A/N: Language and sex...don't read on if offended by either."Are you sure you're ok?" Rick asks as they pull up to the bar.
"Yeah, I'm…fine," she assures him. "Why do you keep askin' me that?"
"Well, for one, you've checked your makeup about three times on the five-minute ride. You're hot, ok?" He laughs, placing his hand on her thigh. She cringes, flashing back to the first time she hooked up with Shane in his car and how he'd done the same right before he kissed her. "You look beautiful. And you're much prettier than Andrea, if that's what you're worried about."
"Thanks," she says, shutting the mirror and tipping the visor back up. As distant as she's felt from him lately and as oblivious as he was about most things, there were the occasional times like these when it became clear that he still has her completely figured out.
As they exit the car, she nervously fixes her hair, smoothes out her skirt, and casually makes sure her bra is pushing everything together as planned. Truth is, she could throw up all over the place just thinking about this evening. The problem isn't Rick; the problem is the fact that some other woman's going to be hanging all over Shane (like they always do). Only now, she's going to have to pretend that it doesn't bother her.
They walk in; it's crowded, but not to the point where you can't move, and it's dimly lit. There's a band setting up, which means a night full of awkward screaming over the noise and no voice tomorrow. Rick spots Shane sitting at a booth about 100 feet from where they are. He takes her hand to lead her over, but she resists. "I'm…gonna go…get a drink," she motions toward the bar, in the opposite direction. "You want?"
"Why don't you just wait until…"
"Ok, then." She breaks free from his grip and takes off. When she gets there, she looks back to make sure he's not watching and immediately orders two shots and a mixed drink, hoping they'll take the edge off. She never was a social butterfly, but she hasn't been this uncomfortable in a social setting in a very long time. She scans the room uneasily, wondering if any of the 'blonde, cute little things' could be her.
As she's mentally cursing the bartender out for taking so long with her drinks, she feels a hand slide alongside her hip. Figuring it's Rick, she turns to distract him. She'd hoped to suck down the shots before he got there. He'll be pissed if he knows she's drinking this much already. She has a nasty habit of doing too much, too fast, especially when she's nervous, which usually doesn't end well for him. "Hey, I just…"
Only it's not Rick.
"Aww, ain't you sweet, buyin' me a drink?" Shane says, reaching for the two shots the bartender places in front of them. He pays for them, giving her one of the shots before his hand returns to her hip.
"Where is my husband?" she asks, staring wide-eyed at him, moving her eyes from his face to his hand, then back up to his eyes.
"Cheers." He clinks his shot glass against hers; they both take it, and he smirks. "I told him 'bout us and he left. Said he wishes us all the best." Sensing that she's not amused, he adds, "He's outside on the phone with Andrea. She's all kinds of lost. Imagine that, a woman gettin' lost."
She grabs her drink off the bar and turns to walk away. Shane follows close behind. She heads down the long hallway towards the bathrooms, knowing there's a sort of private spot off to the side there, out of view from the rest of the bar. She leans against the wall and sucks down a considerable amount of her rum and Coke; he props himself up against the wall on his elbow, just a little too close to her.
"And…your hair. What happened?" she asks. He's completely shaved his head except for a little stubble. He looks incredibly hot, but she instantly hates it, remembering how much she loves tangling her fingers in it, pulling at it, while he fucks her or goes down on her. "Guess you had to get all pretty for your big date, huh?"
"Oh, now don't you do that," he says, raising an eyebrow and running his hand across his head. "You remember damn well how our conversation went a few days ago, don't act like you don't. I, uh…just felt the need for a change, that's all." His expression changes to one of genuine concern as she finishes sucking down the rest of her drink and sets the empty cup on a nearby ledge. "Hey…maybe slow down a bit, ok? You know how you get. You don't wanna do somethin' you'll regret tonight."
