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Partygoers laughed, sauntered, and half stumbled along the sidewalks. The din of honking horns chorused energy and life. I had no idea where we were going. Mindy had kept it all hush-hush, wanting to surprise me.
The New Orleans business district bustled during the daytime, but now the streets were near empty. All the shops and offices stood dark and closed. David parallel parked on a side street, folding the top up with a click on the dash.
“Let’s go, ladies.”
“Come on, Gen!” Mindy squealed as she scooted out.
I smoothed down my dark hair, unable to keep from laughing at her enthusiasm. “I take it you’re excited?”
“You’re going to love this place. Promise.”
One block over, David led us down a few steps into a basement club underneath a fluorescent-green sign readingTartarus. A broad, beefy guy took my license at the door, scanning it without expression. He blinked twice, then handed it back to me, saying in a monotone voice, “Happy birthday.”
“Thanks, Sunshine.” I gave him my brightest smile.
His mouth quirked at the corners, then straightened again to a grim line. I loved throwing people off-balance.
Mindy pulled me, literally, bouncing into the club. The beat pumped right through my body, vibrating to my bones. Laser lights flicked and twisted around the room, pulsing to the rhythm of the house music. While Tweedledee and Tweedledum went for drinks, I pulled Mindy out to the dance floor.
Making our way through the throng to the middle of the dance floor, Mindy and I moved our bodies to the rhythm pulsating around us. I loved this feeling of elation when I relaxed my inhibitions. I spent so much of my time behaving calm and controlled at school and at work, but here, I could let loose and dance with my best friend.
No matter that we were crushed between sweaty bodies reeking of cigarette smoke, hard liquor, and musky cologne—I felt free. I laughed. Mindy threw her head back and laughed with me.
A tall, sandy-haired guy beelined for us. He passed Mindy and started dancing behind me. Why is it that every Timberlake-wannabe thinks he can grind on a girl when she’s having a perfectly good time dancing without him?
I maneuvered closer to Mindy, rolling my eyes so he couldn’t see. She smirked with a sympathetic tilt of the head, but the guy was not taking the hint. He put his hands on my hips, pressing even closer. I restrained myself from kneeing him in the balls, wanting to keep my birthday as trouble-free as possible.
“No thanks.” I pushed his hands away.
By some divine fortune, he didn’t put them back but leaned close, warm breath on my ear.
“You’re really hot.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s really hot. Need something to drink.”
I pointed toward the bar, pulling Mindy along with me. A quick glance back at the gyrating boy had me stumped. He stood perfectly still, staring after us as if confused. Then something weird sent a shiver down my spine.
A sinister red gleam flickered in his eyes before I turned away, a weird reflection of lights or something. Still, it unnerved me. When I glanced back from the bar, he had started dancing with another unlucky girl.
“Creeper!” yelled Mindy in my ear.
“Appletini for you.” David passed Mindy a glass of green liquid. “And rum and coke for the birthday girl.”
“Thanks,” I said, not complaining that it was bourbon and coke that I liked, not rum.
Mindy and I were still underage, but that didn’t stop most of the young-adult world stuck in that purgatory between eighteen and twenty-one. Honestly, who came up with the law to allow college students to enter a bar at eighteen but not be served alcohol? For once, I’d love to see an undercover police officer shut down one of these clubs, flashing his badge and attempting to arrest the vast number of underage drinkers allowed into the place.
“Happy Birthday!” screamed Mindy over the music and clinked her martini glass to my tumbler.
I smiled back as we took a drink. Steven grinned at me too widely, and I don’t know why. It’s not like one drink would suddenly make him attractive to me. He wasn’t bad looking; he was simply unappealing in personality.
I leaned back against the bar, propping my elbows up behind me. Scanning the scene, my eyes passed by a corner, then did a double-take, zoning in on a tall figure in the shadows on the other side of the dancefloor. The flashing lights streaked over him then plunged him into the dark.
Hitching in a breath, I couldn’t look away from his silhouette. He stood against the far wall, still and watchful. Dark jeans, black button-down, crossed arms and a broodingly handsome face fixed directly on…me.
Never before had my heart leapt into my throat. I tried to swallow, to make it go back into my chest where it belonged. To no avail, mind you.
“Here, beautiful.” Steven handed me another drink when I’d barely finished the first.
