Fall From Grace

  “It’s Gaston Chiquet Brut 1er Cru 2002. It’s $150 a bottle. Drink as much as you want,” he winked. Oh, I fucking will.

  Without ordering, we were served food. Sushi. Well, at least I had $150 champagne to fill me up. I think that someone should warn you before taking you to a sushi bar, since it might be nice for a person to be able to tell you they HATED SUSHI!

  Toro, uni, aoyagi, sayori...I kept drinking to make myself not think about what I was eating.

  “This place is beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, leaning against the bar; eyeing me.

  “Yes.” Does he know ANY other adjectives?

  “So tell me about you,” he said.

  “Like what?” I asked gulping my champagne.

  “Where did you grow up, where’d you go to school? Stuff like that,” he explained.

  I swallowed hard, champagne going right to my head. I could tell him everything; that would send him packing. It almost made Jacob leave me and he was my brother. Tucker wouldn’t believe me though; he wouldn’t even hear me. “I grew up in Belle Harbor, a block away from the beach. Lea and I lived next door to each other.” My knees started tingling from the champagne. “I’ve been to a couple of schools and I studied everything.”

  “I was thinking,” he said, proving he did not intend to get to know any more about me. Sure, you were thinking. “Why don’t I see if there’s any room for an assistant in our office? I was thinking I could help you out, since you don’t have a job right now.” He smiled so wide, I noticed where all the sushi was stuck in teeth.

  “Like a secretary? I don’t think that’s for me. But, thank you for thinking of me.” Another bottle of champagne came to the table.

  “Nonsense. Grace, you need a job. My firm is the best place, and when I become partner you could be my personal secretary.” His eyebrows moved up and down.

  I barked out a laugh that was a little too loud. “Nope. I’m good where I’m at right now, thanks.” More sips of champagne. Does this come with an IV?

  “So what are your plans then?” he demanded. Condescending jerk.

  “Just plan to keep breathing for now, that’s about it. Well, until I stop, that is,” I said laughing.

  “Stop breathing? Don’t be silly. God, this shit is delicious!”

  I giggled. He was absurd and I was getting tipsy.

  “So am I making myself immortal?” The question caught me so off guard, I sucked in my breath loudly.

  “I take that as a YES!” He fist pumped. YES! I just said he fist pumped! I needed to get the hell away from this spiked haired, sushi eating, fist pumping jackass as soon as it was humanly possible.

  I choked on my words laughing. “Tucker being immortal would suck, even for you.”

  “Bullshit!” He was getting drunk.

  “Just think of everything you love and have now, slipping away from you. People you love getting sick, getting old, dying. Again and again. You wouldn’t be able to stand the sorrow.”

  “Psf. I’d fuck a lot of girls. Ha. I’ll be like Shane and Alex.”

  I shrugged, and then agreed. “Okay so immortality is good for having lots of sex. That’s about it. This is a dumb conversation.”

  He spoke endlessly about the sushi, making it insanely hard not to picture myself eating the sushi. However, I stomached it, because he was holding the conversation quite well all by himself and I didn’t feel like talking to him any longer. He ordered another bottle of champagne.

  After an hour of the torture, Tucker’s phone began ringing continuously; for fifteen minutes straight, until he shut it off, embarrassed. “Fucking assholes. Probably Shane or Alex trying to fuck up my date with you! They both wanna tap your ass.”

  “You curse a lot when you’re drunk,” I smiled. “Tap what?”

  “Your ass, Grace. I wanna tap your ass in this fucking bar,” he chuckled.

  “No can do, there’s way too much sushi, it would be weird.”

  My phone started ringing. I pressed my screen to see who it was. Lea. Something must have happened.

  “Helllooo,” I sang.

  “Grace?” Shane’s voiced echoed in my ears. There’s that butterfly again. What the hell is with the butterfly? Doesn’t he know I can’t let myself feel...human?

  “Shane?”

  “Where’s Tucker? He’s not answering his phone? Where are you?” Shane demanded.

  I heard the phone being yanked out of his hands and I flinched, accidentally pressing down on the screen. Lea’s voice screamed through the restaurant. Whoops, speakerphone.

