Talk Flirty To Me (Cheap Thrills 4)

Big hands landing on my shoulders distracted me from the discussion on which shot we should have, and I tipped my head back on my shoulders so that I was looking at the owner of the hands upside down. Because of that and the alcohol consumption, it took a moment for me to recognize the owner of them.

Grinning widely, I greeted, “Hey!”

I think Ethan’s mouth smiled back, but it could have been a frown. Alcohol and understanding upside down directions were apparently incompatible. “Hey, Katy. How’s your brother?”

My brother…

I had two of them and I hadn’t even thought about them tonight, so again it took time for me to figure out what he was asking. Initially it was a question of – I have a brother? Then it went to – oh my god, I have two brothers! How awesome is that? That was quickly followed by – aw man, I love my brothers.

Finally, it ended on – “I have two brothers who are the bombdiggidy. I mean, they were mean when we were little and cut bangs on me that started here,” I put my hand halfway across the top of my head to show how far back they went, “and were like this,” I moved it up and down like a wave because what they’d done looked just like that. “Then they got Mom’s hairspray and sprayed it so it stuck up like this,” I lifted my hand up into the air, high above my head, still making a wave like motion with it. “And then Jonny Dobson dumped me the next day because he said I looked like a donkey.”

I faintly acknowledged the fact his shoulders were shaking, but that could just have been me shaking with the movement my hand was still making until I dropped it just then.

Looking away from him, I muttered, “It was a shame because I was really into Jonny Dobson, he was seriously hot. Hey, do you know Jonny? I need to show him my new bangs so he doesn’t think I look like a donkey now.”

That was a genius idea.

Shaking his head, he replied in a voice that sounded like he was being strangled for some reason. “No, I don’t know Jonny, but that sounds like it sucked. How old were you?”

“Totally broke my heart, bruh,” I sighed. “I was seven, but you never get over heart break. I learned a lesson from it, though, so now I make sure no donkey has wonky bangs, and if they do I trim ‘em in straight line and feather them a bit. Nothing worse than wonky donkey bangs.”

His head disappeared from his shoulders - which was the coolest and freakiest trick I’d ever seen - and the sound of his laughter drowned out the voices around me. When it reappeared, his face was bright red and he was wiping under his eyes. “I was talking about your brother Major.”

A flood of love hit me hearing my brother’s name. “I love Major,” I breathed, trying to figure his face out. He had eyes on his chin and a mouth on his forehead, and even when I closed one eye to check his nose was upside down. “He’s like the best big brother in the world. I’ve got another one called Ammon and a sister called Aura, you know?”

“That I did know.”

“Hey, Katy,” one of the girls called, and I remembered where I was. “We’ve got slippery nipples.”

Glancing quickly at their chests, I tipped my head back again. I’m not sure what Ethan saw on my face at the image that popped into my brain hearing those words, but whatever it was I heard him laughing for a long time after I watched him walk away and hold onto the bar while his body shook as he laughed.

Looking back at the girls who were all holding up shot glasses, I shrugged and lifted the one in front of me.

“Here’s to GYMP,” Ebru called, and we all shot them back at the same time and slammed the glasses back down on the tabletop.

They kept calling someone a gimp, so excusing myself, I made my way toward the ladies bathrooms, and looked up what one was while I was doing my business. It would be fair to say that I struggled to look at any of them in the eye when I got back to them, knowing that one of them was into that sort of stuff. I also couldn’t figure out which one, and that was bugging me.

All of this was cured by more shots and cocktails, though, and then they came up with the ‘Get Yo’ Man Plan’ which was also called GYMP. How ironic was that. And this plan was a list of things that I needed to do to get Jarrod Kline.

With the alcohol beating through my body and ruling my brain, this seemed like the best idea in the world. However, also knowing that alcohol could cause memory blanks, we wrote the plan down on napkins so that I wouldn’t forget.