Page 15 of Grasp The Moment

Opening the door to the nightclub, I hold it open as Georgia walks in. The smell of her perfume mixed with my own scent calms me as she passes by.

There are a few stragglers still in the club, most of them either passed out, dragging their friends out, or chatting up the staff.

Georgia seems to remember more than me because she walks confidently past the dance floor in the center of the room and straight to the bar in the back of the club. I watch as she mumbles to herself before speed walking to an older black woman behind the bar.

The woman looks exhausted from her night shift, with some of her locs falling from her bun, but when her eyes lock on Georgia, she brightens.

“Look who it is! My favorite freaks!” the woman chants, a bright white smile lighting up her face as she takes us in.

I scrunch my nose.

“Favorite freaks?”

The bartender whose tag read “Constance” guffaws.

“Boy, you know y’all we’re going crazy last night. It was gettingreaaaalllllnasty between the two of you. I’m talking about kissing, rubbing—grinding.” She exaggerates eachword with a deep nod of her head as if to say, “Yup… You nasty little freaks were damn near fucking on the dance floor.”

Georgia groans as she takes a seat in front of the bartender. “Are you sure that was us? I mean, it could’ve been a different blonde girl and a brunette guy…”

The bartender raises a brow, a knowing smirk on her face as she shakes her head.

“Nah. I know what I saw…” She looks me up and down slowly.

I take a step closer to Georgia’s back, holding a small piece of the back of her hoodie.

“What exactly happened last night?” I ask, my cheeks heating as the bartender chuckles.

“Whatdidn’thappen is what you should be asking me… You two went from doing body shots on the bar to dancing on the tables—you, sir, stood on that table right there and gave the crowd astriptease.Somewhere along the way, the two of you did everything but have sex on the dancefloor—it was… steamy.”

Georgia’s jaw drops, her eyes widening as she takes in everything the bartender has to say.

Tension builds in my head, and the remnants of my hangover hit me like a truck as I try to process her words. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I sigh.

What the hell did we drink last night?

Or should I say whatdidn’twe drink because it seems like we were so far gone, we couldn’t think straight the entire night.

“Do you have any idea what we did after we left here? Did we say anything to you?” Georgia questions, her voice haggard as she leans forward in her chair, her hands neatly folded on the bar.

“You said something about Elvis—that’s all I know, shortcake.We’re closing up, but I’m working tonight's shift if you two are partying later—you should swing by.”

We each nod and bid the nice bartender our goodbyes.

Taking a step onto the curb outside the bar, my brain is wired with all of the possibilities of what could’ve gone down a few hours ago.

“I remember when we all parted ways last night—Denver and Ryan were hanging out with the F1 drivers and you said something to that female racer…”

Georgia’s head snaps up to face me. “Oh my goodness… I made a complete fool of myself in front of Eren Marlowe and Ri Ri Highwater last night—Idefinitelyremember that.”

She pulls her hair from her ponytail, allowing her tresses to fall onto her shoulders. I watch as she tugs her bottom lip with her teeth and furrows her eyebrows.

“After embarrassing myself in front of them, we saw Zola and the members of Twisted Vipers—they were all with Cleo and Blake; then CJ said she wasn’t feeling good, and they left. Zola and the band stayed.” Georgia fills in that missing piece that I couldn’t place, and then another memory hits me.

“Andthat’show they ended up as our witnesses… Why didn’t they stop us? Don’t you know that Zola chick?” I question, my temple throbbing as my headache intensifies.

Georgia lets out a loud and sharp gasp, clutching her chest like a set of pearls.

“How do you not know who Zola is?! She was the lead singer for COSMIC for almost adecade!” She gapes at me, her eyes round as she takes a step closer to me.