Turning Tables ---Going Under Construction---

The Rest Of The Night

After a few more dances I made an excuse to Xander and found Sasha at the bar. She had finally been able to meet up with us and was chatting with one of Xanders co-workers. "I love snowboarding! I'd love to go up with you sometime," she purred, leaning into the guy.

"Sash, can I talk to you?" She looked over at me and smiled, sending the guy away with a number and a wave.

"What's up sweets?"

I was still a bit shaky and confused by what had happened with Emmitt, and I wasn't really in the right mind to tell her. So I just talked about the only thing I could think of. "What do I do next? With Xander." I watched my 'target' from where I was sitting. He was talking to his friends and every few words he would glance over at me. The smile never left his face the whole night, not once. 

"Well, first let's get some liquid courage." She grabbed the bartenders attention and brought us several $1 lemon drop shots. We downed them like the candy they were and started planning. "You need to get out there and be the sexiest piece he has ever seen. Make him need you."

"How?"

She took my hand and looked me right in the eye. "It is time to pull out every seduction technique I have ever taught you and then some." For weeks she had been drilling me on everything I would need to make a guy fall for me. Most of my practice had come out awkward, but it was getting better. 

Still, "Those are the scariest words that have ever come out of your mouth."

"It is going to be so easy," she assured me as the bartender poured us another round. The buzz was kicking in but I knew I needed more to accomplish this task. "He is already infatuated with you, but that isn't enough. You need desire."

I took a deep breath, a quick shot, and spun around in my chair. "I can do this." I just had to keep saying that over and over in my head until I believed it.

"Get him, Jade." I walked back over to Xander and the night was blurry from there. 

I woke up the next morning remembering bits and pieces of the night before. Dancing with Xander. Feeding Xander cake. Kissing Xander. I don't remember leaving the bar though. Slowly I open my eyes to the sun glaring through my blind. My blinds. At least I was in my own house. 

Rolling over in my bed I grabbed the bottle of aspirin and swallowed two pills dry. Then I heard something in my kitchen. It had to be Sasha, crashing after our night of horrible decisions. Hopefully, she had coffee. 

With my blanket wrapped around me, I walked into the living room, moaning like one of the undead. 

"Hello, gorgeous."

I screamed at the deep voice, that was definitely not Sasha. I spun around and nearly punch Xander square in the nose. "Shit! What are you doing here?"

He laughed and held out a cup of wonderful coffee. I took it eagerly. "I walked you home last night."

"Where is Sasha?"

Xander led me to the couch and closed the blinds to my sliding glass door. "She called your friend Greg to come get her. I thought that was safer than sending her in a strange Uber."

"She could have stayed here." It annoyed me that he wouldn't have offered that to her. She always stayed with me after a rough night downtown. 

He poured himself a cup of coffee and poured, I swear, half of my sugar bowl into it. "I offered, but she said she had something to do in the morning and it would be easier to go from her place." 

I sipped my coffee, trying to bring back any memories of the night before. "Did we...?" I didn't know how to ask. It would ruin my whole plan if I sounded offended that we might have hooked up, but also, I obviously wasn't in any mind to say yes last night.

"No," he told me firmly. "I would never want our first time to be something we didn't both enjoy, or even remember." 

"It wouldn't be our first time," I reminded him. It wasn't the most romantic story in the world, but I could never forget losing my V-card. 

He rubbed my legs, massaging the tension out of them as he spoke. "I want to start over with you Jade. I don't want to forget our past, but we don't have to live in it."

"Easy for you to say." The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. I think I'm more honest hungover than I am drunk. "I mean..."

"It's okay," Xander assured me. "I know what I did, I'll never be able to take that away, but I have changed Jade. I want to show you that." 

Every time I tried to make him the bad guy again he said something that melted me. It was so hard to hate him. 

I looked at the man sitting in front of me. He wasn't a heartless 18-year-old who got a boner for anything in a skirt anymore. He wasn't even the bad boy I had fallen for. He was a man who was trying to figure it out like everyone else. I was rolling down this hill, picking up speed, moving to break this person into pieces, and he wasn't even the one that I should be mad at. 

"Ok." That was all I could say because one way or another, getting out of this was going to hurt him and I needed to do it in the best way possible. "We'll give it a try."

He leaned over and kissed me softly and I had another flash of last night. Emmitt sitting in the private room, him kissing me, him leaving. I would need to talk to him and see if he even remembered. What was I going to do?