“The fruity drinks? Really?” I smiled at him, hiding my annoyance well. What was with these guys in Europe?
“You know, Sex on the Beach, Cosmopolitans, Long Island Teas or whatever they’re called.”
“I think that I’m going to ignore that you said that.” I laughed.
“I put my foot in my mouth, didn’t I?” He looked mad at himself. “I know that I have the propensity to be an ass because my brother is the king of jackasses.” And then he smiled to himself.
“Oh?”
“Well, he’s a prince, but yes, he’s a jackass.”
“He’s a prince of jackasses or he’s a prince?” I asked, confused.
“Well, he—”
“Lola, there you are.” Anna came running up to me. “Jason just asked me out on a date. Oh, my God, can you believe it? I have a date already. A real date!”
“Anna, I’m talking.” I was astounded by how rude she was being tonight.
“I’m sorry.” She looked at Sebastian and smiled at me. “He’s cute.”
“Anna!”
“Sorry, but I didn’t want you to miss out.” She made a face. “Not after that ass from last night.”
“Anna, I think we should leave now.” I grabbed her arm and squeezed hard.
“No. We just got here.”
“You’re acting crazy,” I hissed.
“But I need to get to know Jason better.”
“I thought he already asked you out on a date?”
“Well, not really. He asked me if I wanted to go and smoke pot with him.” She paused and made a face. “Okay, maybe he really asked me if I had any pot to smoke with him.”
“Oh God, that is not a date.”
“I know,” she whined.
Sebastian interrupted us. “I know where to get some if you need some.”
I froze in embarrassment. I had completely forgotten he was there.
“Oh, no. We don’t smoke.” I turned back to him and gave him a small smile. “We’ve both got enough problems without adding drugs to the mix.”
“Weed is not drugs,” Anna stated, but I decided to ignore her. I was pretty sure she was only saying that because she had a crush on a guy who wanted to go and get high with her. Sometimes she became a real idiot when she had a crush on a guy.
“Is my Guinness almost here?” I smiled at Sebastian, and he grinned back at me in delight. I felt my stomach flip at the eagerness in his eyes. I hoped I wasn’t giving him the wrong impression. I mean, he was definitely cute, but I was still feeling pretty horrible about my encounter with Xavier, King of Assholes.
“What’s so funny?” Sebastian’s eyes twinkled at me and then he gave Anna a wide smile. “Would you like something to drink?”
“I’ll have a White Russian, please.” She smiled back at him and I gave her a look. “Hey, when in Rome.” She shrugged and looked back at the table. I was pretty sure she was checking to see if Jason was checking her out, which he wasn’t. She looked disappointed as she turned back to me.
“Your ‘no alcohol policy’ lasted for how long?” I shook my head.
She grinned at me and then looked back at Jason. “I don’t think I’m going to settle for Jason just yet.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I mean, he’s hot, but what’s hot at the end of the day?”
I smiled to myself at her words. How quickly she had turned on and then off. She was like a guy like that, always wanting something or someone badly and then letting some small thing distract or annoy her and forgetting about it. I wasn’t sure how she was able to move on so quickly. I had the opposite problem; I tended to dwell on things for far too long.
“Maybe we should have stayed home and watched EastEnders.”
“Anna, we’ve watched that show once.” I laughed, thinking about the English soap opera that had enraptured us a few nights before. “We don’t even know who anyone is.”
“I just feel bad that I dragged you out.” She made a face, and I could see the disappointment in her eyes. This wasn’t about me, this was about her and the fact that Jason didn’t seem to be as interested as she had hoped.
“Excuse me please, Sebastian.” I gave him a small smile as he looked at us both in concern. “We’ll be back inside in a moment.”
“Take your time, ladies. I will have the drinks ready and waiting for you.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed Anna’s hand and dragged her outside with me. “Okay, you need to relax.”
“What?” She looked at me with a blank expression and red cheeks.
“Relax. We just got here. We’re just meeting this people. We have six months to get to know everyone. If Jason is the one, you’ll end up with him. Don’t stress out.”
“I really like him,” Anna sighed. “I just feel like a fool.”
“You were excited only five minutes ago. Literally five minutes ago, you said he asked you on a date.”
“Well, we both know that was a bit of an exaggeration.” Anna giggled and placed her arm through mine. “You know how I can get.” She sighed and then smiled at me widely. “I’m glad we decided to do this together, Lola. I’m not sure what I would have done if you hadn’t come too.”
“That’s what best friends are for.” I smiled back at her. “Now let’s go back inside and meet everyone else. Then we can leave early and go and pig out on ice cream.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
We walked back inside arm in arm, and I was glad that I had been able to calm her down before she’d gone crazy. I loved Anna like a sister, but she had one of those manic personalities when it came to guys. She just lost her mind and acted like a total psycho—many times after only one date. She was so obsessed with falling in love that she fell for every guy she thought was cute, and if he didn’t seem interested right away, she either fooled herself into believing he was or she fell into a deep funk. I was always having to talk her off of the edge. Which was fine, because I was the boring one.
I was almost the opposite of Anna. I had a hard time with relationships because it was hard for me to let my guard down. That was why last night had been so completely exhilarating and out of the ordinary for me. I’d never just met a guy and gone home with him. I tended to overanalyze too much. But I guessed the alcohol had lowered my inhibitions, and the fact that I’d wanted to just go crazy hadn’t helped. For just once in my life.
And it had felt magical. Even the sparring with Xavier had elevated everything in my body. I had felt like I was soaring, and the sex had been amazing. I felt like a masochist because a part of me wished that I could have one more night with him—even though he had been a jackass.
“Here are your drinks, girls.” Sebastian walked over to us with a huge grin. “I was scared that you weren’t going to come back in.”
“We’re here.” Anna grabbed her drink and took a huge gulp. She shrugged at me as she saw my look. The ‘no alcohol policy’ was definitely out for her today!
“Thanks, Sebastian.” I gave him a grateful smile, and he nodded his head briefly.
His odd little mannerisms were so noticeable that I wanted to ask him about them, but I figured that maybe that was how Europeans were brought up. He was a lot more polite than any guys I knew back home in the States. Shit, he could give lessons on how to treat a lady—lessons Xavier needed to sign up for.
“So do you?” Sebastian interrupted my thoughts and I looked up at him guiltily, annoyed that I was still thinking of the asshole.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.” I made a face and looked around the restaurant lounge we were in. “It’s so noisy in here.”
“No apologies needed.” He bowed his head again and nodded towards the group table. “Shall we make our way back? I think Henrietta wants to make some announcements.”