.

I don’t know why I’m surprised to see that it’s Stephanie who’s caught Wag’s horny interest. Wasn’t I ogling that very same chest just a few minutes ago? Seriously, those little tank tops of hers are sexy as hell. They manage to be revealing without trying too hard. Unlike all those plunging V-necks or perfectly tailored designer tops that the other girls are wearing, Stephanie’s simple black tank seems to scream, Hey, I just threw on the first thing I found in my closet, and I have no idea that I fill it out so completely.

I can’t blame Wag for noticing, but at the same time I kind of hate that he does. There’s something fragile about the way she tries so hard to be fierce. And as mean as her glares are, I’d expect her to have scales or spikes or something, but her skin is ridiculously soft.

Which I shouldn’t know. I mean, accidentally elbowing a girl in the face is not grounds for fondling her at a crowded party. I still don’t know what made me do it. I’d like to think I did it just to get under her skin and piss her off because she clearly loathed the very sight of me. But for a few minutes in the hallway it didn’t feel like she hated me. Not when her breath hitched the moment I touched her.

Not when mine hitched as she fell against me, all soft curves and smelling of soap.

“Leave her alone,” I hear myself grumble to Wag.

He gives me a surprised look. “You know her?”

“Taking a summer class together,” I say, finally giving up on my beer and setting it on a side table already teeming with keg cups and abandoned bottles.

Wag’s not so drunk that he doesn’t raise his eyebrows at that. “What the f*ck is the almighty Price doing taking a summer class? You flunk Macro or something?”

I’ve never flunked a class in my life. Never gotten lower than a B. But there’s no way I’m going to explain myself to a guy who thinks burping’s a hobby. I don’t even know what I’d say. Nah, I’m taking some stupid class about movies just so I don’t have to spend the summer in the office with my dad.

No way.

“Just leave the girl alone, ’kay?” I shoot a quick glance toward Stephanie, but she’s disappeared. I should be relieved for her sake, since it means she won’t be subject to Wag’s special brand of ass-pinching seduction.

Instead I just feel grumpy.

“What’s with you tonight, man?” Wag says, giving me an exasperated look.

“What do you mean?”

“Normally you’re the life of these things. The first to tap the next keg, but also the first to throw out anyone who gets too shit-faced. Tonight you’ve had like half a beer and get pissed at anyone who tries to talk to you.”

It’s true. I’m not acting like myself.

But normally Michael and Olivia are by my side. Without them I feel … off.

And the feeling is f*cking annoying. I’ve never thought of myself as the type who couldn’t cope without my best friend and my girlfriend, but I guess I’ve taken for granted that they’re always there. Until they were gone I never really noticed that when I was tired or introspective, one of them would be there to soften my edges.