Chance Encounters

fifteen

Curious, I looked at Kristy as well.

She seemed taken aback by the question, but she quickly recovered, shaking her head. "Sorry. My shift just started."

"Oh." Austin nodded slowly. "Okay, then. Thank you."

"I can ask the others," she offered.

I raised an eyebrow when Austin's lips tugged into a smile. "Really? That would be great, Kristy"

Kristy mirrored his smile. "Yeah, all right."

When she left, I immediately turned back to the stage. A woman was setting up with the help of two guys. They were helping her plug an acoustic guitar.

"Why are you frowning?"

I turned to Austin. "What?"

To my surprise, he lifted a hand, placing two fingers between my eyebrows. "You're glaring at everyone."

I slapped his hand away, feeling the heat from where his skin had touched mine. "I was not."

"You were. See, you're scowling again." He pointed at my face. "With that face on, you'll definitely scare away the guy checking you out."

Unable to tell if he was joking, I followed the direction he was looking at. Adjacent to where we were seated, there was a guy drinking a cocktail from a tall glass and—sure enough—he was looking this way too.

"I really don't care," I muttered, uninterested, before sliding my gaze back to the crowd of dancing people, dismissing the matter altogether.

"Really," Austin said, obviously unconvinced.

"Really," I echoed, taking a long gulp of my coke.

He nudged me lightly with an elbow. "He looks pretty okay."

"Why don't you hook up with him then?"

His eyes were lit with amusement, a smile playing on his lips. "Always so snarky. I can't even imagine how you'd be when you're on your period."

"I can't imagine you dealing with your period. If you had it, I mean. I'm pretty sure you'd cut out your own vagina—"

He spluttered his drink out. "What the fuck?"

I started laughing at his reaction. "What?"

Glaring at me, he used the back of his hand wipe some of the coke on his face, coughing a little. He set his drink on the counter. "Do you always have to be so vulgar?"

"Oh, Dick. Your reactions are priceless."

He didn't do anything to hide the fact that he was unhappy. I could tell he was about to say something, but seemed to think better of it. "Hold on a sec."

I knew, right then, that I wouldn't like where this was going. He stood up from his seat and I almost reached for his arm to stop him. "Where are you doing?"

"I won't be long." He winked at me. "Don't miss me too much."

"Dick," I said slowly, widening my eyes with a warning look. "Whatever you're planning, don't you dare."

He chose to ignore me, quickly walking away before I could stop him, easily disappearing into the crowd. I reached for my coke and took another long gulp, finishing half of it in one swig. I was about to finish my drink to follow him, but stopped when a figure on peripheral vision made me pause.

When I looked up, the guy who had been "checking me out" (as Austin had put it) earlier had confidently occupied Austin's empty chair. He was still holding onto the same drink.