Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Gena rolled her eyes. “They went to school together, can you tell?”
“And apparently they still think they can drink like they’re nineteen,” I said dryly, sliding in beside Neil.
“Oh, it’s just a bit of fun,” Ian scolded playfully. He poured out some vodka for himself, then held it up and clinked it against Neil’s. “Sláinte.”
“Where’s Michael?” Emma asked.
“Emma, dear, you look lovely as ever,” Ian said in lieu of an answer.
Neil raised his chin and gave him a warning, “Ian…”
“Daddy, I think you lost your moral high ground in the middle-aged men flirting with younger women game.” Emma rolled her eyes. “I’m going off to find Michael.”
“I see time hasn’t mellowed her any,” Ian fiddled with a straw on the table, and I recognized it as the frustrated motion of a smoker indoors.
Neil’s arm slid around my waist, and I scooted a little closer to him, asking, “Are you having a good time?”
“Fuck me, I’m having the time of my life.” He was so drunk, and so adorable. “Oh, but there’s someone I wanted you to meet, before they leave. Ian, Gena, will you excuse us a moment?”
“Of course,” Ian said, slightly raising his hand in polite dismissal. “Sophie, it was a pleasure meeting you.”
“Nice to meet you two, as well.” I slid from the booth, my feet aching in my too-tall heels. When we were a few steps from the table, I asked, “Who is it I’m going to meet?”
Neil’s arm snaked around my back and his hand closed over my hip. “No one. It was all an excuse to get you alone.”
He steered me toward the men’s room, and I stopped on my heels. “Whoa there, cowboy.”
“You wouldn’t deny a man on his birthday, would you?” he asked, close to my ear.
There wasn’t a day I could deny him. And now we were both drunk. And when was I going to get to have sex at this particular club again? When was I ever going to be in this club again?
He left me beside the men’s room door, then went inside. A guy in his twenties—I thought I’d seen him on SNL—walked out and said, “Excuse me,” then Neil opened the door and ushered me in. There was a bathroom attendant, a slim young man in all black, stationed near the bank of sinks, and Neil reached for his wallet. He tossed a stack of hundred dollar bills on the counter and gave the man a meaningful look.
Without missing a beat, the man scooped up the bills, said, “And a happy birthday to you, Mr. Elwood,” and whistled a little tune on his way out, hitting the door lock behind him.
I backed up slowly, bracing my hands on the edge of the counter. “Do you have any idea how intimidating it is, knowing that my boyfriend can basically get whatever he wants?”
He stepped up close, looming over me, and slipped a finger under my chin to lift my face. “Do you know how terrifying it is for me, knowing that you’re the only thing in the world that I want?”
I was used to intensity from him, but that took my breath away. I didn’t know what to say, but I wouldn’t have had time before he kissed me, his hands splayed against my back, drawing me closer. His mouth tasted like alcohol, but so did mine, so I didn’t care. I grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him closer. Or maybe I pulled myself closer, climbing my way up his body with an urgency so sudden, it frightened me. I was a different person with Neil, far different from the person I’d been before he’d come back into my life.
I’d never bought the idea that a person had a “better half.” Neil had called me his other half when he’d proposed, as though without me, he lacked some vital component. It was a sweet notion, but I found a much simpler explanation as to why people shape you and change you. People are darkened rooms, and each person they choose to include in their lives is a beam of light, uncovering some new, previously hidden part of them. If I’d never met Neil, I would have been the same Sophie I always was. Others would have uncovered the bits of me that Neil’s presence had illuminated, but that’s what made our love seem so magical when I considered it. We didn’t need each other to be whole. We were already whole, and we chose to love each other, to be more.
There was no other man on Earth I wanted, so I understood what he meant by “terrifying.” A moment ago, I’d been questioning the wisdom of having sex in a public restroom during a party where our absence would most likely be noticed, the next I was clawing at his jacket, pushing it off his shoulders, hanging on to his shirt so tight I was sure my nails would go through it. His open mouth slid down my jaw, to my throat, in a careless, wet path. He pushed me back and lifted me onto the counter, my hands groping for his fly between us.