Chapter 5: The Call

           Two days after their first night together Ian called Mallory. She was shocked. She knew it wasn’t his style. He wanted to see her again. He proclaimed that he couldn’t get enough of her.

            Mallory wouldn’t admit that she felt the same. He was like a drug. The way he touched her, the way he seemed to worship her with his whole body, these things intoxicated her. She couldn’t stay away. But in public he annoyed her. He could be painfully obnoxious. He loved to pick fights with strangers. His eyes roamed to just about every woman that passed him by.

            But he was also wildly sexy. His body was ripped from working out. He took great pride in the way he looked.

            And his smile. Oh, that smile. His entire face lit up and his eyes sparkled. He had a way of looking at Mallory that made her want to tackle him to the ground and make sweet love.

            And so they kept seeing each other as friends, friends with benefits. They would go to bars together. Sometimes they’d stay in and watch a movie. They never went on real dates. That would be too much like a relationship. But in the end they would always end up in bed.

            Now here they were a few months later at Story’s Bar. Ian knew the owners and was sitting at the bar chatting one of them up. Mallory sat on a stool next to him watching the door. Stevie had texted her to find out where she was because her work friends had flaked on her and she didn’t want to go home. Mallory wasn’t keen on Stevie hanging out at Story’s. She hadn’t exactly told her about her arrangement with Ian. She was sure her friend would think less of her for carrying on such a shallow excuse for a relationship. But she also couldn’t turn down her friend when she was in need.

            When Stevie arrived at the bar she immediately sat down next to Mallory and talked her ear off. She briefly acknowledged Ian and went back to complaining about her flighty work friends. It wasn’t until Ian came over to Mallory and put his arm around her waist that Stevie realized the two of them had come together. But she only paused for a minute to say “hi” and then kept on talking.

            While Stevie rambled on Ian stood behind Mallory and slipped both arms around her waist. He began nuzzling into the back of her neck; a place he knew would get her motor running.

            “You smell so good,” he said, causing Stevie to stop mid-sentence. Mallory grinned uncomfortably as her friend gave her a confounded stare. But she began talking again regardless of the perplexing sight before her.

            “But oh,” said Stevie with an exaggerated hand gesture, “I forgot to tell you who called me yesterday.” She stopped again when Ian began kissing and licking the top of Mallory’s collar bone.

            “You taste good, too,” he mumbled. Mallory patted his hands and shooed him away. He knew he could make her crazy that way and he was right. What she wanted most right now was to usher him sternly to the car and give him a good shagging. Instead she focused her attention on her friend.

            “Are you dating him?” Stevie knew Mallory didn’t like him. At least, that’s what she’d been told. In her mind there was no way Mallory would take up with a guy like Ian.

            “No,” Mallory answered truthfully. “We’re friends.” Friends who sleep together.

            “My friends don’t lick my neck like it’s made of ice cream.”

            “You never ask me to.” She knew Stevie could be distracted by a good laugh. “Who called you?”

            “Who called me?”

            “You just said, ‘Guess who called me.’”

            “Oh!” Stevie nearly jumped out of her seat. “Jake.” Mallory looked at her blankly. “The guitar player from Mad Ben Stein.”

            “Shut up! How did he get your number?”

            Stevie blushed. “I gave it to him when we were talking at the bar. He said he’d call me if they were ever in town. I figured I’d never hear from him.”

            “And?” She felt a little pang of jealousy. Barry the Drummer had gotten her number but had never called. Not that she wanted him to. Of course she didn’t. But what the hell? Maybe after she put up a fight he’d realized the futility in calling. But still.

“He wanted to know if we’re going to see them in Smithberg next week.”

            “I didn’t know they were playing in Smithberg. That’s a three-hour drive. Are you going?”

            “I told him we can’t afford the tickets. They’re way high. But he told me if we’d drive down there he’d get us comp tickets.”

            “Why do you keep saying we? Who’s ‘we’?”

            “You and me.” Stevie hopped off of her stool and took both of Mallory’s hands. “Please, Mal. Drive with me to Smithberg. It’ll be fun. And we’ll get to hang out with the band.”

            “I don’t know.” She pried her hands free so she could order two more beers. “Doesn’t that make us groupies?”

            “No. Groupies have sex with the band. We’re just going to hang out with them.”

            Mallory cocked one eyebrow. “You don’t think ‘comp tickets’ is code for ‘I’m going to want to do you later’?”

            “Shut up,” Stevie was laughing now. They both were. And when the two of them got to laughing it would be a long time before they could stop.

            “Stevie, that snakey Jake wants to jump your bones.”

            Stevie spit a little bit of beer from her lips before she threw a hand over her mouth and swallowed. “Stop!”

            “He wants to ride you on the non-stop train to Smithberg, you dirty whore.”

            “Shut up!” Stevie was practically snorting now. “I’m not screwing any skanky musicians.”

            “Unless it’s Ben,” Mallory suggested with a sly smile.

            “Ben is not skanky,” Stevie defending in a mock-pretentious voice. “He’s an angel from Heaven. And he’s my future husband.”