HDU (21 page)

“I said ‘screw modesty’ tonight.
 
No one’s modest in this place anyway.”
 

“Yes, I’m discovering this as we go.”
 

Casey giggled as she downed the rest of her drink, obviously
tipsy.
 
“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t
give you a heads up about the naked acrobats and everything, I just kind of
wanted to see your reaction,
which
was
priceless.
 
I wish you saw it.
 
At least he saw it,” she said, pointing
to Ian, who looked stupefied by her.
 
He laughed.

“I’m Ian, by the way,” he managed, holding out a hand
for her to shake.

“Ian,” Casey repeated, giving him the onceover as she
bit the edge of her empty martini glass.
 
“Casey,” she finally said, shaking his hand and for some reason peering
suspiciously over her shoulder at Amanda.
 
“Well,” she declared, plunking her empty glass on the tray of a passing
waiter.
 
“Amanda, Ian.
 
Why don’t we go upstairs and say
‘hello’ to the birthday girl?”

She led the way towards a roped off stairwell and up
a flight of marble steps, holding on tight to the railing.
 
Behind her, Ian and Amanda kept their arms
outstretched, ready to catch her in case she fell.
 
They looked at each other as they did so, exchanging silent
laughter.
 

Upstairs was yet another roped off area, which the
bouncer opened up upon spotting Casey.
 
It was just as crowded, but Amanda quickly spotted Liam’s friend Ben
because of his playfully worn top hat.
 
Next to him of course was Jaime, who donned a corset push-up dress and a
thin gold headband just above her dark bangs.
 
Despite the hordes of friends surrounding her, she immediately
noticed Casey and Amanda.

“Hello, hello, loves!” she shouted, happily waving
them over and scooting around to provide room for them in the booth.
 
When they reached her however, she gave
a big, exaggerated frown.
 
“Oh boo,
Amanda, you didn’t bring Liam! Ben totally invited him!”
 

“Oh!” Amanda laughed nervously as each one of Jaime’s
mannequin-like guests turned to face her.
 
“Well, he’s uh, prepping for an audition so he couldn’t come… but he
says to have a wonderful birthday,” she offered.
 
She could tell from Ben’s expression that he knew she was
lying, but he smiled gratefully anyway.
 
Jaime cooed.

“So sweet of him! Well, maybe he’ll show later.”

“Uh… maybe!” Amanda said brightly.
 
But
probably not
, she thought with an inward laugh.
 
Casey glanced at her, shooting her the same suspicious smirk
she’d given her downstairs.
 
“What?”
Amanda mouthed curiously.
 
Casey
leaned in close to whisper as she nodded towards Ian.

“That’s your boy toy, isn’t it?”

Amanda promptly jerked away.
 
“
No
!”
 

“It’s okay, doll, I’d be proud of you.”

“But…
no
.
 
No.
 
He is not, Casey.
 
Ew.
 
He’s like a brother to
me,” Amanda clarified while silently finding her own statement hilarious.
 
She was telling the truth, though the
truth was also that she had known Ian for less than a month and Casey for less
than a week.
 
And yet somehow, Ian
was already hands-down her closest friend at the moment.
 
She had certainly experienced more in
three weeks with him than she had in eleven years with Megan.
 
The recent course of events in her life
had made time feel suddenly irrelevant.
 
After all, she was already on good enough terms with Casey Mulreed that
it felt okay to practically yell at her, which was pretty much what she had just
done for assuming her affair with Ian.
 
Casey was unfazed as usual.

“Well, I don’t
know
,”
she giggled.
 
“He looks like the
perfect guy for that kind of thing.”

“Uh, maybe, I wouldn’t know,” Amanda laughed.
 
“I just… I’d never cheat on Liam,” she
said with conviction, almost solely to entertain herself.
 
As she held back a laugh, Casey put a
hand on her heart.

“Aw, that’s really good of you, actually.
 
I’m happy for you guys,” she said.
 
Though not long after the conversation
ended, Amanda realized Casey was probably more so happy for herself.

“
Too
funny,”
Jaime cackled, nudging Amanda to laugh with her as they watched Ian and Casey
murmur to one another across the table, Casey giggling as she recorded a video
on Ian’s camera.
 
Apparently, the
eyes they had been exchanging since being introduced weren’t in Amanda’s mind
after all.
 
It was an amusing sight
to see considering how speechless Ian had been upon meeting Megan.
 
Amanda would have never guessed him to
be capable of flirting so smoothly with a celebrity actress.
 
But then again, unlike Megan, he had
seen Casey many times before meeting her, so the shock factor was gone.
 
He was simply excellent at adapting to
his environment and acting as if he belonged there.
 
And of course, he’d downed at least six drinks at this point.
 
As she finished her own cocktail
– her third – Amanda let herself laugh heartily with Jaime,
covering her eyes and shaking her head.

“They are so boning tonight,” Jaime whispered,
squeezing her arm delightedly.
 
Amanda wrinkled her nose and laughed, opening her mouth to respond but
getting interrupted by the reedy voice of the emcee downstairs.
 
Everyone turned their heads to look
over the balcony and onto the stage.

“I’m sorry, but is it getting hot in here?” he asked
with feigned innocence, fanning his studded leather vest.
 
“Well, too bad, because it’s about to
get hotter.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, please
give a nice and
warm
welcome to Miss Lavinia.”