  Seemingly humiliated by my loud conversation, Tucker tried to wrestle the phone out of my hands. His face was crimson and he looked like he was about to explode.

  “What is wrong with you, Tucker? Give me my phone back!” I yelled, not caring who heard me in the restaurant. Lea and Shane’s voices were still on speaker, loudly screaming profanities to the entire restaurant.

  Tucker drunkenly poked the screen of my phone five times to get it off speaker. Everyone in the restaurant waited to see what would happen next. He looked around wildly; his knuckles were white from squeezing my phone so hard. “You are embarrassing me!” he snapped.

  I looked him dead in the eyes. “Give me my phone or I’ll give you something to really be embarrassed about.”

  He immediately slid the phone across the table. I put it to my ear.

  “Hello?”

  “Grace, are you okay?” Shane’s voice asked.

  “What’s going on, Shane?”

  “We need Tucker. Alex needs a lawyer. He’s in Manhattan Central Booking.”

  “Oh no, what happened. Oh, forget it, you can tell me later. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea that Tucker drives, and you might need to call his father if you want a lawyer who isn’t drunk.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Shane mumbled. “Where are you? I’ll come and get you,” he whispered.

  “We’re eating sushi,” I explained as if that told him where to pick me up.

  “Ew.”

  “Tell me about it,” I laughed.

  “So where would you be eating this sushi, exactly?” he asked.

  “Just meet us at The Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. Wait, how are you going to get us?” The phone clicked off.

  I looked up at Tucker, irritation stirring in his eyes. “That was Shane. We have to pay the bill and go. He’ll be here to pick us up in a minute.”

  “No fucking way. What the fuck is he picking us up for? This date isn’t over. I’m not done with you!” The irritation was now replaced with anger in his eyes.

  Done with me? I was going to have to kick this boy’s ass to teach him how to treat a woman! “Alex is in Manhattan Central Booking. He needs a lawyer.”

  His anger evaporated and his shoulders sunk low. “Shouldn’t have drunk so much.” He looked at me with sad eyes. “I’m sorry; this was such a great date.”

  I walked to get my coat, laughing all the way. I tried to pay for half of the meal, but he wouldn’t allow me, telling me he had already prepaid for half of it and I wasn’t working, so I should be broke and coming to him for a job soon.

  The cold air from standing outside sobered him up enough to call his father who agreed to meet with him and Alex. I stood on the street shivering, wondering what trouble Alex could have gotten into with two broken arms.

  The squeal of the Jeep’s wheels as Shane rounded the corner woke me from my thoughts. He pulled up onto the sidewalk like a lunatic and jumped out of the car. Without saying a word, he opened the passenger side door, pulled the front seat forward and shoved Tucker in the car. He then took my hand, helped me into the front seat, and closed the door for me.

  Shane climbed back into the driver’s seat and took off towards Centre Street, downtown. I stared at him while he drove. It’s completely ridicul
ous that someone should look so perfect or that he be allowed to drive my Jeep.

  “What happened?” I asked to get my mind off of looking at him.

  “Alex was out with that chick whose boyfriend jumped him. The boyfriend had roughed her up after the incident with Alex, and well, I think Alex went to the guy’s house and I guess he stood up to him.”

  Tucker snapped into action in the backseat asking questions and making phone calls. I leaned my head against the cold window and sighed. On a scale of one to ten, I’d have rate the date a 0.

  Traffic was light and we made it there within fifteen minutes. Tucker’s father was standing outside waiting on the steps.

  Shane pulled up and opened his side of the car door to let Tucker get out. When Shane got back in and closed the door, Tucker made him open the window to talk to me. “Grace, I’m sorry. I know that this was one of the best nights of your life, so I’ll take you back to Masa whenever you’d like.”

  Is he insane? One of the best nights of my life? I kept my voice calm, “Oh, we’ll have to talk about that, Tucker.”

