She chuckles, “Sure, I see you in class flirting with him. Don’t try to deny it. Look, don’t get your hopes up. Duke will never be with you, so just get over it.”
Before I can respond, Melanie and the girls call Stacy over to go dance. I shake off my feeling of unease and make my way over to the sofa and join the loungers. A few of them acknowledge me as I take a seat and one guy dressed up as a vampire nods his head and says, “‘Sup, Cleopatra?” I can’t help but smile. I really do love this costume. The vampire and I chat for about thirty minutes until Taylor walks up to me and asks if I want to dance. Whoa, this is unexpected and I have no idea how to respond. I look toward the crowded dance floor and see Melanie dancing with her girls to a Lady Gaga song.
Hesitantly, I look up at Taylor, “I’m not sure, Taylor. Maybe a little later.”
He reaches out his hand and pulls me off the sofa. “Nonsense, this is a party and you can’t have fun if you’re sitting on the sofa next to the stoners. We are going to have fun tonight. No excuses. You got it?” He grabs my chin and forces me to look into his eyes. His eyes are light brown with a hint of a sparkling green. I can’t help but laugh at his stupid eye patch.
He smiles, “You laughing at me now?”
“No, not at you, just your patch. It’s ridiculous.” I laugh even louder. He joins my laughter and pulls me into the dance area. My heartbeat begins to speed up and my nerves are back. I can feel my palms begin to sweat. Shit. As we approach the crowded area, he pulls me closer to him and I smell his cologne. Oh, he smells good. I look over to Melanie, who’s still dancing with the girls, and she smiles at me while displaying a thumbs up. I return her smile and begin to sway along to the music with Taylor. He steps in closer and wraps one hand around my waist and I tense up. Taylor whispers, “Relax, Raya. I won’t hurt you.” I smile up at him and my nerves slowly dissipate as the song changes to Feel So Close by Calvin Harris. He grins as we speed up our dancing to match the pace of the music. Oh yeah, I love this song!
I close my eyes and get lost in the rhythm of the music. He lets go of my waist and reaches for my hands, raising them in the air above my head. I open my eyes and catch him staring at me, making me blush. He lets go of one hand and brushes a finger against my cheek, causing me to smirk nervously. We continue our dancing to the music and I wrap my arms around his neck. I glance over to Melanie who is dancing with Duke. She taps Duke’s shoulder and points to my direction. He looks up at Taylor and me and smiles.
Taylor and I continue to dance for what feels like forever. I’m pretty sure we danced to about ten songs, nonstop. At the point of exhaustion, I tell him I need to grab a drink, so we head into the kitchen.
He gives me a bottle of water from the fridge, “Having fun so far?”
I smile at him after taking a sip, “Yes, I am. Thank you.” Grabbing a paper towel, I dab the sweat off my forehead.
“You wanna step outside and cool off?”
“Great idea.” I throw out the paper towel and follow Taylor out to backyard where we sit on two lounge chairs by the pool. The cool air is fresh and just what I need right now. If I stayed in that house any longer, I probably would have passed out from heat exhaustion.
“Feeling better?”
I look at Taylor and nod, “Yes, much better. It feels good out here.?
??
“You work at Barnes & Noble, right? I’ve seen you in there.”
I chuckle, “Yes, I do, and I love that place. It’s my favorite store, and even if I didn’t work there, I’d still be there all day. I love to read; it’s my escape.”
“What are you escaping from?”
My eyes widen and suddenly I am speechless. How do I respond to that? Let me think.
“Well, don’t we all have a place that we escape to? I’m sure you have your lacrosse. My escape is my books.”
“Hmmm. Good point.” Taylor sits up and leans close to me, “So, are you seeing anybody?”
My mind immediately thinks of Duke but he’s with Melanie and I’m not standing in the way of that. “Umm, no. I don’t have a boyfriend or anything.”
“Good. Is it alright if I get your number? Maybe we can get grab something to eat sometime?”
Did he just ask me out? Hmm…how am I supposed to work this out? I know Craig won’t approve of this, unless he doesn’t know about it. Shit, I won’t risk that, though.
“Okay, but I’ll be honest, I don’t get out much. I’m busy a lot with work and stuff.”
“That’s fine. I can still call you, right?” He smiles wide. Damn, he has nice lips.
I agree and we exchange numbers. We talk for another ten minutes until I start to freeze and we head back inside the house. I see Rob talking to Amber and run up to him to give him a quick hug.
“Hey, Rob, I didn’t think you were coming.”
He smirks, “Please, you know I can’t resist a party full of semi-nude girls.”
I slap his shoulder and laugh, “You’re such a pervert.”