Boycotts and Barflies (10 page)

Grace sat on the stool quietly and continued to twirl a piece of her hair around  her finger, making him wait. He looked nervous, like she might actually turn  him down, so she decided to put him out of his misery. “I don’t know if I want  to tell you that yet. I kinda like you calling me Suzy.”

“Hey, Michael! Hey, Grace!” a voice came from over her shoulder.

Meg.

Grace rolled her eyes in disgust. “Thanks, Meg!”

Michael laughed out loud and clapped his hands together. “Grace, Grace, Grace.  Now that fits you much better,” he said as he tucked a stray piece of hair back  behind her ear, his fingers brushing lightly against her cheek, sending a  wonderful chill down her spine.

“Grace, we need to get going. Come on, Bianca, the boys have work to do, and

it’s getting late.” Meg handed Grace her coat, which she threw haphazardly  over her shoulders, not wanting to leave. She continued looking at Michael,

memorizing every detail of his face. She knew she would be seeing him in her  dreams tonight, those icy blue  eyes, the strong line of his jaw, her fingers  threaded into his long hair.

Michael’s smile faded into a frown, not even trying to hide his disappointment  at Meg’s words. “Do you really have to go? Can’t you just stay until we close?  We could go get something to eat.”

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Jack walked over and echoed Michael’s request.

“Sorry, boys, but we have to go. We need our beauty sleep. Ladies, shall we?” Meg pointed toward the door. Grace saw her wink at Ryan as she strolled away from the bar. Bianca blew Jack a kiss, and Michael quietly said, “Bye, Grace.” “Bye, Michael. I’ll see you soon.” She squeezed his hand and gave him a warm smile. Her words somehow seemed to make him happier.

“Promise?” He smirked.

“Yeah, I promise.” She gave him a small wave, and yet again, she had to force her feet to walk away from him, because for some reason, she was inexplicably drawn to him. Her body knew what it wanted, but her head kept getting in the

way.

What she really wanted to do was sit at the bar all night long and watch him as  he worked, watch the way he smiled when he looked at her, or the way his  muscles flexed when he carried a new tray of glasses out to the bar. She just  wanted to be near him, for as long as possible, but unfortunately her time for  tonight was up.

“See you soon,” she whispered as she took one quick look over her shoulder  and saw Michael leaning against the bar, watching her walk away.

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Chapter  7

When the cold evening air hit their faces, the girls were snapped out of their  silence. Grace unlocked the car and they all quickly climbed in and cranked the  heat. Before she pulled out of the parking lot, she had to ask the question that  had been bugging her since she forced herself to walk away from Michael. “Remind me again why we just turned down an offer to grab food with three  drop dead gorgeous men? And I know … the boycott. But it wouldn’t have  broken any of the rules.”

Bianca nodded her head in  agreement and patiently waited for Meg’s answer  to the burning question of the moment.

“Ladies, think about it. We’re playing hard to get. Hard to get is far more  attractive to men than clingy and desperate, wouldn’t you agree?”

Grace thought about it and  offered a quick, “Sure, but  ”—

Bianca threw her hands up in the air. “Fine, we’re playing hard to get. I  understand that part. But eventually we are going to let them catch us, right?” They spent the rest of the drive home in a comfortable silence, each of  them  deep in their own thoughts about what had happened at The Vault. Grace  unlocked the door to the apartment, tossed her keys into the basket, then told  the girls, “Get your PJs and pillows and meet me on the couch in ten minutes.” They both smiled and hurried to their rooms to change.

Grace opened her bedroom door and threw herself down onto the bed. She couldn’t help but smile as she thought back over the night’s events: Michael’s face when the pizza arrived, the way he whispered in her ear on the dance floor, the feel of his strong hands on her hips, the hilarity of Bianca and Jack retelling the wiener story while Meg sat on the bar helping Ryan serve drinks.  But nothing made her smile more than the memory of how it felt to be in  Michael’s arms.

