Just Play Along

Thirty-Nine & Forty

PART THIRTY NINE

After a long late afternoon siesta, and a casual meal up in the room with Aston, I found myself all decked out for a night out. Marnie had bought me a shimmery gold dress ages ago, and I was finally putting it to good use. It wasn’t anything fancy; it had capped sleeves and more or less hugged my body like a long t-shirt. The material was sort of stretchy and a dark golden hue that shone when it caught the light. I quite liked it, and it was incredibly comfortable.

Pairing my outfit with some simple black heels, a long necklace and some bangles, I grabbed my clutch and wandered out of my room to find Aston, my hair bouncing along behind me in the slicked back ponytail I'd put it in.

“There you are!” he said, standing in front of the TV with a beer in his hand.

“Drinking already?” I scolded.

“It’s a holiday,” he grinned, “I’d offer you one, but you said…”

“One beer won’t hurt,” I replied, “But no shots. Or really any hard liquor. Or wine.”

“Absolutely not,” Aston smirked.

I gave him a warning look as he sorted out my drink, handing it over.

“You look like you’re feeling much better.”

“That nap saved my night I think,” I replied, sipping my beer. 

“Well I’m glad you aren’t dying anymore,” Aston said, “It was a bit scary to see you nearly fainting at dinner last night.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said.

“No need to be sorry,” Aston replied, taking another swig of beer, “Just… Be careful with yourself.”

“How do you mean?”

“You work so hard,” he shrugged, “Don’t push it.”

I stared at him for a minute, taking in his advice, and then I nodded my head. “We going soon?”

“Yeah, ten minutes,” he replied, “It’s kind of a wild club, so just let me know if you need to leave or aren’t feeling well yeah?”

“I’m sure I can handle it.”

“We’ll see,” Aston said, setting down his now empty beer bottle and grabbing out another. Boy was definitely not playing around tonight.

“Is that a challenge?” I asked.

“What? That I don’t know if you’ll be able to hack it?”

“Yeah.”

“No,” Aston laughed, “I think you can probably manage any situation in some crazy way or another. I was talking more about you being somewhat ill still.”

“Oh, right,” I said.

“You see everything as a challenge don’t you?” he laughed. I couldn’t help but laugh back, shrugging my shoulders. This was definitely true.

We eventually made our way downstairs and out of the hotel with our big group, heading over to the club that the boys had picked out. It was in another hotel, since Dubai had strict laws about alcohol, and I was pleased to see that it wasn’t terribly crowded. On top of that, Aston had sorted out some sort of VIP deal for us, which meant we each had a wristband and could get whatever we wanted at the bar. We also had a corner table reserved for us; clearly we were living the high life tonight.

The evening went on from there. The others took part in several rounds of shots, and things quickly got rowdy with the group of us heading to the dance floor. I think I danced with everyone in the group at some point, laughing away and enjoying myself for once, not feeling ill in the slightest.