Last Call (Bad Habits Book 3) (13 page)

“Hmm,” I hummed, enjoying playing along. “What says romance and comics and booze?”

“Plot Twist,” Ellie said.

“Book Drunk,” Cooper said with a laugh.

“Book Wasted,” Lily shot. “Word Wasted.”

“Wasted Words,” Patrick said, and we locked eyes as everything came together, clicking into place.

I smiled at him, feeling the warmth of his gaze wash over me. “That would actually be perfect.”

Cooper smirked. “Well, now it has a name. The hard part is done.”

I shook my head, still daydreaming. “It’s fun to think about.”

His smile stretched a little higher. “Just think how much fun it’ll be to run.”

I rolled my eyes and laughed. “Okay, Cooper. Now, who needs another drink?”

I poured another round while everyone talked, my mind still savoring the thought of running my own business. It would be fun. Hard, but fun. But I’d never let Cooper bet that much on me. Who knew how I could ever pay it back. Who knew if I could even do it without running it into the ground.

It sure was fun to dream about, though.
 

West leaned on the bar, talking around Maggie to Patrick, so she slipped off her stool and made her way down to the other end of the bar to sit with the girls. So naturally, so did I.

Lily smiled conspiratorially. “Time to pick date number two.”

“I haven’t even had time to recover from date number one.”

She shrugged. “Gotta get back on that horse, Rosie.” She held out her hand and wiggled her fingers.

I sighed and pulled my phone out of my pocket, slapping it into her palm.

Lily grinned as she pulled open the app. “I don’t know why you don’t enjoy this. It’s so fun.”

I laughed. “Maybe for you. You’re not the one who has to meet the guys. After Serial Killer Steve, I have to say I’m a little gun-shy.”

Ellie waved a hand. “One time, I met this guy on Tinder who had like thirteen dogs. I didn’t stay to bang because who wants that many dogs in your ass while you’re hooking up?”

Astrid snorted. “I can’t even use dating sites. The gossip mags would have a field day. Talk about dogs in my ass. So my dating pool is limited to other models and socialites, which is basically the worst subset of dating population ever.”

Maggie shook her head. “I’ve dated two guys ever — Jimmy, who never kept it in his pants, and Cooper. I am not at all equipped to weigh in on this.”

I smiled at her. “The only equipment you need is a vagina, and you have one of those.”

Lily scrolled through, holding my phone out so we could all see. Patrick seemed to know what we were doing — I could feel him every single time he looked over. Something was different with him. I mean, he’d been staring at me from the other side of this bar for months, but now it was different. Deeper. Like I could feel him calling me.

He was like a sexy tractor beam. So I did exactly what I could — I ignore him. Okay, I pretended to ignore him. I may have also stuck my butt out at what I thought might be the sexiest angle and been overly conscious of my hands, but whatever.

“Oh,” Ellie said, pointing at the screen. “Hang on, go back up. Who’s this guy?
DesignerDan
?”

“No more artists,” I said flatly.

Lily chuckled. “What about
KingTaco
?” She clicked on his profile.

“Points for the screen name, but working out is listed as a hobby.”

“That just means he’s probably got abs. I mean,
they
all work out.” Lily nodded at the boys.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, yeah, but they wouldn’t list it as a
hobby
. Also, he says he’s looking for ‘
Someone who’s awesome.
’ Next.”

Astrid snickered. “
BavarianCream
? There are too many jokes to even list.”

Lily squinted at the screen. “
Hrywshs
? Is that like, hairy wishes? Hurry washes?”

“Heinous wooshes?” I added.

“I’m going with hairy something. His beard connects with his chest hair.” Ellie pointed to his picture with her face jacked.

Lily laughed. “Dude, look at
YankeeBro
.”

My nose wrinkled. “Too real. Is he wearing a Ed Hardy shirt? I thought those went out of style like six years ago.”

Astrid shook her head. “Like, he actually thought that was cool. He put the word bro in his screename and was like, ‘Nailed it.’ I’d think it was clever if it was a joke, but the guy has Swarovski crystals on his shirt.”

Lily kept swiping with a confused look on her face. “Why are there so many pictures of guys with dogs?”

“I automatically assume those guys are players,” I said.

She laughed. “You are such a cynic. What about this one?
DollarsAndSense
?” She turned the screen.