  Tucker gave me his sexiest smile. “I know, it was amazing. Grace, you’re amazing.” He tilted his head to Shane and nodded, “Thanks for taking her home for me, you’re a good friend.” He pounded his palm on the door, which made me want to scratch his eyes out. “Get her home safe, this big boy has gotta play superman!” he shouted, pointing to himself.

  Shane pulled away and drove without saying a word. I kept my head against the cold glass. The tingly feeling that I had before was slipping out of my body and I found myself wanting to find a way to continue the mind-blowing numbness. Shane’s silence was making it worse.

  After circling the block of my apartment five times, Shane finally found a spot and pulled in. We got out and he walked me to my apartment, but instead of going inside, I kept moving.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “I need to have a drink or few.”

  “What? Now? Why?”

  I looked down at my cellphone and saw that it was 8:30. I looked at him seriously. “That was just two and a half hours of my life that I will never get back. And in those two and a half hours, I have spent more time with a jerk, than all of my years on this earth.” I watched a small smile play on his face. “I am kind of hoping the rest of my night will be full of regretful behavior and irreversible decisions.” I stomped away from him, but he grabbed me by my arm, spinning me around to face him.

  “What? So that wasn’t the best night of your life?” he asked with amusement in his voice.

  “Shut up, Shane, go home!” I walked away.

  He threw his arm around my neck and walked with me. “I think I need a night of watching you entertain me with your regretful behavior and your irreversible decisions.”

  “Then we definitely need to call Lea to tell her and Conner to meet us at Boozer’s,” I said.

  Shane looked down into my eyes. He was so close to me like this that it was hard to think straight. His whole body vibrated with sex appeal, or maybe that was me. Either way, I didn’t want to have any sexy thoughts about me and New York City’s Most Popular Man-whore and I wanted my best friend with me.

  He must have read something on my face. “Grace, are you afraid of being alone with me?” He eyes widened and he took his arm off my shoulders. “Grace, I get it. You aren’t interested in anything with me. I’m not going to try anything, I promise.” He looked around and back to my eyes, running his hand through his hair. He took his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll tell them to meet us there.”

  Boozer’s was crowded for a weeknight, as Shane and I meandered our way to the bar.

  Shane introduced me to Ryan, the bartender, and told him whatever I wanted was limitless and he was paying. I eyed him suspiciously and took off my coat. When he saw me with my coat off, his mouth dropped open and he froze. His eyes smoldered, giving me a slow long once over from my eyes to my toes and back up again. He sucked his breath in, but said nothing. He looked awestruck, and I had no doubt that if I were any other girl in the world other than me, that look would have made me let him take me home.

  “What would you like, Grace?” Shane asked me. I hesitated. I wanted to say to be someone else, at least just for tonight; but I couldn’t. I still had to find someone, someone who I’d been half a person without. “Tequila, please,” I whispered.

  Shane tore his eyes off me, “Ryan, the woman wants Tequila. Line up the shot glasses, salt and limes, sir,” and he turned back to me with a wicked smile, “And let the regretful behavior begin!”

  Everything was placed on the bar in front of me.

  My eyes never left Shane’s as I slowly licked the back of my hand, salted it and licked it again. Lifting the shot, I tilted my head back and emptied the glass, and then sucked on the lime.

  “My God,” he whispered.

  I narrowed my eyes at him, “Why am I drinking alone?” I could feel a heat burn inside me.

  A sexy playful smile crept across his face, “Oh, don’t worry, Grace, you’re not alone,” he said, as he slowly licked the back of his salted hand and devoured his drink.

  I wanted to ask him if he could do that to me next. Please, Lea, get here fast before I do something I will regret.

  “Holy Shots!” Lea screamed when she and Conner walked up to us, eyeing all the Tequila that was lined up. Oh, thank you God, she’s here!

  “Lea!” I yelled, and hugged her tight. When I pulled her away, I said, “That, my friend, will be the last time that you will ever talk me into going on a date!”

  Lea held up her finger, about to make a point and I grabbed it with my mouth and bit her. “Ouch!”

  “Last time, Lea. It’s my messed up life and if I want to waste it, I will!” I ended the sentence with another shot that Shane had handed to me; his fingers brushing mine. My breath caught, his eyes noticed, and my cheeks flushed with heat. Crap!

