Chapter 3: Liquid Courage
Stacey is sitting at the table surrounded by shot glasses and a huge smile on her face. “Melissa, come get your freak on girl, we got some celebrating to do.” She gestures to the glasses and says, “one shot for every year you spent slaving over books and papers.”
“You do know I’m a 3-beer kind of girl, right?” Melissa glares at Stacey, “and shots are a whole different ball game.”
“Oh, come on Melissa, stop being such a goody goody, “Kristy says, a little too loudly. “You promised us you would loosen up a little once you got your dissertation completed.”
“Yes, I know,” replied Melissa, “but I still have to present it and hopefully get the opening for junior professor with the Renaissance Literature department. Then I will have everything I always wanted.”
“What about hot Jeremy?” Kristy asks, “because I know you want him. But I also know you won’t do anything about it, so I guess I will just have to take him off your hands for you.”
“Hot Jeremy? What hot Jeremy?” Stacey asks, all but bouncing in her chair.
“Oh, just some stud at the bar who was undressing me with his eyes,” replies Kristy with her typical man-eating smirk.
Well, if that is the way she wants to remember it, Melissa thinks to herself. Kristy was a good friend but frankly Melissa was getting tired of feeling like she was the butt of Kristy’s jokes. Melissa knew she was not as experienced as Kristy and maybe not ever as experienced as Stacey. Stacey was not as open to discussing her sex life as Kristy was. Melissa was getting tired of being treated like an old maid. Yes, she was a bit of a bookworm, with a somewhat unhealthy love of all things Shakespearean but she knew how to relax and have fun. She knew she could never compete with Kristy for the attention of a man but Jeremy had seemed to be interested in her, hadn’t he? As a 28-year-old, she should be enjoying life, taking chances, hooking up with strangers. No, that was just not her, she was a boring plain Jane, it was as simple as that. As the reality that was her life sunk in, she reached for her first shot and threw it back.
Three shots later Melissa closes her eyes and lets the beat of the music move her on the dance floor, she feels a heat engulf her from behind. Strong hands span her waste and she is pulled back into a hard wall of muscle. Stacey, who she was dancing with, looks startled for a moment, her eyes going wide. Kristy yells something in her ear and a smile spreads across both their faces. They turn and dance away from Melissa, who is momentarily confused until the hands on her waste give a little squeeze and the here and now penetrate through the alcoholic fog in her brain. Slowly she is turned around and pressed tight against a broad chest.
“I hope you don’t mind my cutting in,” says Jeremy, his lips brushing against her ear. “I couldn’t pass up the chance to dance with the most beautiful woman in the room.”
Melissa lets out an unladylike snort at this typical line, “I bet you say that to all the girls,” she replies.
Jeremy comes back with some reply but all she can make out is something like go home with. Shocked by her drunken response to him she does not ask him to repeat himself. After several more dances, Melissa is truly feeling the effects of the alcohol and Jeremy on her body and mind. Dizzy and hot she is leaning even more into the furnace that is Jeremy.
“How about we get out of here?” Jeremy asks while looking intently into her eyes. Melissa knows what he is really asking and while she has had boyfriends in the past, she hadn’t been on a date even, in over two years. She certainly never had a one-night stand. Then again, she had never been this drunk before either. What the hell, it was one night. She would never see him again and at least she would have something exciting to tell her cats some day! Not trusting herself to speak, she simply takes Jeremy’s hand, waves bye to her friends and leads him to the door.
A short walk later, with Jeremy leading the way, they come to a tall condo building. Wow, Melissa thinks, someday I’ll be able to live in a building like this. Jeremy is silent as he leads her to the elevator. Once inside Melissa begins to fidget and have second thoughts, ‘what am I doing, I don’t even know this guy’. Just as the thought crosses her mind, Jeremy presses her against the glass back, he looks down at her lips, looks her in the eye and raises an eyebrow. His request for permission makes him even more irresistible, Melissa stuffs her fears to the back of her mind, rises on her toes and presses her lips to his.
As lightning courses through Melissa’s body, she gasps from the shock. Jeremy wastes no time and plunges his tongue into her mouth. My god what a tongue. Melissa groans and presses further into his hard body as he plunders her mouth. This is what it is like to kiss a real man, she thinks to herself, the other boys were just that; boys. Suddenly Jeremy pulls back, breathing hard, a startled look upon his brow. Both turn as they realize the doors are opened and they are on Jeremy’s floor. Taking her hand in his, he leads her down the hall, struggling with his keys, he finally unlocks the door and leads her inside.