Eddie bounced on her toes, giddy, unable to contain the grin that spread across her face as Jamie and Hailey groaned over another lost round of beer pong. "Come on, one more! We gotta go for the trifecta!"
"Unless we're doing three out of five you already won," Hailey reminded her. "And I can't play three more rounds."
"Neither can you, Eddie," Jamie said. "Early tour tomorrow, remember?"
"You guys are no fun," Eddie whined. She looked hopefully at Spencer, willing him to insist that everyone drag the night out a little bit longer.
But he wasn't Jamie, and so he didn't pick up on the silent cue. "Hey, another time," he said. "I'll be back in town in July. We'll meet up for a rematch."
Eddie's lashes fluttered as her head tipped dramatically to the side. "Ugh, fine."
Jamie met her gaze with an amused little smirk. "I'll go close out the tab."
Spencer trailed Jamie to the bar, leaving Eddie and Hailey to gather their things at their high table.
"I'm telling you, you're crazy," Hailey murmured. "It's so obvious you're into each other."
Eddie groaned loudly into the air above her head. She just knew Hailey had been looking for a chance to rehash their conversation in the ladies' room earlier, where she demanded to know where the hell Eddie got so mixed up as to set her, Hailey, up with the guy Eddie had her eye on.
"I told you. He's not my type. And he's off limits."
"The first thing isn't true," Hailey insisted, earning an eye roll in response. "The second thing is easy to fix. How many times do I have to tell you?"
"It's not that simple. Plus, he's not—"
"If you say he's not into you again, I will slap you because you are blind," Hailey hissed.
Eddie opened her mouth to respond but, seeing Jamie and Spencer returning from the bar, she stopped short.
"So," Spencer started, interrupting the way Eddie automatically focused on Jamie as they got ready to leave. "Share a cab, Eddie? Where're you headed?"
She smiled and gave a little shrug. "No, I'm just a few blocks from here, actually."
"Ah. I'm up near Times Square," Spencer explained.
"I'm going in that direction," Hailey piped up. "I'll split a cab with you. That is, um, Jamie—?"
"This loser lives in Brooklyn," Eddie informed her.
"Yeah," Jamie huffed apologetically. "Midtown's the wrong direction for me."
"Okay then." Hailey glanced at Spencer. "Looks like it's just us."
She led the way out of the bar. With a quick glance over his shoulder, Spencer pushed behind her. Eddie followed, acutely aware of the light pressure of Jamie's fingers through her jacket in the center of her back.
"Well," Spencer said. "Always fun, Jamie. Work on that beer pong game of yours. Maybe next time you'll actually be worthy competition."
"Don't count on it," Eddie cut in, giggling, before Jamie could answer.
"Yeah, yeah," Jamie groaned with a good-natured sideways glance at her. His hand clapped against Spencer's and they pulled each other into a hug. "Next time we'll play pool."
"Like that'll go any better for you," Spencer goaded.
"If they had actual ping pong in bars, I'd own you."
Spencer made a face at Eddie and Hailey. "Lies," he told them. "I was the law school tournament champion when we were 2Ls."
"Only because I was home that weekend for my nephew's first communion," Jamie explained. "We played each other hundreds of times and you beat me, what, maybe once every ten? Twenty games?"
"You don't have the trophy." Spencer held out his hands, palms up, as if that point couldn't be topped.
"Alright," Jamie chuckled. "Don't cramp up signing those big contracts tomorrow."
"Occupational hazard," Spencer shrugged.
Eddie let out a little annoyed grunt in Hailey's direction at Spencer's word choice. Hailey offered a sympathetic shrug before she turned to hail a cab.
"Stay out of trouble," Jamie said.
"Yeah, you too. Don't go picking up any more vampires, okay?"
Bored now that Spencer wasn't ragging on Jamie anymore, Eddie stepped closer to Hailey. "Thanks for going with the change in plans," she said. "Jamie's cool, don't you think?"
"If you don't know what I'm going to say to that then you really are clueless," Hailey said over her shoulder.
"And you haven't been listening to me all night," Eddie replied. "You should see him again! Two of my best friends dating each other—it'd be so fun!"
"Eddie, I don't start things with guys who're more interested in other girls," Hailey insisted.
Eddie gave up, deflating against Hailey's arm with a groan as a taxi pulled to a stop in front of them. "You're so full of it."
"I am? Look in a mirror," Hailey smirked, pulling Eddie into a hug. "I'm calling it now," she added into Eddie's ear. "You can't stay his partner forever, and then he's gonna make a move."
Eddie rolled her eyes as Hailey ducked into the cab. "I know him pretty well! And he'd never!"
It occurred to her that she was being kind of loud, but Spencer appeared in front of her, arms outstretched, before she could really process that. "It's been fun, Eddie," Spencer said. "Keep this one in line for me, will you?"
