no strings attached - j.b

in da club

"Explain to me again the reasons we're here" Joe had to speak a little louder so Ja'Marr could hear him despite the loud music blaring over from the dance floor to their little booth.

It was a Saturday night and the club where the two were going to party today was already packed, which was not unusual for the time and day. However, Joe didn't like it. He didn't like big crowds and wasn't the biggest fan of clubs. If he had his way, they would have spent the evening at his place on the couch.

Ja'Marr sighed. Joe could really be a buzzkill. "ok, let me explain it to you again" he began. "I'm finally 21, which means I'm officially allowed to consume alcohol. I'm playing in the NFL starting this season. You and I are back in the same city and with the same club. You just came back from your injury and the preseason officially starts in a few weeks. Give me one reason why we shouldn't be celebrating today."

"All the crowds" Joe muttered, which of course Ja'Marr couldn't hear. "Come on, bro. Let's have fun this night, after that you can spend every Saturday on the couch for all I care. But let's have some fun this night" Ja'Marr looked at him pleadingly.

"Alright" Joe sighed and let his eyes slide to the bar. "Then maybe it would be time for a drink and some shots" he remarked. Grinning, Ja'Marr patted him on the shoulder. "I like you like that"

They both downed two shots before fighting their way back to their booth with their drinks and from the small elevation from there to the dance floor, they had a pretty good view of the club.

"Yo, check it out, see the one in the black minidress?" Ja'Marr nudged Joe and nodded toward the dance floor. "The one next to the one with the white dress?" Joe asked. "Yeah, that's the one. She's looking at you all the time" Ja'marr winked at Joe.

"So what? Maybe she just recognized me?" Joe shrugged. He was sure a few of the people here recognized him, but as was usually the case in Cincy, most of them left him alone, respected his privacy, and only gave him glances now and then.

"Man, come on. The way she keeps looking at you, she thinks you're rather hot" Ja'Marr punched Joe lightly on the shoulder. "So what do you want me to do now? Go over to her?" Joe asked, while his eyes still fixed on the woman in the black dress.

She was attractive, her long hair, which in the light of the spotlights glowed in every color, swirled around her head as she expertly moved her beautifully shaped body, only accentuated by the tight black dress, to the music.

The woman next to her, probably a friend, leaned over at that moment, seeming to say something to her as she pointed to the man she had one arm around. They whispered briefly before her friend turned to the guy and stepped away from him.

The attractive woman stopped for a moment before she abruptly raised her head and returned Joe's gaze, his eyes wide with shock. She bit her lower lip with a grin, raised her hand very briefly and waved at him before turning her attention back to the music.

"so that was just about the clearest invitation that you should really go see her, Joe. Go or I'll hand you over to her myself" Ja'Marr gave him a warning look.

Sighing, Joe stood up. "All right. I'll go to her" he picked up his glass and finished the rest of his drink in one go before leaving the table. "And Joe, try to enjoy it" Ja'Marr called after him.

Joe fought his way through the crowd until he arrived at the woman who had waved at him. She had her back to him and he hesitated about what to do. It would come across very strange if he just put his arms around her, but also tapping her would be very weird.

He was considering just turning back around, after all he was really bad when it came to that kind of thing, when suddenly the woman turned around and looked at him in surprise. When she recognized him, a big smile spread across her face.

"Took you a long time to follow my signals though" she grinned. "Care to dance?"

Joe, lost in her beauty for a brief moment, just nodded haltingly. From close up you could see her hair was dark blonde, which didn't make it contrast too much with her light brown eyes, but still her eyes were mesmerizing.

Giggling, she put her arms, around his neck. "I dare you. I won't bite" she winked at him laughing and her laughter was contagious. Joe noticed his mood improve as he put his arms around her and placed his hands on her lower back.

He tried to match her movements, but his many talents unfortunately did not include dancing and he felt like a rock as the pretty woman moved smoothly around him.

She probably noticed that Joe was struggling, which put an amused smile on her face. With a sweeping turn, she turned her back to him, taking his hands and placing them at her waist as she pressed her body against his.

"Just follow my movements" she spoke against the music, into his ear as she rested her head on his shoulder and put her arm around his neck while the other rested on his at her hip.

It worked better and Joe enjoyed being close to the pretty woman as her attractive body nestled against his. "Seems to be working" she giggled as Joe matched her rhythm.

At some point they decided to take a break from dancing. Joe's mood was pretty good by now and his confidence had expected its peak, which had brought the last few minutes on the dance floor with allusions to a possible hook up, to which the woman had responded very quickly and with a grin on her face.

Joe had gotten them both something to drink before heading back to the booth, which was empty by now. Apparently Ja'marr had made his way to the dance floor by now as well.

"Here's to your first dance lesson. You did very well!" grinning, she raised her glass and toasted Joe, who laughed. "I have a very good teacher" he winked at her, which made her grin.

"By the way, my name is..." Joe thought it was finally time to exchange names, though he still wasn't sure she didn't already know who he was, which he didn't care at that moment, but she interrupted him with a shake of her head and a raised hand.

"No names. I don't want to know it" she explained. Joe looked at her confused for a moment. "Why not?" she shrugged. "I don't need to know it"

"Don't you want to know what name you're going to scream in bed later?" again Joe's overconfidence, only reinforced by the alcohol, took over.

The woman smirked. "You'll have to get me to do that first" she toasted him before taking a sip of her cocktail.

"But listen, let's do a deal. We both know where this is probably going" she started. "You mean that we will hook up?" Joe asked. She nodded.

"And I don't want this to get weird in any way, so let's make a deal, okay? We will hook up tonight and after tomorrow we wont see each other ever again. No names, no real stories of us, no exchange of number or social media. I don't want to know anything about you, so we can make sure neither of us gets too attached and it's easy to go our separate ways tomorrow" she suggested.

Joe considered for a moment. It was a good offer. With the pre-season starting soon, he couldn't use anything serious right now anyway, but a one-time thing like that sounded promising.

"Ok, agreed. But..." he objected. "We should give ourselves fake names. So at least we can call ourselves by something"

"So I know what I'll scream later?" she winked at him, which made Joe laugh. "But ok, what's your name?" she grinned at him.

Joe thought about it for a moment. "John" he shrugged. She screwed up her face. "What, not a good name? Was that your ex's name?" Joe asked.

"Good try, but I'm not going to answer that" she grinned. "But you know what they say about names with a J. Don't trust boys with names that start with J unless they're Jim, Jack or Jose"

Joe laughed. "anyway, John stays" he decided. "what's your name?" he asked.

"You can call me Tess" she grinned.