I bobbed my head. “Cute, and points for word play, but that bow tie is a no.”

Lily frowned. “What’s wrong with his bow tie?”

“It makes him look like he’s twelve. It’s not like when, I don’t know, say Patrick wears one.”

Astrid nodded. “Oh, yeah. There’s not much that can top that. The bar’s too high.”

“So high,” I added with a laugh. “What about that one?”

Markalark
’s profile picture was gorgeous — the light streaming in from a window as he looked down at his fingers on the neck of his guitar. He was a musician without any morbid hobbies, or at least nothing he wrote about on his profile, which the four of us combed over.
 

Lily raised a brow. “Are you sure you want to give a musician a shot? I thought you swore them off forever after Jack.”

I shrugged. “I’d give him a coffee date to prove me wrong.”

She handed me my phone, smiling. “Message him.”

I took it and fired off a message, trying not to feel nervous, figuring I could keep searching.
SkateTreason
crossed my mind, that hot skater boy I’d found the other day, but before I could look him up, my phone buzzed in my hand.

I gaped. “Holy shit, he already responded.”

“Bam,” Ellie said, breaking open her hand like she had thrown a bomb.

Hey, Rose. Nice to meet you. I’m available to hang whenever. When are you free?

“He wants to know when I’m free. What do I say?”

Astrid picked up her gin. “You don’t want him to think you’re desperate, but it sucks to wait to something that’s not a sure thing, too.”

I chewed my lip. “So tomorrow’s too soon?”

Ellie shrugged. “Fuck it, I say. Not too soon at all.”

What’s your day like tomorrow?
I asked.
I know of a great coffee shop nearby.

My phone buzzed a second later.
Perfect. Just let me know the address and time, and I’ll be there.

My cheeks were hot, an involuntary smile on my lips. “It’s on for tomorrow.”

Lily grinned eagerly. “Are you excited? You look excited.”

“I am. I mean, anything has to be better than Serial Killer Steve.”

“Maybe Music Mark will be a hit,” Maggie said, smiling before sipping her bourbon.

I glanced over at Patrick, meeting his shadowed eyes. “We can hope.”

Patrick

MAGGIE, COOPER, AND ASTRID LEFT, but the rest of us closed down the bar, waited for Rose to clean up, all while my mind rolled over what my next move would be. I felt ambitious, maybe a little foolhardy, unwavered by the girls swiping through a dating app, aside from the flashes of jealousy. I’d resisted the urge to pull a movie scene hero move and hop the bar to kiss some sense into her, ignoring the visions of her being with another man — in
any
sense of the word — because I knew she’d come back to me if I was patient. I didn’t know how I knew, but I did.

The way she looked at me this morning triggered something in me, the briefest glimmer of what she’d been hiding behind a wall of apathy that told me she still felt it. I’d calmed down from my cavalier high, knowing I couldn’t be rash or hasty, as much as I wanted to be. So, slow and steady it would be. The more time that passed, the more the wall would crumble until it was gone.

It was late, the bar locked and dark behind us, when we found ourselves walking up broadway, pizza in hand.
 

“Mmm,” Ellie groaned, mouth full. “The pizza here is way better, but I still would have preferred a taco truck.”

Rose nodded. “Seriously, finding good tacos in New York is impossible. I’ve been looking for years. There’s one that’s amazing, but it’s in Union Square. No way am I taking the train seventy blocks to Midtown just for tacos, no matter how bad I want them.”

Lily chuckled, angling her pizza for a bite. “May as well be in Jersey.”

“Or Brooklyn,” West added.

“I dunno,” I said. “Pizza is the best drunk food. It’s got everything you need — carbs, dairy, protein. Grease. Can’t do without that.”

Rose smiled at me. “Chase it with a glass of water and some ibuprofen and you’re hangover free.”

I smiled back and took a bite, wishing I hadn’t refused sleeping on her couch. Maybe there was still a way back over tonight. She didn’t want me to stay. No, it wasn’t that — I could see it in her face. She was afraid to let me stay. Afraid she’d give up any more of her resolve than she already had.

When we reached Rose’s door, Lily and West said their goodbyes, walking on to our place. Their place. West’s place? I didn’t even know anymore. I hung back, waiting for the girls to get inside.
 