Eddie let him embrace her but she didn't return it with much enthusiasm. "That's the goal, every day," she smirked, glancing over his shoulder to flick her eyebrows at a chortling Jamie.
And then Spencer followed Hailey into the backseat and shut the door.
Eddie turned to Jamie as the cab drove away, squinting up to focus on the way the blue light from the bar window tempered the hard angle of his jaw. He met her eyes and one corner of his mouth quirked up. "I'll walk you home," he announced.
"You don't have to," she argued. "It's just five blocks."
Jamie shrugged. "I know, but the subway's that way anyway."
Accepting that rationale, Eddie pursed her lips and started walking. Jamie closed the gap between them in two or three long strides and dipped his shoulder to nudge hers just a little.
"So, Spencer," he began. "Totally wrong about the ping pong thing. I'm so much better than he is."
Eddie shot him a skeptical look. "Still doesn't redeem your embarrassing beer pong performance."
"You've never seen me play ping pong! Some of us are good at real games that aren't just an excuse to drink."
"Where's the fun in that?" Eddie scoffed. "God, Reagan, you're such a boy scout."
"Whaaaat?" Jamie drawled, and Eddie snickered at the lazy alcohol-laden softness in his voice. "Why, because I'd kick your ass in ping pong?"
"You've never seen me play ping pong," Eddie taunted with his own words. She stretched up to jut her chin out at Jamie's shoulder. "Maybe I'd kick your ass."
Jamie turned his head and tilted his incredulous gaze down to hers as they walked. "Doubt it."
"Yeah?" Eddie dared. "Well then, we better find ourselves a ping pong table."
"Right now?"
"No!" She threw her head back in a fit of high, squeaky giggles that she couldn't hold in after so many drinks. "But someday, Reagan, we'll find one and I'll beat you. And you'll owe me another margarita."
Jamie laughed too, a deep rumbling bass that Eddie swore she felt in her entire body even though their arms were the only place that touched. "But it's not a drinking game!"
"Anything's a drinking game if you try hard enough," she pointed out. "Just a little extra incentive."
"No, no, no," Jamie rattled. "No drinks. Winner gets to choose our meal spot for a week."
"That's boring," Eddie complained. She impatiently brushed strands of hair out of her face. "I choose every day anyway. That does nothing for me."
"Yeah, and so I'll get to choose for a week when I beat you."
Eddie shook her head. "Nope, something else. I need something that'll motivate me, Reagan."
"Fine," Jamie conceded. "I win, I choose meal for a week. You win, you can drive for our next tour."
"One tour?" Eddie cried. "No. A week. One tour is so not fair!"
"Okay, a week."
Shocked that he gave in that easily, Eddie slowed her pace enough to study the stoic cloudiness in his eyes. "You really think you're gonna win, huh?"
"Think? Janko, I know."
They hesitated at the corner to wait for the signal to change, and Eddie shoved her hands into her pockets to ward off the twinge of cold that snuck in around the edges. "Yeah right, like you had time to hone your ping pong skills around all your studying."
"I didn't learn in law school," he explained, starting across the street. "I have two older brothers and if I wanted them to let me play I had to be good. You know I could beat Danny practically before I was tall enough to see over the table? And since you're still too short to see over the table you won't stand a chance."
"Oh, shut up." Eddie hurried to keep up with him with small quick steps that made her entire body bounce as she went. "You can't be that good."
"It's been a while," Jamie admitted. "I might be kind of rusty. But I'll still beat just about anyone who dares challenge me." He puffed out his chest and rested hands on his hips to broaden his shoulders, and Eddie laughed so hard she had to grab onto his elbow to keep from falling over.
"Anyone who dares challenge you?" she finally managed as she got herself under control. "Anyone at all?"
"Anyone at all," Jamie repeated with a happy singsong quality in his voice. He paused to tug closed the front of his leather jacket, but he didn't bother to zip it. "You know that song?" he asked. "Aaaaanyone at aaaalll…."
His flat, gravelly tone cracked Eddie up. "I don't think so."
"Really?" Jamie contorted his face into an expression of exaggerated disappointment. "And here I thought you were a Sinead Daly fan."
"That's Sinead Daly? No way. I know every song she ever recorded!"
"It was the second single off her 1981 album. Her most popular record!"
"Nooo," Eddie insisted. "Sing it again!"
Jamie started over at the same point, continuing through the chorus until Eddie recognized the melody he was trying to carry. She sucked in a sharp breath, which grabbed his attention, and he stopped. "You know it, right? Tell me you know it."
"Oh, I know it," Eddie laughed. "But you don't. Anyone at all? That's not how it goes! You have the whole first half of the chorus all wrong!"
"Do not! I've known that song since I was two years old, Eddie. I know the lyrics!"
"You know the lyrics you made up in your head."
"Yeah? How's it go, then?"
"Jamie!" Eddie yelped. She grabbed onto the bottom of his jacket just before he stepped onto the next crosswalk, where a black SUV turned without seeing them.
