Wanna Bet? (43 page)

He pulls away
from me and his eyes scan my face as he wipes my tears away but
more keep falling “Hey” he calls quietly.

Jess starts
laughing so we both look up at her, Andrew frowns at her but she
just sends me a knowing look.

***

Andrew is
carrying me through the bar bridal style. He’s laughing, I’m
fuming.

He places me
on the bar before we even get a chance to greet anyone a mic is
being pushed into my hand.

“
Brooke has a
little problem” he tells the crowd.

I glower at
him “Andrew, I swear to go!” I shout at him through my
mic.

“
Why don’t you
tell people what happened last night” he laughs and steps back to
avoid my slap.

“
You slept on
the sofa!” I scream.

“
And why is
that?” he smirks at me.

“
Because
you’re .... incompetent” I smirk at the laughs that go up around us
and jump off the bar, heading straight for Jess.

“
You gotta
help me” I beg.

“
What’s
wrong?” he runs her eyes over and her expression turns to panic “is
everything okay?”

“
I need to get
laid, like yesterday” I hiss at her.

She opens her
mouth a few times then closes it again before she bursts out
laughing.

I stomp away
from her and find Tucker sat at a table with a woman. They both
look up at me when I reach them.

“
Everything
okay Brooke?” Tucker asks.

“
Nope” I
answer instantly and flop down in the chair next to him, looking
longingly at his beer. Maybe one wont hurt ... after all I‘d been
drinking for the first fifteen weeks of this.

“
Brooke?”
Tuckers voice pulls me away from my thoughts and I drag my eyes
away from his bottle, it occurs to me that he’s waiting for me to
answer something, I didn’t hear the question so I mutter a quick
“nothing” and rush to the bar.

I spend a
couple of hours serving drinks but my mind isn’t completely on it.
I know this when Lucy has to call my name to get my attention when
I’ve been staring at space, or practically drooling over a bottle
of beer. When I look around the bar I spot Cam and Jamie sitting
alone, I wonder down the bar to them and smile mischievously at
them, they both groan.

“
Cam, can I
borrow you for a while?” I ask sweetly.

“
What are you
going to do to me?” he asks cautiously.

“
I’m going to
get you wasted”

“
Well okay
then” he grins at me. I motion for him to join me on my side of the
bar and pull him towards the office, a few cheers go up as I push
him into the office, Will looks up at us.

“
I need the
office for an hour... or two”

His eyebrows
jump up into his hairline causing me to giggle and Cam clears his
throat looking rather uncomfortable “Or you can join us” I
offer.

Both men turn
to me with matching incredulous expressions. I laugh and shaking my
head go back to the bar. When I return to the office with two
glasses and a bottle of Jack Daniels they both fall
silent.

“
All you have
to do is sit with me and drink this” I hold up the bottle. They
both exchange a look but nod at me.

No one talks
as I sit pouring the Jack Daniels and watch them drink them. When
the bottle is finally empty I’m holding back a laugh and silently
trying to work out which one of them will pass out
first.

“
Thank you” I
manage to say without my voice cracking but the humour in it is
obvious. They both scowl at me.

Cam stands
and stumbles slightly but after a few minutes I get my laughter
under control and wrap his arm around my shoulder, hooking my arm
around his waist I let him lean most of his weight on me and help
him back out to the bar.

As we make
our way back around to the customer side, cheering, laughing and
shouted comments greet us. I laugh more when Cam trips but stop
when I come face to face with Andrew, Tucker and Jess. They are all
frowning at me but Jess looks concerned as she takes in me holding
most of Cams weight.

It’s really no surprised
that I find myself entering the club via being thrown over Andrews
shoulder so I don’t even attempt to fight him on it.

“
You know this is one of
the reason you and I have so much trouble dating, people dating us
think this weird, they probably have a point” I point out as he
lands a playful slap on my backside. People cheer as we make our
way through the club and I wave at them knowing if I asked for help
they’d only laugh at me. He turns me so that I’m facing a laughing
Lucy and a tutting Tucker also two men I have never met
before.

“
I’d ask what happened but
I’ll introduce you first. Brooke this is Jack, Jack, Brooke” I turn
to look at Jack and am impressed, even upside down I can tell he is
very good looking.

“
Hey” I grin at him and
attempt to shake his hand but It doesn’t work.

“
Lucy’s told me a lot about
you” he says giving up on the hand shake as well. “This is my
friend Ben” Andrew turns so I’m facing Ben and I offer a weak
hello. He is also good looking. “I’ll give any of you five hundred
to kick this guy’s ass and get me down?” I beg.

“
What happened?” Lucy
finally asks.

“
I lost a bet” I
sigh

“
I thought you weren’t
going to take anymore bets” Tucker notes.

“
He tricked me into it!” I
turn my pout on Tucker “Would you help me down for five
hundred?”

“
No I’d pay five hundred to
see what ever it is you have to do though” he laughs at my weak
attempt to get out of it.

“
Fine lets get it over
with” I mutter grumpily

Once Andrew has set me on
the bar with my mic he finally whispers to me what I have got to
do.

“
Nuh uh, I can’t do that” I
insist.

“
Why not? It’s only a bit
of fun Brooke; you don’t have to take it any further”

“
Just pick something else
please, one that I have to do alone”

“
Have you got a secret
boyfriend somewhere you’re not telling me about?”

