If You Love Me || COMPLETED!

16 | Sweet Caress

Semaj's POV

Michael was turning me on just by the way he looked at me. We had danced to a handful of songs after TLC and now were back to sitting inside the booth keeping Nicole and Cam company. I guess Nate and Joey were trying to pick themselves out a woman to take home tonight because they were bouncing from one end of club to the next only occasionally coming back to the booth to regroup with drink and complain about how they were striking out. It made me laugh. Believe it or not I was actually having a good time when I pretended not to notice some of the dirty looks Nicole gave me as if she believed I couldn't see them. She was lucky Michael was paying attention to me or else her feelings would have been hurt. Tonight, was actually turning out to be a pretty good night and I didn't want to ruin it because of Nicole, so I kept myself from saying anything and pretended as if I didn't notice.

"Hey, Mike?" Eric had returned with four, small and clear plastic cups in his hand. He spoke loud enough for us to hear over the song that played. "Next round on you?"

Michael looked away from me and raised an eyebrow at Eric that made him laugh.

"Tell you what Eric," I said loudly as he distributed a cup to Cam, Nicole, and Michael. I reached inside of my shirt to grab the fifty-dollar bill I had tucked inside. "Next round is on me?"

I held the bill between my index and middle fingers. Michael took the money from my hands and I gawked playfully at him.

"Hey! That was my money!"

"You not drinkin tonight Semaj," Michael chuckled as he held the cup Eric had just brought over.

"And you can?" I folded my arms.

"You not even supposed to be in here," he reminded me and slowly I unfolded my arms and took my money back.

Eric lightly tapped my knee. "Thanks anyway, but guys are supposed to pay tonight. It's sort of this thing we have going with the girls," he gestured to Cam and Nicole. Nicole kept her eyes on us, but Cam was busy looking at something on her phone while holding her drink with her free hand. "They pay next time. If you sneak in, I'll gladly let you spend a fifty."

He winked, and I nodded my head with a smile on my face as I put my money back in its previous place. When I turned my attention back to Michael he was eyeing me heavily. He kept his eyes on me as if he was debating something even when Eric was trying to give him his change back. Michael realized and held out his hand for his money before holding his cup out to me. My eyebrows raised and even though he didn't look that happy about it he nodded his head and I took the cup from his hands. I didn't realize Cam was off her phone until she screamed at me and waved her arm frantically. I turned to her with an amused look on my face.

"You need a chaser girl!" She yelled, and then laughed.

"No, she doesn't," Eric shook his head as he finally sat down next to his girlfriend. "She's a big girl. Isn't that right Semaj?"

I looked over at Michael and his lips were curved into a small smile and he shrugged. I studied the cup before looking up at Cam. "What's a chaser?"

"Something to drink after you drink that," Cam pointed to my cup. "You've never drunk before?"

I shook my head no and Eric smiled amusingly.

"Just drink it," Nicole said and rolled her eyes before throwing her head back and downing the half-cup of whatever she had, but it wasn't the same brown-colored liquor that she had when I first arrived.

"Is this, um, it's Hennessey... right?" I asked quizzically looking at the cup.

I didn't drink, and my parents weren't big drinkers that I knew of and if they were then they kept it in their bedroom, because I was as ignorant as child when it came to liquor. I only knew of the few common ones like Hennessey, Vodka, and rum (and only then because of the old school card game). And even then, I couldn't distinguish between them without their respective labels. I looked up at Michael and he nodded his head. And I knew he wouldn't lie to me so without wasting another second I followed Nicole's same posture and put the cup to my lips throwing the drink and my head back. It was about half-way full and I gulped it down all the same. I gagged and slapped myself against the chest as I felt an unfamiliar burn there. I didn't know what my face looked like, but it must have been priceless because nobody could contain their laughter. Michael tried to bite down on his lip, so he wouldn't laugh at me, but I could see how bad he wanted to fall out.