He jumped back, nearly knocking into Eddie as he did. "Whoa! Good eye."
"Please don't get yourself killed," Eddie groaned. "Then who would set me up with their lame friends? And who would I ride with at work?"
Jamie didn't seem to hear her opinion of Spencer, or he just chose to ignore it. "Not somebody who's as great as I am, that's for sure."
"What?" Eddie squeaked. "You know what, go ahead, get yourself run over. I'll get a new TO who doesn't suck at beer pong." She crossed her arms and tried to hold a straight face but she ended up sputtering a laugh from between pursed lips.
"Like any other TO would go out for drinks with you after work," Jamie scoffed. "They'd be sick of you after ten minutes in the car. End of tour, they'd run the other way."
"Would not! They'd be lucky to be paired up with me."
"You keep telling yourself that," Jamie smirked.
Eddie elbowed him as they reached the other side of the street. She leaned sideways to put her entire bodyweight behind it, and Jamie sidestepped off-balance as he winged out his own elbow to try and retaliate. He only caught air, though, and Eddie grinned in satisfaction.
"And if you got hit by a car," she continued, "who'd be there to walk me five blocks home?"
He could obviously tell she was making fun of him. "Think of it as me walking to the subway if that makes you feel better."
"We passed the subway a block ago, sport. Somewhere in the middle of anyone at all…" Eddie sang the notes and she didn't fail to note the silly grin on Jamie's face.
He slowed to a stop as he registered that they had indeed passed the stop. "Oh. Yeah, we did."
"You were going to walk me all the way home anyway," Eddie teased. She knew him well enough to know he wouldn't leave her until they reached her building. "Come on. It's right up here."
Jamie shook the fog out of his eyes and started moving again. "Alright, hotshot. How does the song go?"
"It's crystal ball. Seriously, how do you hear anyone at all?"
He frowned skeptically. "Crystal ball? What? No."
"Yes! Google it, Reagan."
"I don't have to!" He kept going straight for a stride or two as Eddie turned onto her block before he realized she'd changed direction.
She laughed as he swung one leg around to follow her. "Forget where you were going?"
He ignored her for a second before going back to the song. "You are so wrong about the lyrics."
"No! I have heard that song a bajillion times!" Eddie insisted. "My mom loves that song. It's crystal ball. I know what I'm talking about."
"Yeah, well, my mom loved it too," Jamie countered. "Her and my dad used to put it on and get tipsy, dance, and my sister and I would sneak down to watch. And the lyrics are anyone at all."
He sang the words again over Eddie's interrupting question. "What?"
"That's—that makes sense!" he cried.
"No it doesn't!" Eddie squeaked out a giggle and she could feel the rawness of her throat from so much laughing, something she hadn't noticed until she and Jamie started towards her place. "It's we don't need a fortune teller, with a crystal ball, to tell us in the autumn that the leaves are gonna fall—" She couldn't help but break into the tune as she finished off the lyrics. "Or if the evening sun will slip into the sea—it's inevitable—like you—and—me."
Jamie rounded in front of her as another little laugh cut off the end of her note. She forced out the rest of her air with a small sigh. "This is me."
Jamie followed her glance towards the brownstone. "Yeah, sure is."
Eddie dropped her hand against her side and looked back at his face. His eyes seemed to look everywhere but hers, flicking over the front of her building for a small eternity before he finally turned his head forward again.
She had something to say, but the words fell out of her head when she saw this unfamiliar flicker in her partner's dark eyes. Her own eyes narrowed as her hazy brain tried to make sense of the way his gaze flickered down to her mouth. But before she could process anything she felt herself inching forward, where her nose brushed his for a moment before she tipped her chin to find his lips.
Her hands inched up between their chests to grasp his jacket lapels, and she felt his snake underneath her coat to interlock at the small of her back, tugging her closer. He flooded her senses and all she knew was the taste of him, whiskey and cheap draft beer; his smell; the warm pressure of his body all around her.
And then he was gone—his lips, at least—and some small part of Eddie's brain realized what had just happened. She kept her eyes closed as she felt him ease back, as if she'd open them to find that she'd just kissed anyone other than the one person who, lately, she couldn't deny her attraction for, even though he was out of the question.
But no. It was Jamie.
Her fingers took on a mind of their own, dropping from his jacket as she finally opened her eyes and studied his face for any sort of reaction.
"You should get inside," he rasped. "It's late."
She didn't know what she expected, but her stomach dropped at his words. "Oh—okay," she managed, offering a small smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"We've got a day tour tomorrow."
"Right," she mumbled. "Bright and early."
He didn't say anything else, and Eddie clutched her necklace with one hand to avert the intense wave of self-consciousness that suddenly washed over her.
"Okay," she sighed, turning towards her building after one last glance at his stony face. "I'll see you later."