Chapter 36 Girls night
Melissa’s POV
The bar was dimly lit, the wall was made with exposed brick and beautiful bulbs casting warm light across the polished wood. Jazz music played low in the background…giving the place an ethereal feel.
I spotted Aria immediately.
She sat at the bar in a dress that could only be described as a statement. Her metallic gold dress caught every flicker of light, with a plunging neckline and a slit up her thigh that was borderline illegal. Her purple hair was styled in loose waves that cascaded over one bare shoulder. With her red lips and Smokey eyes. She looked like she’d just stepped off a runway.
“There’s my girl!” She waved me over, as her bracelet jangled on her wrist.
I slid onto the stool beside her, suddenly very aware of my simple black jeans and cream sweater. “You look incredible.”
“I know.” She struck a pose, laughing. “Figured if my life is going to shit, I might as well look good while it happens.”
The bartender appeared…a guy in his twenties with tattooed forearms. His eyes lingered on Aria for a beat too long.
“What can I get you ladies?”
“Whiskey sour for me,” Aria said. “And whatever my gorgeous friend wants.”
“Glass of red wine. Thanks.”
He nodded and moved away to make our drinks.
Aria turned to me, her eyes bright with mischief. “Girl, you look so good tonight. A guy should definitely pay for our drinks.”
“Aria…”
“I’m serious! Look at you.” She gestured at my face. “That eyeliner? Chef’s kiss. You’ve been perfecting that wing.”
I touched my eye self-consciously. She was right…I had been doing my eyeliner more carefully lately. The sharp black wing that extended past my outer corner had become almost therapeutic. Something I could control when everything else felt chaotic.
“It’s become kind of my thing,” I admitted.
“Well, it’s working. You look hot and mysterious. Like you have secrets.” She leaned closer, lowering her voice. “Do you have secrets, Mel?”
More than you know.
The bartender returned with our drinks. Aria immediately took a sip of hers, then made a satisfied sound.
“God, I needed this.”
I wrapped my hands around my wine glass, the cool surface grounding me. “Rough day?”
Her smile faltered. “Rough life, more like.”
“What happened?”
She took another long drink before answering. “Remember that guy my parents introduced me to? Christian?”
“The rich guy who gave you bad vibes?”
“That’s the one.” She stared into her glass. “Turns out they weren’t just introducing us. They’ve been planning a whole fucking arrangement.”
My stomach dropped. “What kind of arrangement?”
“The marriage kind.” She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Apparently, there’s this family rule I never knew about. All daughters have to be married before they turn twenty-four. And since my birthday is in eight months…” She raised her glass in a mock toast. “…I’m officially on the market.”
“Aria, that’s insane.”
“That’s my family.” She drained her drink and signaled for another. “Old money. Old rules. Old men deciding what young women do with their lives.”
I didn’t know what to say. The unfairness of it made my chest tight.
We sat in silence for a moment, both lost in our own thoughts. Then, without planning it, we both sighed at the exact same time.
We looked at each other and burst out laughing.
“Jinx,” Aria said, bumping my shoulder with hers. “We’re a mess.”
“The hottest mess.”
“Damn right.” She accepted her second drink from the bartender, who was definitely trying to make eye contact with her now. “Anyway, enough about my impending arranged marriage. How’s work? How’s the fancy new office situation with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Hockey?”
I choked on my wine.
The liquid went down wrong, burning my throat. I coughed, eyes watering, while Aria patted my back.
“Jesus, Mel. You okay?”
I was not okay.
Because the moment she asked about work, my brain immediately supplied a very vivid memory from two days ago.
Gavin's fingers slipped under my skirt…while I called him daddy over and over again .
Heat flooded my face. And lower. Much lower.
My pussy instantly became wet as the memory hit me full force. “You’re going to cum for me, piccola.”
And I had. God, I had.
“Mel?” Aria’s voice cut through the memory. “Earth to Melissa?”
I blinked, forcing myself back to the present. “Sorry. What?”
She was staring at me with narrowed eyes. “I asked about work and you just went somewhere. Somewhere that made you blush like crazy.” Her eyes widened. “Oh my God. Something happened.”
“Nothing happened…”
“Liar. You’re a terrible liar.” She leaned in close, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “Did something happen with Gavin?”
My silence was enough.
“Holy shit. It did!” She grabbed my arm. “Spill. Now. I want every detail.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“Your face says otherwise.” She studied me. “And you’ve got that look. That freshly-fucked glow that…”
“Aria!”
“What? I’m right, aren’t I?” Her grin was wicked. “You slept with him.”
“I didn’t sleep with him.” Technically true. We hadn’t actually had sex. Just… everything else.
“But something happened.”
I took a long drink of wine, buying time. Part of me wanted to tell her everything. To share the confusion and guilt and overwhelming desire that had been consuming me for weeks.
But how could I explain that my mother’s fiancé had me bent over his bed? That I couldn’t stop thinking about his hands on me? That since that day, he’d been avoiding me like I had the plague, and it was driving me insane?
“It’s complicated,” I said finally.
“Everything with you is complicated lately.” She squeezed my hand. “But seriously, Mel. Are you okay? Like, really okay?”
Was I?
He had barely looked at me today. He has been cold and distant, like none of it had happened.
Maybe I needed to take matters into my own hands. Maybe it was time to stop waiting for him to make the first move. Maybe I needed to seduce him into admitting what we both knew was happening between us.
“Melissa?” Aria waved her hand in front of my face. “Hey, earth to Melissa. You’re doing it again. Going somewhere in your head.”
I shook myself. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Just talk to me.” She tilted her head. “Whatever’s going on, you can tell me. You know that, right?”
I did know that. Aria was the one person I could trust with anything.
Except this.
Because how could I tell her that I was falling for my mother’s fiancé? That I was planning ways to seduce him? That I was so far past the point of no return I couldn’t even see it anymore?
“I know,” I said instead. “And I will. Soon. I just… need to figure some things out first.”
She didn’t look satisfied with that answer, but she didn’t push. Instead, she raised her glass.
“To figure shit out. And to surviving.”
I clinked my glass against hers. “To surviving.”
We drank, and for a moment, everything felt almost normal.
Tomorrow, I’d cross whatever line we hadn’t already crossed.
Because waiting was killing me.
And I was done waiting.