"Yeah, well. Whatever it is, I'll just add it to the ever-growing list of shit I regret," she shoots back, looking away from him uneasily. He takes her hand gently. "What?" she asks, annoyed.
"I don't regret a thing, and I ain't goin' anywhere. I'm right here, meant everything I said." Just as she's about to grip his hand back, he pulls it away. He moves her hair off her shoulder and leans into her ear. "But Lori? If you think I'm just gonna sit around anymore, waitin' for you to figure shit out, while you go home to Rick every night? You're one crazy-ass bitch."
She feels all of the blood rush from her face. Taken aback, she fumbles for words. "Hey, don't…Shane…how…"
He shakes his head. "I'm done talkin', Lori," he starts to head back down the hallway and turns back. "Now get your shit together and come out here. Wouldn't wanna worry your husband, now would ya?"
It takes her a moment, or twenty, to process what just happened; she continues to stand there, long after he's out of her sight. She surprised by what a dick he's being, but even more surprised that she's never wanted to fuck him more than she does right now. She swears if he hadn't walked away, she'd have grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him into the nearest bathroom stall.
It's been too long; if she doesn't get moving soon, Rick may come looking for her. She ducks into the bathroom for yet another makeup check before heading back out to where they're sitting.
All three of them.
She sits down next to her husband as he slides an arm around her waist and pushes a drink in front of her. "Thanks," she says, eyes not moving from the petite blonde across the table, sitting way too close to Shane. "So, you must be…Amanda, right?"
"Andrea, actually." There's definite tension already. She takes her hand off her beer bottle and extends it across the table. "So you're Lori, then?"
"One and only," she says, giving her a half-assed handshake and continuing to size Andrea up; Lori stares and she stares right back. It's only when Andrea's eyes narrow that she realizes maybe it's a bit too much.
She switches her gaze over to Shane, who slides his arm around Andrea's shoulder, pulling her in close to him. He whispers something into her ear and she giggles, smacking him playfully. "You are not nice," she says, taking a sip of her beer and shooting Lori a look that clearly says, 'That was about you.'
Lori picks up her drink and begins sucking it down again, realizing that she's mildly starting to feel the effects of the shot and the first one.
She scrutinizes the two of them interacting, which is typical Shane versus woman: somehow, she's all over him within a matter of, literally, minutes, like he cast some sort of fucking spell on her. She never used to be able to understand how he did it. She can see from the position of Andrea's other arm that her hand's under the table and resting on his leg, or in his lap, maybe? No way is she...
Rick's fingers snap in front of her face, startling her. "W-what?"
"Hello? Did you hear me? I've said the same thing three times now."
"Clearly not, Rick, if you've said it three times now," she replies sharply. She picks up her drink and begins sucking at the straw, only to realize that there's nothing left in it. She shoves it off to the side.
Rick leans over to her ear. "I said take it easy. I don't feel much like scrapin' you up off the bathroom floor tonight, ok?"
Shane's watching them. She twists her head up so that she's in Rick's ear now. "Then what do you feel like doin' to me tonight?" she asks, dragging her hand up the inside of his thigh.
He tenses up, uncomfortably. He grabs her hand with his, stopping it, and forces her to make eye contact with him. "Lori? Relax. I'm serious."
"Of course, sweetie. God forbid we show any emotion," she says, rolling her eyes and digging in her purse for her phone. Rick removes his hand from hers; she half-listens as Andrea begins talking to Rick and Shane about one of the judges from court. Soon, the three of them are wrapped up in a discussion that Lori has no absolutely no place or interest in.
She opens her phone and begins composing a text. To Shane. With her husband sitting mere inches from her. And noticing nothing.
Bathroom? Your car? Don't care, just want you inside me.
She watches as he feels his phone vibrate and realizes that she's texting him; he gives her a look and waits a moment before reaching into his pocket. He assesses the situation; Rick and Andrea are completely engaged in their own conversation. He smirks at her as he reads it; Andrea looks over at him, then at Lori and notices her phone sitting on the table. Lori smiles as Shane's forced to remove his arm from around the blonde woman's shoulder in order to text her back.
