Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
“Hell, no.” I pushed him away. “I’m not wearing makeup. Let’s just go get drunk.”
We walked roughly the same circuit I’d walked with Mark Gladstone on our night out that ended with me having a slumber party with Kage and Vanessa. Steve was knocking the drinks back pretty fast, but I was mindful of my underfed state and tried not to go overboard. I was nervous cruising around a strange town with a drunk tour guide. What if Steve got too messed up to take care of himself? We didn’t both need to be passed out somewhere in the city of sin. No telling what might happen to us.
Eventually, though, when the night had grown stale and I was antsy with a couple of beers in my system, I asked Steve what I’d been planning to ask all night.
“Will you take me to a gay bar?”
Steve’s face ran through a cycle of various expressions: shock, bewilderment, curiosity, delight, and finally suspicion. “You want to pick up another guy?”
I shrugged and took a swallow of the warm beer I was nursing. “Maybe. Maybe not. Really, I’m just curious about whether or not I’d be attracted to another guy.”
“I’ll be your guinea pig,” Steve slurred. “No, on second thought, scratch that. Michael Kage’s ex is not a good idea for me, unless I want to end up in the morgue.”
“No offense, Steve, but I’m kind of spoiled for a certain type of guy.”
“And what type might that be?” he asked innocently, eyes wide.
“Um… big.”
“Well, how do you know I’m not your type, then? You haven’t seen what I’m packing.” He glanced deliberately down at his lap, and I had to laugh.
“That’s not what I meant. I was talking about a more general type of big. Built, strong, aggressive, forceful…”
“Oh, you mean like a fighter,” he teased. “Well, why didn’t you say so?”
Fifteen minutes later, we were in a gay bar. The one he took me to was dark and kind of seedy if you ask me. I felt a little scared in there. By this time, Steve was pretty lit, and he was pointing out all of the guys in the place that he’d like to do. But even though he got approached several times, he didn’t try to pick up. He said he was there for me, and that he couldn’t give me the kind of attention I needed if he was preoccupied with someone else.
“Are you sure about this?” Steve asked. “I’m not really feeling this whole meeting someone thing. Kage is not going to be happy about it.”
“How would he find out?” I asked, secretly hoping that he would find out.
“Are you just wanting to make him jealous?” Steve asked, avoiding my question. “If you want to make him jealous, there are better ways to do it than sleeping with someone else. I just have a really bad feeling about this, Jamie. And especially about me helping you do it. My first allegiance is with Kage, and I do have his cell number.”
I sighed and plopped down at the table Steve found for us. “I still want to be with him, you know. He just doesn’t want to be with me. If I could walk over there and talk to a guy for a few minutes and somehow make Kage jealous, that would be awesome. But he’s not around, and he’s not interested, and I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. All I know is that I’m gonna die if I just sit around and mope. I mean, you and I both know I’ll never find another Kage. I’m already screwed, so why not just go for broke? Just fuck it all to hell and back until there’s nothing left to salvage.”
“Why the fatalism? Can’t you just have a little faith that things will work out?”
“I’m all out of faith,” I said, as if I’d ever had any in the first place. “Look, I’m probably not gonna sleep with anybody. I just need to flirt a little, to remind myself that there’s more than one guy in the world. I need to quit obsessing over him. Now tell me how to get picked up in a gay bar, or I’m gonna go out there and wing it.”
“Okay…” Steve didn’t sound altogether sold on my chosen course of action, but he was going to help me, that much was clear. “Do you know how to pick up girls in a straight bar?”
“Of course. That’s easy.”
“How do you do it?”
“I just talk to them, actually.”
“Then you already know how. I mean look at you. Most of the guys in here are already scoping you out.” He ruffled my hair and smiled appreciatively. “I noticed you said you want to get picked up tonight. That sounds a little passive to me. Are you looking for a top?”