That was something she was certain she’d never forget.

Grace grabbed her pajama bottoms and a T-shirt and quickly changed. With a pillow under her arm, she headed out to the couch, where Meg was sitting, bouncing with excitement. Bianca disappeared into the kitchen to make some popcorn, and then came out and joined them.

Unable to remain silent another second, Meg finally burst. “Oh my gosh, that was so much fun, and they’re just great.” She started clapping her hands together. “Bianca, you and Jack are so cute together and Grace … wow. Talk about chemistry!”

Bianca rolled her eyes at Meg’s comment. Grace, however, turned a bright shade of red.

“Get a grip, Meg, he’s still the Wiener Guy, you know. One conversation doesn’t make a love connection, and he’s got facial hair,” Bianca tried to blow it off, but  Grace could see she was trying way too hard to sound uninterested.

“Nice try, Bianca, but we both saw it, and I for one distinctly heard you use your ‘sexy’ voice. You only use that if you’re interested in someone.” Grace looked at her suspiciously, and the uninterested façade was replaced with a huge smile that spread across her face.

“God, he’s so cute … and dense … but I can work with that. I think I might need an intervention because, God help me, I think his scruffy beard is sexy. And

Grace, you saw him exercising! I may need to go to the gym with you.” Bianca began fanning herself at the thought of seeing Jack, sweaty and working out. Grace turned her attention to Meg who was throwing popcorn into the air and trying to catch it in her mouth. “So, I take it Ryan remembered you?” A piece of popcorn hit her in the nose and toppled onto the floor.

“I’ll say he remembered me. He was getting drinks for someone else, so I just hopped up onto the bar and waited for him to notice me.” Meg giggled with excitement.

“How very subtle of you,” Bianca teased.

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Meg just tossed a piece of popcorn at her which Bianca easily swatted to the ground. “You know I don’t do subtle very well, Bianca.”

Bianca laughed. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

Meg ignored Bianca and continued with her story. “Anyway, when he finally

came  over, all he said was, ‘I was wondering when I’d see you again,’

and I said, ‘The sooner the better.’ Then I introduced myself as Meg Tomlin, the

girl of his dreams.”

Grace’s mouth dropped open in shock. “I swear I’d kill to have your selfconfidence for a day. Wow,” she commented, shaking her head from side to

side.

“Oh please, Grace, I saw your little ‘bump and grind’ routine with Michael.

You didn’t look insecure at all when you were rubbing yourself all over him. I  could feel the heat all the way over at the bar.” Meg giggled as Grace lunged for  her.

With a pillow in her hand, Grace playfully whacked Meg over the head as things  snowballed into an enormous pillow fight. She was standing over Meg with two  pillows in her hand, when a thought suddenly jumped into her head.

“Meg, you were over at the bar. Why in the world was Michael even on the  dance floor to begin with?” Meg sat there, looking extremely guilty as Grace  waited for her answer.

“Meg, spill!”

“Wel , when I was sitting on the bar with Ryan, Michael may have recognized  me from last night when we asked for his phone number, and he mayhave  asked if I was a friend of Suzy’s …” She looked to Bianca for help, but Bianca  was too engrossed in the story herself to run any interference.

“And?” Grace pressed on, holding the pillow up a little higher as a threat.

“And I may have said yes, I knew you. Then, Gracie, he got all cute and excited

and he wanted to know if you were at the bar tonight. So I might have

mentioned you were in the far side of the dance fl oor, wearing a blue sweater,

tight jeans, and no underwear. Oh yeah, and I mentioned that you were

dancing with a Seahawks fan.” Meg threw her hands defensively over her face

as the pillow left Grace’s hand on a path to her head.

“Are you insane? You told  him I wasn’t wearing underwear?” Grace wasn’t sure

Meg could even hear her over Bianca’s hysterical laughter.

“Oh, stop it, Grace! You loved every minute of it—ouch! I was just helping.