Kinda busy right now. Actually…Rick looks busy, too. Guess he CAN pay attention when he wants to, huh?
She narrows her eyes at him. You are a complete and total fucking dickhead, you know that? Shut up. I'm serious, I will fuck your brains out right now.
Yup. And you love me. You even said so.
That one makes him squirm a bit in his seat; she watches him bite his lip before replying: Get a drink. Meet you by the bathrooms in 5.
She shuts her phone and looks at him for confirmation. He nods ever-so-slightly. "I'll, um, I'll be back," she says to Rick as she taps him on the arm and slides out of the booth. "I'm gonna use the bathroom."
He nods, but before she can get away, Andrea gets up as well. "Oh, I've gotta go, too. There's no reason you would mind if I came with you, right?"
Shit. "Um, no. That's...fine," she says, and rolls her eyes at Shane before walking away.
As they head away from the table, Andrea grabs her arm and stops her. "Let's get a drink before we go. Come on, the line's not that long." She follows the woman to the bar, watches her order a beer for herself, and then turns it over to Lori. "And, um…."
"Rum and Coke." They stand there in a bit of an awkward silence waiting for their drinks, though there's enough background noise to cover it. Lori takes out money and tries to pay, but Andrea tells her not to worry about it. "Thanks."
They walk to the bathroom, do what they need to do, and meet up at the sinks. Lori fixes her hair and watches Andrea reapply some lip gloss. Please, like you need MORE makeup. "So, you and Shane…seem to be hitting it off," she says, attempting to make cordial conversation.
She smiles. "Yeah, I guess so. He makes me laugh, and he's hot. Especially with his hair like that now? Damn. God, he's so hot, isn't he?" Before Lori can say anything, she continues. "Listen, don't take this the wrong way, but I was…originally interested in Rick. As soon as I found out he was married though, that was it. Married men are off-limits, learned that the hard way. But seriously, you're lucky. Rick is a really sweet guy."
Lori tries to process what she's just heard; the drinks have officially kicked in. What the hell do you know about my husband? "He's, um….he's ok."
"But Shane? I can't wait to get him home and just…see what he's made of." She laughs, never moving her eyes from Lori's. "Because from what I could feel from under the table, he's got quite a bit to offer a woman."
Lori laughs uncomfortably; it could be the copious amounts of alcohol clouding her vision, or their catty interactions at the table making her paranoid, but she can't shake the feeling that she's being baited right now. She leans back against the wall and finishes up the last of her drink, chucking the empty cup into the trash. "Does he, now?"
"Oh, definitely. So, you've known him a long time, right? Is there anything I need to know about him? Anything at all that I...should know?"
"Um…hmmm. Anything you should know about Shane? That's, uh…"
"Yeah, that's what I asked you, right?" Her tone suddenly turns cold. "Because you must know him very well. I mean, you sat there texting back and forth with him the entire time I was talking to your husband, didn't you? I show up to the bar and neither of you happen to be at the table with Rick. You've been staring daggers at me all night, sizing me up. I'm not a fucking idiot, Lori."
She wants to respond but she has absolutely nothing.
"Listen, sweetie. Rick's too sweet, or maybe just too stupid, to realize that you're into his best friend, but I sniffed it out the minute I saw you two together. Call it women's intuition, if you want. And honestly?" She leans in closer to where Lori is standing. "I don't care. You wanna shit all over your marriage? Go for it. Just don't get in my way. Now, I probably won't be marrying Shane, but I can tell you that I will be fucking him in a few hours. Try to stop it? I'd be happy to blow your spot up, right here, right in front of your husband, get it out of the way for you."
She backs away, chugs the rest of her beer, and tosses the bottle into the trashcan. "And hey, no hard feelings. But, we're clear, right?" Lori nods blankly. "Good."