Chapter 2
One minute Chloe was dancing and celebrating on the bar counter, then she was whisked of the bar by Dex.
“All Right,” he announced. “I’m taking this little party-planner home.”
Chloe stomped her foot and grabbed her drink off the bar “You’re not the boss of me, Dex! Is he Amelia?”As she shows
everyone her independence, she stumbles and sloshes her martini all over Dex’s shoes
Dex Grimaces. “Your wasted Chloe. This isn’t fun for anyone but you.”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll go... I’m feeling kind of sick anyway,”
“Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry,” She says as she plays the role of a brave little sick girl.
Amelia says thanks to Chloe for the party, tell her that it was a surprise-which is a lie, as Amelia know Chloe would
capitalize her twenty-first to buy a new outfit, throw a big bash, and invite as many as her friends than Amelia’s
own.
Still Amelia thought it was nice of her to have the party, and she is grateful that she did.
She is the kind of friend who always makes things feel special.
They hug each other.
“I’d do anything for you.” Chloe says
Chloe was gushing as she always does when she drinks too much.
Dex cuts her off “Happy birthday, Rachel. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He gives Amelia a kiss on the cheek
“Thanks, Dex” She says. “Good night.”
She watches him usher Chloe outside, holding her elbow after she nearly trips on the curb.
Oh to have a caretaker Amelia thought
Sometime later Dex reappears in the bar.
“Chloe lost her purse. She thinks she left it here. It’s small silver,” he says. “Have you seen it?”
“She lost her new Chanel bag?” Amelia shakes her head and laughs because it just like Chloe to lose things.
Amelia helps Dex search for the purse, finally spotting it under a bar stool.
As he turns to leave, Dex’s friend Marcus, one of his groomsmen, convinces him to stay “C’mon, man. Hang out for a
minute.”
Dex Calls Chloe who slurs her consent, tell him to have fun without her. Although she is probably thinking that such
a thing isn’t possible. Slowly Amelia’s friends peel away, saying their final happy birthdays. Dex and Amelia
outlast everyone, even Marcus. They sit at the bar making conversation with the actor/bartender who has an “Amy”
tattoo and zero interest in an aging lawyer.
It’s after two when Amelia and Dex decide to leave.
The night felt more like midsummer that spring to Amelia, and the warm air infuses her with sudden hope: this
will be the summer I meet my guy
Dex hails a taxi for her, but it as it pulls over he says, “How one more bar? On more drink?”
“Fine” She says. “Why not?”
They end up a bar named 7. It’s not an upbeat scene- 7B is dingy and smoke-filled. But they like it anyway- it’s not
sleek and it’s not a dive striving to be cool.
Dex points to booth. “Have a seat. I’ll be right with you.” Then he turns around, “What can I get you?”
“Whatever you’re having.”
A moment later Dex slides in across from Amelia, push the beer her way.
“Newcastle,” he says. Then he smile, crinkly lines appearing around his eyes. “You like?”
Amelia nods and smiles
After they finish their beers they move over to the jukebox, fill it with a pound coin, searching for good song.
Amelia pushed the code for “Thunder Road” twice as it’s her favourite song. Which she tells Dex.
Sometime later they were in a taxi again heading north of 7B.
“Two stops,” Dex tells our Taxi driver, because we live on the opposite sides of Hyde Park.
Dex is holding Chloe’s Channel purse, which look tiny and out of place in his large hands.
Amelia glances at the silver dial of Dex’s Rolex, a gift from Chloe. It is just shy of four o’clock. They sit
silently for a stretch of ten or fifteen minute. Both looking out the respective side windows, until the taxi hits a
pothole and Amelia finds herself lurched into the middle of the backseat, her leg grazing Dex’s. Then suddenly Dex is
kissing Amelia. Or Amelia is kissing Dex. They don’t know. But somehow they are kissing.
Amelia’s mind goes black and listens to the soft sound of their lips meeting again and again.
At some point, Dex taped on the Plexiglas partition and tells the driver, between kiss and says that its only one
stop.
When they arrive at Amelia apartment, Dex hand the driver a twenty and does not wait for change.
They spill out of the taxi, kissing more on the pavement and then in front of Jose, Amelia’s doorman. They kiss the
whole way up the elevator.
Amelia is pressed against the elevator wall, her hand on the back of Dex’s head.
She fumbles with her key, turning it the wrong way in the lock as Dex keep his arm around her waist, his lips on her
neck, and the side of her face. Finally the door opens, and they are kissing in the middle of her studio, standing
upright, leaning on nothing but each other. They stumble over to her bed.
“Are you drunk?” Dex’s asks his voice no more than a whisper in the dark.
“No,” she lies, as people always say it when you’re drunk. Even though she is.
Amelia things Dex can be her secret, her last chance for a dark teen something chapter, and he can also be a prelude
of sorts- a promise of someone like him to come.
The suddenly Chloe come in to her mind, but she pushes it back, overwhelmed by a force stranger than our friendship
and own conscience.
Dex moves over her. Her eyes are closed, than open, than closed again. And then somehow she is having sex with her
best friend’s fiancée
Authors note: hehe sorry long chapter hehe
... Haha...