You should be thanking me—ouch! He just about jumped over the bar to go

find you—stop hitting me!” Meg begged as Grace pummeled her with pillows.

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Then Grace turned her attention to Bianca. “And did you say anything I need to know about?” she asked with raised eyebrows as she took a few steps closer to  Bianca. Bianca’s eyes were cautiously fixed on the pillow in Grace’s hand.

“He asked if he could cut in and—ouch! I didn’t even tell you yet! I might have said something along the lines of ‘Go get her, tiger; she’s been wanting to grind

on you all night. Better bring your A game.’ Stop it, Grace! I can’t breathe,” Bianca squawked from underneath a pillow.

“Just when I thought I couldn’t be more embarrassed, you two just prove me  wrong. This is so much worse than I thought it was two hours ago. I need a new  alias,” Grace rambled out loud to herself.

The trio spent the next two hours talking and laughing about everything that  had happened over the last few weeks. From establishing the boycott, to the  boys, and now to counting down the days until  the stupid game was over so  they could go on a date with these fabulous guys. No one was willing to

concede the battle; someone would be crowned the winner.

All three of them were too stubborn to just cancel the wager, so as Grace  climbed into bed for the  evening, she devised her master plan. She decided her  best chance for success was to push Meg and Ryan or Jack and Bianca together  as quickly as possible. The sooner they disqualified themselves, the sooner  Grace could find out if Michael was really interested in her, or if it was simply  the thrill of the chase.

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Over the next two days, Bianca and Meg were swamped with work. The

holidays were always a busy time of year for them. For grace it was the

opposite; the university was on break so she had nothing  but time. As a result,

she spent most of the day alone. She even tried to kill some time and sneak to  the gym to see if she could ‘accidentally’ run into Michael, with no luck.  Thursday night, Meg flopped onto the couch after yet another long day of work

and wanted to plan some fun for their weekend.

“What are we doing tomorrow night?” Meg asked.

Bianca came and joined them on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal. “Would it

be too desperate to go to The Vault?” Bianca asked hopefully, but when Meg

rolled her eyes, she knew the answer.

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“Yes, Bianca, if we went there  we could just paint desperate across our heads.” Meg sighed. “Wait, I have a great idea! Let’s go see a movie and then we’ll do  dinner after that. What comes out tomorrow?” She grabbed the newspaper and  started planning the rest of their weekend.

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“Meg, we’re going to a dark, sticky movie theater. There’s no reason for all this  primping, unless you’ve changed your mind and decided we can go to The

Vault tonight. In which case, Bianca and I are going to kill you because we are  completely underdressed!” Grace bellowed at the closed bedroom door.

She looked helplessly at Bianca, who decided to try banging on the door while  screaming to see if that would light a fire under Meg’s ass. “We need to leave in  exactly five minutes or we won’t have time to get popcorn. And you know I  can’t sit through a movie without popcorn and candy, so get a move on.”

Meg chose that moment to throw open her door. “Stop the screeching girls; I’m  ready.” Meg strolled out of her room and showed off her long, mahogany wig of  the evening. “Perfection takes time, ladies,” she said with a curtsy.

Grace drove like a madwoman to make it to the theater in time. She knew if  they missed the previews, Meg would whine for an hour, and if Bianca didn’t  have time to get her popcorn and candy, there’ d be hell to pay. She’d bought

the tickets online and was able to quickly print them out at the kiosk, leaving  them with five minutes to spare before the previews were scheduled to start.

A large refillable tub of popcorn, three large sodas, one bag of lic orice, a box of  chocolate, and an order of nachos later, the girls dashed into the theater just as  the lights were dimming for the previews. Meg slipped into the third row and  sat down near the center. “Do you think we have enough food?” she whispered  as the first preview started.

“We have enough food to feed a family of six for a week, Meg.” Their giggles  were immediately shushed by a woman a few seats down.

Bianca glared at the woman and shushed her right back.