  Lea grabbed a shot off the bar, “Come on, Conner. Worst thing to do is let a friend drink alone, looks like I’ll be taking off again tomorrow!” She emptied her glass.

  Four shots in, Shane grabbed my hand and nodded toward the dance floor. I smiled back; butterflies bursting in my stomach. I motioned for Lea and Conner to follow us.

  Shane spun me around, facing me away from him, and grabbed hold of my waist. His fingers dug into the material of my shirt, pulling me closer to him. His touch made me lose my train of logical thought. All my coordination; out the window. I fell back against his body, he swayed my hips to the music; fire erupting deep inside me.

  I tried to pull away from him. I wanted to run away from the heat; too afraid to get burned by the fire pulsating in my veins. My entire body ignored my thoughts; it just melted into him.

  I glanced over to Lea and Conner for help, but received nothing but an impish grin from both of them.

  Shane spun me back around to face him. A rush of exhilarated fear seared through me. I felt the heat of his hands through the thin material of my shirt. I wonder how it would feel with his hands on my bare skin. Oh, shut up, Grace, do not think about Shane like that! “Shane,” I gasped shaking my head at him.

  His eyes were so intense. My God, he is sexy. Exquisitely tempting, but too dark and dangerous, just barely out of sight beneath the surface.

  He tightened his grip around my waist, pulling me in closer. Burying his face in my hair, he whispered, “You’re killing me, Grace.”

  I leaned away from him and frowned up at him.

  “I know. I know, Grace!” His hands flew up into the air. “I have absolutely no chance at a night with you. I’m not trying to sleep with you. I’m just having fun, you smell awesome, you are inhumanly beautiful, and you’re making my heart beat overtime. Shots?”

  I threw my head back laughing. “Shots!” I agreed.

  Taking hold of Lea and Conner, we shoved through
the dancing crowd to our waiting drinks. Four more shots. Numbness; the world was perfect, pure, and my life had meaning. I hadn’t died a thousand times over and my heart had not been ripped from my chest.

  “Hey, you okay? I have to go pee, come with,” Lea demanded slurring.

  I can’t even remember walking to the bathroom.

  Standing in front of the faucet, I held my hands under the icy cold stream until they burned. Lea had gone into a stall and she was silent, very unlike her.

  She walked out of the stall; slamming the door accidentally and giggled. She came over to the faucet beside me and washed her hands.

  Noticing my hands were still under the stream, she shut off my faucet and handed me a clump of paper towels. She looked at me intently in the mirror. “What’s going on? What really happened with Tucker, besides Alex and his stupidity cutting your date short?”

  I gave her a look, which I hoped said it all, but just to clarify, I added, “Let’s just say it was the worst date of my entire life. End of story.”

  “And, what is going on with Shane out there? The way you guys were dancing, I thought, maybe...well, it just looked intense,” she said.

  I cringed. It felt intense. It felt good, but there’s no way I could say that. “Lea, ever since I got here, there’s been so many intense moments that I feel like a rubber band about to snap.”

  Lea grabbed my frozen hands and stared down wide-eyed at them. “Why do you do these things?” She rubbed my hands in hers to warm them. “You know, Grace, I haven’t really known Shane for long, but I can tell you he would be great for a one night thing and that’s it, he’s hollow when it comes to girls. But, damn is he sexy. Sometimes, I secretly wish I met him first, let him have his way with me, and then met Conner!”

  We burst out into a fit of giggles, “Lea, I can’t.” Okay, so I was really trying to believe that.

  “So what do you want?”

  “Right now, I just want Jacob to be here to give me big hug and say, ‘I’m sorry that the entire male gender of our species sucks.’ But, more than that, I need another drink so I can forgot about everything for a little while.”

  When we returned, Shane was sitting at the bar with a stunning blonde. A twinge of envy coursed through my body, but I washed it away with another drink. I watched as he leaned in, brushing her long golden hair off her shoulder and whispered into her ear. She ran her fingers though his hair and giggled, sliding closer against him.