And if I was interested, there’s only one rock star I’d be getting with, I thought, my mind flitting back to my sexy, tattooed neighbor with the bad attitude. That wasn’t going to happen, though. I was here for my career, and I was going to focus on that.
With that in mind, I turned to the girl next to me. “So, what department do you work in again?” I asked.
She groaned and put her hands over her ears. “You can’t use that four-letter word on a girls’ night out!” she proclaimed.
I blinked and looked around. The other girls were nodding in sage agreement. Megan’s eyes twinkled as she leaned forward. “We haven’t gone over the rules yet, but I’m not giving you a pass on that one,” she said. “Anyone so much as mentions work while we’re out at the bar, that means they have to buy a round of shots.”
I made a face. Surely she wasn’t serious, was she? I couldn’t remember the last time I had done shots—maybe sometime in college? Weren’t we all adults here? We all had to be in the office the next morning, and even though the anxieties of my first day on the job had somewhat worn off, I still didn’t want to mess anything up.
But I didn’t want to be the downer, or even more of the outsider than I already was. If this was the way they did things here in LA, then so be it.
Megan caught the bartender’s arm and ordered a round of tequila shots to be put on my tab. I tried not to grimace at that as well. I could only imagine how much shots cost in a bar in LA, even if it was a bit of a dive. I could probably pay my rent for the cost of a round.
Note to self, do not talk about work with these people, I thought.
The shot burned as it went down, and I couldn’t help but cough a little. I was used to having a couple of beers on a board game night, not doing shots with a group of girls who all let out a yell after they tipped one back.
I wasn’t the last person to buy a round for us, either. It seemed like Megan came up with a new rule every other minute, but all the other girls were nodding along like this was normal. One shot became three, and soon I felt like I was blissfully floating in the clouds.
I could hear myself talking, and I knew that I was telling these virtual strangers way too much personal information—especially given the fact that they were my coworkers. Fortunately, just as I was starting to wonder if I should feel embarrassed, the band started playing, effectively shutting up any conversation that we might have had.
I cocked my head to the side as I listened, tapping out a beat with my foot. The girls were right—they were pretty good.
Everyone got up to dance, and Piper dragged me along with them. I frowned. Dancing wasn’t usually my thing. Then again, tonight I was feeling the music, or at least the booze. I swayed with the rhythm, shaking my hips and bobbing with the beat.
I remembered what the girls had said about the singer being sexy, and I looked toward the stage. He was all right, I guessed, but you could definitely tell he knew that he was attractive. That had always been a turnoff for me. Guys like that were nothing but trouble.
My eyes slipped past him toward the drummer, who was pounding out the beat as though he were possessed by pure electricity. He happened to look at me at the same time that I looked at him. Or had he been watching me dance the whole time?
With a jolt, I realized that I knew him. Those dark blue eyes, those tattoos. It was none other than my new neighbor. And God did he look hot tonight, drumming his ass off.
My mind flashed back to that first night I had gone over there, when I had yelled at him to keep it down. I remembered the way he had stared when my robe slipped and he caught a glimpse of just the upper swell of my breasts. A similar heat went through me now, even as he dragged his gaze away and focused his attention back on his drums, launching into a particularly complex part of the song. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, though. I was utterly mesmerized.
I found myself considering my neighbor in a new light. I had to admit, he was good. Like, really good. He wasn’t just some wannabe rock star drumming away at midnight just to annoy me. He actually had something. If the pulsing bodies around me were anything to go by, I wasn’t the only one to think so, either.