Let Me Be the One: Chapter 3
Ben
Ben
“Hey, aren’t they the cast of Green’s Law?”
“How should I know?” I ask Seb. “I don’t watch that shit.”
“It’s not like I watch it for the story. Those girls are the hottest chicks on television.”
Okay, now I’m interested. I turn to look at the large, curved booth in the back of Barnaby’s—where Duncan convinced Seb and me we should start our pub crawl. Barnaby’s isn’t one of our regular haunts, but there are plenty of attractive women here even without taking the TV stars into account. Though, the woman returning Seb’s stare right now is hotter than a swimsuit model.
Seb raises his beer in her direction before taking a giant slurp. It’s his seventh beer so far tonight. Not that you can tell from the way he’s knocking it back.
“Pace yourself, Seb,” Duncan says. “You won’t last the night if you go too hard now.”
“Dude, I don’t care about lasting the night if I can take one of those ladies home with me.”
I snort. “What every woman wants to hear: I don’t care about lasting the night.”
Duncan chuckles. “Brewer’s droop should be a warning on the label of every beer bottle.”
Seb gives us both the finger. “You arseholes know that’s not what I meant. I could last for hours with any one of them. It wouldn’t matter how many beers I’d had.”
“Sure,” I mutter, taking another swig of my beer.
“I could,” Seb assures me heatedly. “Even the one wearing those giant glasses is a babe. Though I don’t remember ever seeing her on the show before. Maybe she’s one of the extras.”
I’m assuming Seb is referring to the blonde sitting at the end of the curved booth. Seb can probably see her face from where he’s standing, but I can’t because of the way her body is turned towards the girl next to her. A curtain of hair the colour of dark honey falls past her shoulders, and she’s got a killer set of legs, but I can’t rate her properly until I see her face. Boobs, arse, and body are important, of course, but she’s got to have a face to go along with it if I’m going to think about taking her home with me.
“Hey, wait a minute. Don’t we know her?” Duncan asks as the woman turns towards us slightly.
The beer bottle freezes halfway to my mouth as I realise we do. Usually, she wears contacts, but I’ve seen those giant black circular frames before, and I’m very familiar with the face. Lainey Campbell. I can’t believe I just checked out Lainey. How did I not realise she had such a killer set of legs before now?
Because my eyes were for Amber only, that’s why.
Duncan puts his hand on my shoulder. “Is it her?”
“It’s Lainey, yeah.”
“You know her?” Seb asks.
Duncan rolls his eyes. “So do you. She’s Lucas’s ex-girlfriend. The one that got dumped at the same time.”
No further explanation is necessary. Seb is across the fucked up double dumping that happened three months ago.
Seb frowns. “I don’t remember her.”
“She was at Duncan’s birthday bash last year,” I tell him.
“No way. I would have hit on her.”
“You wouldn’t have,” I correct him. “She was with Lucas at the time and didn’t have eyes for anyone else.”
The look on her face when she realised it was over with Lucas is something I won’t forget in a hurry. Both of our hearts were smashed to smithereens three months ago. I’m still picking up the scattered parts of mine. I’m pretty sure it’s the same for Lainey.
Seb rubs his hands together with gleeful intent. “But she’s single now?”
“Single, yes. Interested, no.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’d bet my life she hasn’t looked twice at a guy since she broke up with Lucas.”
At that moment, Lainey looks over at us. When she sees me standing at the bar, recognition whips across her face and she smiles. Then, as though she’s suddenly remembered she’s not happy with me, a frown replaces her smile, and she turns her attention back to the group she’s sitting with.
My first instinct is to walk over there and ask her what’s up. We used to hang out every weekend and it’s good to see her. I can take a moment out from guy’s night to talk to her. But when she glances back at me briefly, a frown still on her face, I stop myself. I don’t know why she’s annoyed at me, but whatever problem she has is hers, not mine. My days of turning myself inside out, attempting to please someone and trying to work out if I measure up to their expectations or am inevitably disappointing them are over and done with. Rejection is hard enough when you pretend nothing and no one matters. But when you stop pretending and put yourself on the line only to find out you’re not good enough, well, that’s the kind of shit that destroys a man.
“She doesn’t look happy to see you,” Duncan points out. “Did you do something to piss her off?”
“Not that I know of. I haven’t even spoken to her since that night.”
The look Duncan throws me is full of sympathy, and I take that as my cue to shove the lid down on my emotions and screw it on tight. I came out tonight with the intention of getting laid and drowning my sorrows, and nothing, not even the strange disappointment I feel over Lainey’s reaction to seeing me, is going to stop me. Fortunately, there are more than a few good pickings around to keep me happy. I like the look of the black-haired beauty over at the other side of the bar. She has streaks of red and purple in her hair, and black and purple eyeshadow highlights gorgeous brown eyes a man could lose himself in for a night. I smirk, thinking she probably likes things a bit wild. My kind of girl.
Ms Multi-coloured Hair catches me watching her and her eyes slide up and down my body provocatively. I know she likes what she sees when her eyes heat and she smiles. Without hesitation, I start walking towards her.
“Fellas, I’ll catch you later.”
The guys make stupid comments to my back, calling me out for bailing on our pub crawl and accusing me of being led around by my dick, but I don’t care. Seb has set his sights on the actresses of his favourite show, and we’re probably going to be here for a while. In other words, it’s pointless standing here, wondering why Lainey is ignoring me when I can find out if Ms Multi-coloured Hair is up for the night of debauchery I suspect she is.