Ellie headed straight to her room with a wave over her shoulder, and Rose turned to me as she pulled her key out of the lock and stuffed her hands in the pocket of her leather jacket.
 

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”

I looked into her eyes, trying to decipher whatever was behind them, though it was just beyond me. I wanted to tell her I wanted to stay forever. I wanted to tell her I needed her. I wanted to touch her lips and tell her that she was mine, and I was hers. But I smiled, not saying what I wanted to. Just like old times.
 

Slow and steady.
 

“I’ll survive. See you around, Rose.”

She nodded, lips parted, her eyes on mine like she understood on some level, a level she wasn’t willing to acknowledge. “All right, Tricky.”

I backed away, watching her as she closed her door, and then I turned for my apartment.
 

West and Lily were still shuffling around the living room. He looked over his shoulder as sat on the couch, bending to untie his shoes. I took a seat in the armchair, propping my feet on the coffee table with a sigh.

“It’s been too long since everyone came out. That was nice.” Lily set her bag down on the table and sat next to West, smiling at me conspiratorially. “So are you gonna tell us what happened with Rose last night?”

West leaned back and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into him as they settled into the couch with a brow raised. “Uh, what’s this?”

I smirked. “What’d Rose say?”

“Well, she didn’t give up much, but given how flustered she was and how many times she said it wasn’t a big deal, I’m guessing it was definitely a big deal.”

“It was accidental. We were just hanging out and fell asleep, but when we woke up …” I looked at the bookshelf across the room, packed with books two layers deep and any way they could fit. “There’s a chance for me.”

Lily’s cheeks were flushed, her smile bright. “It’s kind of what I’ve been telling you. There’s absolutely a chance for you. Are you going to take it?”

I met her eyes. “I have to.”

“Well, what the hell are you doing over here then? Get back over there.”

I chuckled. “As much as I want to just go over there and get her, you and I both know she’s not ready for that.”

She wrinkled her nose. “No, probably not. Whats your plan?”

I sighed and stretched. “I haven’t figured it out yet. I definitely think I need to be over there as much as possible — it’s the only only way I’m going to get her to trust me. But I gave up your bed to Ellie, and … I don’t know. I knew she wanted me to try to not sleep on her couch, so here I am.”

“Use us as an excuse,” Lily said.

I raised a brow.

She grinned as she sat up and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Seriously. That’s been the excuse all this time, right? Well, get back over there and tell her we’re just too loud and horny and inconsiderate for you to sleep here.”

“Like, right now?” I asked, thinking of three reasons off the top of my head that going over there at that moment was a terrible idea.

“No, not right now.” She waved a hand. “Not until she’s asleep. It won’t be long — it’s so late. So in like a half-hour, just go over there and crash. Problem solved.”

West laughed. “Aren’t we just a bunch of conspirators?”

Lily shrugged and hitched a thumb over her shoulder. “I mean, West and I can go in there and get crazy if you need us to.”

I put out a hand. “Yeah, no. I’m good.” I paused, thinking it over, weighing it out.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, my God. Just do it. Come here, West. Tricky needs motivation. Stick your tongue down my throat.” She grabbed his face comically and pulled, smushing her lips against his, making exaggerated moaning noises. West laughed against her mouth.

I chuckled, shaking my head at them. “All right, all right. I’ll go.”

Lily stopped being gross and smiled, looking proud of herself. “I’m happy for you, Tricky. I hope it works.”

I smiled back as I stood. “Me too. ‘Night, guys.”

“‘Night,” they called after me as I headed into my room.

I turned on the lamp next to my bed, an island of soft light in the dark as I pulled off my jacket. Untied my boots. Unbuttoned my shirt and tugged off my jeans. And then I slipped into bed, sinking into the comfort of my own sheets, my own pillow.

Rose had another date tomorrow, and I wasn’t even ashamed to say that I hoped it was a disaster. I hoped it bought me more time. Brought her closer to me. Maybe this year I’d get what I wanted for my birthday. I closed my eyes for a moment, imagining it — the first kiss, the first touch, the feeling of her in my arms.

I think I drifted off for a moment because when I opened my eyes, the light was a little too bright, my body heavy as I dragged it out of bed. I wrapped myself in my comforter and shuffled down the hall to Rose’s, laying down on her couch that was a little too short to really be comfortable, staring into the dark room, though everything came into focus eventually.