“
Andrew please let’s just
get on with it”

“
Who is it Brooke?” he asks
curiously but offended at the same time. It’s then I notice that we
have seen talking quietly to each other and the whole club has gone
silent watching us.

“
How about a free round of
drinks while Andrew thinks of something
suitable
for me to do huh?” I call
through my mic smiling at everyone, they all cheer and head to the
bar so I jump down behind it and watch as Lucy jumps over to help
me and Chloe.

“
What was that about?” Lucy
asks me between handing out drinks.

“
He wanted me to kiss
someone from the crowd” I tell her distractedly.

“
Right, why didn’t you do
it? You’ve done it before; you could have played it off as a kiss
on the cheek or something”

“
I just didn’t feel
comfortable doing is all” I shrug.

“
You know he will think of
something even worse now for you to do because you forfeited it”
she shakes her head at me.

“
I know” I grin over at her
and gesture with my head to where Andrew is sat at the bottom of
the bar deep in thought. I love making him have to think of
something else. He must be running out of ideas by now. We both
laugh as we watch him struggle to decide what to do.

“
What’s with the free
drinks then? Normally you only do that if something bad is going on
and you want to distract people?” she asks turning her attention
back to the customers.

“
That was just to buy me
some more time and because I’m in a good mood so I’ll put the money
in for them all, your adding yours up right?” I check as I move
from the now empty half of the bar and jump over to the customer
side..

“
Yeap and Chloe knows the
drill as well” she assures me “Where are you going?”

“
To dance” I grin and duck
through the crowd.

“
Hello” I smile at the band
as I reach their table. “What did you refuse to do?” Cam asks
gesturing towards Andrew who’s still say in the same position that
I left him in.

“
Nothing exciting” I assure
him.

“
So what can we do for
you?” Tucker asks.

“
I wanna dance” I pout at
everyone sat at the table “Will one of you dance with me
please?”

“
I will” Cam
volunteers.

“
Uh .. I kind of only asked
you lot because I want to dance with someone who won’t feel me up.
I’d ask Andrew but he’s busy …. That means your out sorry Cam” I
shrug apologetically as the rest of the guys laugh at him and he
grins at me.

“
Come on” Tucker says
standing.

“
You’re not serious. I said
someone who
won’t
touch me” I raise an eye brow ay him.

“
You don’t think I can
dance with you without touching you?” he asks
disbelievingly.

“
No, I
know
you can’t”

“
Want to bet on
that?”

“
Fine” I shrug knowing I’ll
win this one hands down.

“
If I win you have to do
whatever it was that Andrew asked you asked you to do earlier and
if you win I will do whatever next challenge Andrew gives
you”

“
I’ll accept that” I grin
at him and we head off to the slowly filling dance
floor.

We mess around for while
twirling each other around and under our arms, we do a weird
clubbers version of the tango, we do the chicken, the running man
and some other moves that were so strange I don’t even think they
are worth having a name. We are both doing the moonwalk when a slow
song comes on and we come to a mutual decision to dance to this one
properly while catching our breath.

Tucker is careful to keep
his hands on my hips and not moving them an inch while my hands go
behind his neck and I mindlessly play with his hair.

“
I’m glad you’re back
Brooke” Tucker smiles down softly at me.

“
Me too, this place really
feels like home, you know”

“
Yeah, I know. Your not
going to leave like that again are you?”

“
No, I just needed to sort
myself out, emotionally I was all over the place before I left and
now I feel more grounded and level headed. I know what I want and
what I need now not just what I think I want and need”

“
When you left a lot of
things became clear for me too” he admits quietly.

“
Like…” I prompt

“
Before you left I think I
took advantage of having you back in my life, I guess a part of me
thought that being with you is what I wanted because it was
familiar and I took advantage of that and hurt you in the process..
but now … but now after having spent three months away from you I
know I don’t want you in my life I
need
you in it”

“
I guess we both came to
the same conclusion then” I say quietly back to him.

“
So where does that leave
us?” he asks watching my eyes intently.

“
Dancing a slow dance to a
fast song in the middle of my club with about fifty people watching
us curiously” I smirk at him glancing around at our
audience.

“
Well we can’t have that”
he mummers bringing his face down to mine and kissing me softly,
the crowd cheers and the kiss deepens, when a few random shouts go
up around us we pull apart. “Guess I lost the bet huh?”

“
Yes and no” I tell him
laughing.

“
What do you mean?” he
frowns at me

“
Well you lost our bet and
now you have to do whatever challenge Andrew cooks up for me but I
don’t think he’s going to have to anymore because the first one was
that I had to kiss someone in the club”

“
I’m glad you refused it”
he says softly against my lips.

“
Me too” I agree falling
into a long kiss again until we hear someone clearing their throat
over through the speakers. I look up to see Andrew standing on the
bar.

“
Tucker doesn’t count so
you still have to do something else and I say we throw you’re no
more bar dancing rule and you do one for loosing the bet earlier”
Andrew says without preamble.

I grin up at Tucker who
now looks slightly nervous because he has to do my next challenge
so technically he’s the one who has to dance on the bar but I take
pity on him and grab his hand to get his attention.

“
Want some help? I have an
idea” I nod over at Andrew and head to the stage and picking up a
mic for myself I pass one to Tucker as well. “Can you guys do a
cover of the song like the first night I had to do it?” I ask as he
gestures for the rest of the band to join us.