Chapter Four
Nalia
“I think I need to get laid tonight,” Grace announced as she carefully applied her eyeliner in the bathroom mirror. “It's been a while, and, well, girls have needs, too.”
I laughed and looked up at her through her reflection in the mirror over the dresser in the bedroom of the hotel.
“So is that your plan for the night?” I asked. I couldn’t really say I’d blame her, though. She’d just gotten out of a long relationship that had turned downright sour toward the end, and I was guessing that she probably needed to blow off some steam. And she was entitled to do that in whatever way she wanted.
She smiled at me and nodded. “Well, if the right opportunity arises, anyway,” she said with a sly smirk. “I'm not about to hop into bed with any old Joe. I have my standards, and I'm not about to lower them just because I'm in the mood to get some!”
I laughed and went back to applying my eyeshadow and eyeliner. After a moment, I regarded my reflection and adjusted the little black dress that I’d brought along just in case Grace wanted to go out. In our many years of being friends, I had learned to be prepared for anything with her because the unexpected was almost always the case when we went on little trips like this. Grace loved her spontaneous ideas and, more often than not, those ideas involved getting dressed to the nines and hitting cocktail bars and clubs. In that way, “spontaneous” had become, well, kind of predictable to be honest. But hey, it was still fun.
I studied my reflection. The dress hugged my curvaceous figure quite nicely and made my ass look great, if I did say so myself. I didn’t go anywhere without this dress being packed. It was my go-to dress.
“You’re looking really hot,” Grace commented, looking me over as she grabbed her heels out of her bag. I waggled my eyebrows at her then did the same, sitting on one of the double beds and slipping on a pair of silver stilettos. “Keep it up and we both might get laid,” she added with a mischievous grin and a quick wink.
“Nah. Not tonight, Grace. I'm just not feeling it. I’m way more interested in dancing,” I assured her with a shrug. Honestly, I was much more focused on the job possibility we’d talked about earlier. In fact, my thoughts had been focused almost entirely on that since she'd first told me about it. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of finding a job in the music industry earlier. Now, all I knew was that I had to get this job somehow. My mind wasn’t really on guys. Especially not players at a club that were only good for a one-night stand. That wasn't exactly what I needed in my life.
“Right, well, I’m sure we’ll do plenty of that, too,” she giggled, clearly a little buzzed from the pre-game cocktails she had already polished off. I, on the other hand, had barely taken a few sips of one. Grace was definitely the party girl out of the pair of us.
“You ready?” I asked. She nodded and stood up, twirling to show me her own skimpy, sleeveless dress. I quickly gave her an approving thumbs up and a grin. Grace did the same for me as I posed in a joking manner before I grabbed my purse.
“Which club are we going to?” I asked as we headed down the hallway toward the elevator.
“Le Venin Lounge,” she replied with a smile. I wanted to sigh, but instead, I simply returned the facial expression back at her. I really should have known that would be her choice. It was her favorite club to go to whenever we came down to San Diego, and like the other aspects of her so-called spontaneity I've mentioned, it was also becoming a little predictable. Really, I hadn't even needed to ask.
Le Venin was French for “The Venom” and the interior of the club—from the entry to the bathrooms—was done up in plush red and black. In a way, it kind of reminded me of what I imagined an upscale vampire club would look like if such things actually existed. I was pretty sure that that must have been the vibe the designers were going for when they planned the place.
Truth be told, despite all the complaining I did about it in my head, I was actually fairly fond of the club, as well. We always ended up getting our drinks covered by the guys there without too much effort on our part, so there was always that to look forward to.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the club, and I followed Grace straight to the bar when we walked in. Sure enough, a couple of guys nodded in our direction, and a few minutes later, free drinks were placed in front of us. It had to be a record on our part. I leaned over close to Grace’s ear and said, “I told you this dress always works.”
We smiled as we took our drinks and offered an appreciative nod to the guys, with Grace throwing in a playful wink just for the fun of it.
“The one on the left is pretty cute,” she all but shouted to me over the music as she took a sip of her cocktail. I nodded in response.
I had to admit that neither of the guys were bad looking, but I was really just interested in dancing and having some fun tonight. Not that I couldn’t do that while dancing with a guy who didn’t mind buying me a drink or two. Of course, I didn't want to lead anyone on or get their hopes up for something that just wasn't going to happen. Still, I'd have to at least have a chat with them, even if that's all they got out of me. Not that I had a choice since Grace was already motioning for them to join us.
Both guys came over at Grace’s encouraging smile, and the one she’d been eyeballing started chatting her up immediately. The other guy seemed a bit shy, so I motioned to the dance floor and held my hand out for him. He took it and followed me out to an empty spot among the crowd. The club was thumping with a heavy beat, and I let him dance up on me, grinding and gyrating my backside against him as I took a drink.
“You’re beautiful. You live around here?” he shouted.
Ugh, he was actually trying to make conversation. Well, I couldn’t be mean, even if I wasn’t interested; he had paid for my drink, after all, and was being nice enough so far.
“Thank you. And no, I’m from L.A. We're just down here for the night,” I responded.
He slipped his hands onto my waist and brushed his face against my shoulder, so he could speak closer to my ear and not have to shout so much, I suspected. “Oh? Just for the night? That’s too bad.”
“Yep, just needed some time away and a girls’ night out.” I took another sip, not really wanting to continue chatting. He seemed to take the hint and turned me around, rolling his hips against me and smiling. I had to admit, he was quite handsome with his light eyes and perfectly styled head of dark, wavy hair.
“That’s cool. My name’s Devin,” he said with a wink.
/> “Nalia. Nice to meet you, Devin,” I smiled at him and took another sip. “Thanks again for the drink.”
“It’s no problem, no problem at all! There's plenty where that came from. Let me know if you want another.”
Oh yeah, he was hoping to get laid all right, and it certainly already looked like his friend would with Grace. For a brief moment I did consider it, but one-night stands had never been my thing and besides, I had too many other things on my mind. Plus, this guy seemed more sweet than smooth, unlike his friend who was already making out with Grace in a booth. I’d hate to mess around with him and give him hope when I had no interest in relationships at the moment. That would have been cruel and selfish on my part.