Bryan waved at his departing colleagues as they stumbled out of the bar. "Get home safe! I'll see you guys tomorrow," he called after them. One of the figures gave a vague hand wave and disappeared across the threshold with a small stumble.
"And then there were two," Jess said with a smile, drawing his attention back to present company. Jess's slim, petite frame was daintily perched on the stool next to him, her long, slender fingers wrapped around the base of a martini glass filled with an unidentifiable pink girly-girl drink. She lifted her glass toward Bryan. "Cheers. To outlasting everyone else at happy hour on a Thursday."
Bryan gave his drink a quick swirl and touched his glass to hers, then moved it to his lips to drink.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Jess exclaimed, stopping him. Brian looked up over the rim of his glass and arched an eyebrow. "You have to look me in the eye when you do that, or else, you know..."
"I know what?" he asked.
"Seven years of bad sex." Jess giggled and locked her big, brown eyes with his.
Bryan nodded solemnly. "Well, I suppose we can't risk that," he said. He tilted his glass back and again touched the rim of hers. "To no bad sex."
"No bad sex," Jess agreed, and they sipped from their drinks. Bryan made sure that he stared into her eyes until their drinks both touched the bar again. It was a moment too long, a second too intimate for coworkers. Jess gave a nervous smile and her eyes went back down to her drink as she brushed her brown hair back over her ear. Neither spoke for a moment, then they both started simultaneously.
"Jess, I—"
"You know, Bryan—"
They stopped mid-sentence. Bryan resumed first. "Jess, I can't stop thinking about what you said back in Dallas, when we made that trip for the Morris account."
She'd done more than say, really. On the last night of the trip, after one two many celebratory drinks, she'd turned up at his hotel room door wearing nothing but an oversized T-shirt. When he opened the door, she immediately leaned up, stood on the tip-toes of her bare feet, and kissed him. He remembered the intoxicating scent of her, mingled with the saccharine taste of cherry and alcohol in her mouth from whatever she'd been drinking.
But nothing more had happened. Caught off guard, he had stammered out something about being coworkers and not wanting to make things complicated. Her eyes had welled up with tears, and her already-petite frame suddenly shrank as her boldness became embarrassment. She'd fled without another word.
Jess stirred the swizzle stick in her drink, her eyes narrowing. "I don't remember saying much that night," she countered, bitterness in her voice.
Bryan sighed. "Sorry. I'm not much good at this. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry. You just caught me off guard, and I reacted pretty badly." He trailed off. He moved his hand down from the bar, and laid it gently on her thigh. Her body tensed as if she'd touched a live wire, then relaxed and she leaned in, putting her free hand over his.
"Who says you get another shot?" Jess asked, her face now inches from his and her voice low.
He had a sudden cognizance of the same smell of saccharine sweetness on her breath, and he could hear every word despite the noisy chatter in the bar. "Mmm... well, the beautiful woman sitting here next to me seems like she might be offering an olive branch. I'm asking nicely. And she just guaranteed me seven years of no bad sex."
And then he closed the last two inches between them and kissed her. His mouth was filled with the same taste of cherries, and he could smell the scent jasmine in her perfume. Of its own volition, his hand started to rub lightly on her thigh, pausing at the hem of her dress before moving back up her long, slender legs.
When they finally broke, she looked at him with eyes that sparkled in the dim light. "Fine," she said with mock exasperation. "But this time, I'm not coming to your room. You're coming to mine. Your tab closed?"
Bryan fumbled through his wallet and threw a $20 on the bar. "It is now. Would it be trite to say, 'Do you want to get out of here?'"
"Mmm... no. Since you covered my tab too, no." She took him by the hand and led him through the Thursday evening crowd to the door. "I only live a few blocks from here, but let's take a cab." She reached down to open the door to a cab waiting outside the bar for a fare.
"Why don't we just—" Bryan began. Jess cut him off by roughly pushing him up against the side of the cab and pressing her body into his and then kissing him hard, forcing her tongue inside his mouth. She ground into him with movements that were imperceptible to anyone watching, but that he felt acutely as the blood rushed to his groin. She moaned softly and he felt her hand grab through his pants at his rapidly hardening cock.
After a long minute, she separated from him, and the same wanton boldness that Bryan had seen in Texas was back. "Any questions as to why we're taking a cab?"
"Nah-uh," Bryan gulped. He somehow found enough presence of mind to open the door to the cab, and he gestured to the interior. "After you, madam."
Jess slid in, and she deliberately let her dress ride up her legs. Bryan stared and gulped again as he caught a glimpse of the edge of her lacy black panties. He got into the cab and closed the door.
"415 East Harbor Street, corner of Harbor and Green," Jess told the cabbie. She turned and flashed Bryan an evil smile. "And we'll tip you a bit extra if you take the scenic route."
