The door opens and Bodhi steps out first, leaving his hand extended for me to grab. I carefully place both my legs out of the car first before standing, knowing that if I step out with one leg, people can see right up my dress.
Questions are thrown at him in rapid succession, but he doesn’t answer any of them. My heart misses a beat when I hear the name Aspen, but I try not to let my steps falter. The last thing Bodhi needs to know is that I looked him up on the Web and know about Aspen. By all accounts, she was his girlfriend, even though he never admitted it. Maybe it was a contractual thing that he not have an official girlfriend, but I’m almost certain they were a couple and now they’re not.
We enter the nightclub, which is packed. Bodies everywhere are making it hard to move. I cling to his hand, refusing to let go even though I’m jostled by people trying to get by.
“The guys are over there,” he says, almost yelling in my ear, and pointing toward one side of the club. I nod and squeeze his hand, letting him know that I’m following him.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I spot Natalie sitting with Brayden.
“Man, what the fuck took you so long?” Carson asks.
“Traffic,” Bodhi replies.
“What traffic?”
Bodhi shrugs and looks at me. I’ve got nothing. I was too busy having an orgasm to care.
“I need to go use the restroom,” I tell Bodhi, and ask Natalie to go with me. She does, and the guys laugh, saying something about chicks and the bathroom. Natalie flips them off, then grabs my hand so we don’t get separated.
Thankfully there isn’t a line and I take the first stall that I come to. Natalie is chatting up a storm with someone she seems to know, and I’m trying not to listen. By the time I’m finished, she’s waiting by the door for me.
“Let me just wash my hands.”
“No rush. The guys won’t go anywhere without us.”
“That’s good. Do you come with Brayden a lot?”
She shakes her head and fixes her hair in the dingy mirror. “Only when I’m not working or he can give me enough notice to ask for the time off.”
“Do you like being a nurse?” Earlier in the day she told me about her job, which involves really long hours; sometimes she has to rely on Brayden to pick Maggie up from preschool.
“I love it, just not the hours.”
We leave the bathroom as a swarm of girls come in. A few call out the guys’ names, but Natalie keeps walking, dragging me behind her. Then she’s stopped by someone else she knows, and I’m left standing there awkwardly. Natalie introduces me, but I’m more focused on spotting Bodhi. When I do, my heart drops.
“Excuse me,” I say. “Natalie, who is that talking to Bodhi?”
Natalie stretches to see, standing on her tiptoes. “Oh, that’s Aspen Lawrence.”
Dread washes over me as I take them in. He’s standing with a drink in his hand, and she’s close to him—too close for my liking. When her hand touches him, I just about lose the contents of my stomach because he doesn’t push her away. She leans into him, saying something in his ear, and he laughs, keeping his head angled toward her.
It takes me a while to make my way over to him, trying to squeeze past the bodies. People jostle me, others call my name, and I’m even groped as I try to get by them. I hate this place and I want to leave. This life isn’t for me.
I walk over to our reserved table, but Bodhi and Aspen are so into each other they don’t even know I’m here. I open my mouth a few times to say something, but nothing comes out. Aspen finally looks at me, smirks, and goes right back to talking to Bodhi.
I’ve been cheated on before, and it’s not something I ever want to experience again. I tug on his arm, hard enough that he spills his drink on Aspen.
“Shit,” he says as he starts to wipe her dress off. She, of course, is enjoying the fact that he’s touching her.
“Bodhi,” I yell, shoving him to get is attention. When he looks at me, his blue eyes are dull and his pupils dilated. He’s high. I cover my mouth to keep from crying out, but my reaction means nothing to him. Not a single thing.
I turn and leave, weaving my way through the crowd until I’m outside. As soon as my feet hit the pavement, I slip off my shoes and hail the first cab I can. The driver laughs when I give him the address, but I tell him to take me there anyway. I’m assuming I’ll be let in; if not, I’ll call my father and ask him to come get me.
The cabdriver laughs again when I hand him my money and get out. It’s late and I have no choice but to push the button for the intercom.
“Hi, it’s Kimberly Gordon, Bodhi’s…friend. Can you let me in? I forgot something.”
The gate swings open and I slip in, running up to the house. Before I can knock, the door opens. I breeze past the staff member and up the stairs. Once inside his room I strip off the dress and lay it neatly on the chair. I don’t want it; maybe his mom can give it to someone.