The crowd applauded as a sultry brunette took the
stage, dressed in just tassel pasties and a red sarong, carrying in her hands
two long metal chains with balls of rope at the ends.

“What are those?” Amanda wondered aloud, though
before anyone could answer, the emcee set her ropes on fire, the ends blazing bright
with white-yellow flames.
 
Amanda
watched as Miss Lavinia brought the ends of the ropes together, forming one
large fireball before whipping them apart and spinning them in circles behind
her back, close to grazing her own skin.
 
The crowd clapped tepidly, waiting for more.
 
She didn’t disappoint, pulling the ropes forward and whipping
them like nunchucks into figure eights.
 
The fire drew glowing pictures in the air as she danced,
winning over her audience with each risky maneuver.

On the wing of the stage, the emcee gestured out at
the audience.
 
“Anyone feeling dumb
enough to join Miss Lavinia up here?” he asked.
 
The crowd fell silent.
 
“Oh come on! I know
some
one’s
gotta be drunk enough!”

Amanda snorted.
 
“There aren’t enough drinks in the world to get me to go near that,” she
said, watching as someone volunteered only to back out within seconds.
 
Jaime and Ben hooted as the emcee
continued pleading with the crowd, desperately appealing for a participant.
 

“I need to see this up close,” Casey decided, taking
Jaime and Amanda’s hands while nodding at Ian to follow.
 
The four headed downstairs and navigated
through the eagerly parting crowd to the front of the stage.
 
Once they reached it, Casey surprised
the room by promptly raising her hand and shouting out, “Over here! We got a
volunteer!” She put her hands on Amanda’s shoulders and guided her forward.
 
Jaime clapped her hands and jumped up
and down.

“Oh, no, no,
no
!”

“For Jaime’s birthday!” Casey insisted.

The crowd hooted and hollered and chanted
encouragement as Amanda resisted.
 
While
waiting, Lavinia swung her ropes into such large rings that the flames nearly skimmed
the ground.
 

“No, no, no, please, Casey, I’m actually terrified!”
Amanda squeaked.
 
She wasn’t sure
what scared her more – the fire or being the center of attention in a
room of three hundred people.
 
Casey
giggled, thoroughly amused.

“You’re so cute! I swear it’s fun, doll, you’re going
to thank me,” she said.
 
“Ian, help
me get her up.”

“
Ian
,”
Amanda started warningly, though she knew her tone was in vain.
 
He was too drunk and lustful to oppose
Casey.

“Don’t worry,” he said with a chuckle.
 
“I won’t let you get hurt.”
 

“We promise,” Casey added, no doubt delighting Ian
with the use of the word “we.”
 
And
with that, he placed his hands on Amanda’s waist and hoisted her up on the
stage.
 
Amanda caught herself as
her knees actually buckled upon standing.
 
The warmth of the flames tickled her eyes and made them water.
 
Her face burned with embarrassment and
the proximity to fire, but mostly embarrassment.
 
Despite that, she made sure to try and laugh it off –
she couldn’t think of a quicker way to make things awkward for everyone than
looking as terrified and self-conscious as she felt.

As Casey prompted a chant of her name from the crowd,
Lavinia moved the ropes slowly and sensually, dancing in circles around Amanda.
 
As she and her flames moved closer to her
body, Lavinia took Amanda’s hands and placed them above her head.
 
Off her quizzical look, Lavinia
whispered with a wink, “So I don’t burn you.”
 

Oh, awesome
.
 
Panicking slightly, Amanda held her
arms over her head as the fire started to whip with increased speed around
her.
 
She could see Casey and Jaime
whooping with delight while imitating her, sashaying around Ian and his rolling
camera like belly dancers.
 
Only
then did she realize what a sensual pose she was standing in, and that Lavinia wasn’t
remotely afraid of burning her at all – she had purposefully positioned
her that way to titillate the crowd.
 
Amanda blushed hard but managed a somewhat real laugh.
 
It was amusing to think of herself as
remotely sexy, and certainly good to know that the person whipping fire at her actually
knew what she was doing.
 
Okay, this isn’t the worst
, she told
herself.
 
I can do this
.
 
Knowing
she was no dancer, Amanda decided to give a silly twitch of the hips, just to
let the crowd know that she wasn’t on the verge of passing out anymore.
 
They responded with vociferous cheers
that grew louder as she began to smile and warm to the fire.
 
It illuminated her and made her feel
actually quite enchanting, its light brightening her auburn hair to a pretty
red.
 
But the very moment she began
to feel comfortable, she spotted a familiar face in the crowd, wearing a crisp
white shirt and a black skinny tie.
 
Oh no.
 
No way
.

He, of course, was watching her intently with the
rest of them – even leaning over to say something about her to a friend.
 
She knew she was the topic of his
conversation because he didn’t avert his gaze as he spoke.
 
And neither did she from him, which of course
meant that they were locking eyes.
 
In front of hundreds of strangers.
 
Her arms clasped above her head, encircled by white flames, she and
Dylan Hardy were absolutely gaping at one another.
 
Amanda felt her stabilized heartbeat pound again.
 
But before she could revert back to
full panic mode, Dylan smiled at her, even raising his brows and giving her an
encouraging nod that said, “You’re doing great!” Amanda couldn’t help her
girlish smile.

And suddenly, the fire dance was over.
 
Lavinia stepped away from Amanda to
close out her performance by weaving the fire through her legs and then dropping
dramatically to her knees.
 
And
just as quickly as she had spotted him, Amanda lost Dylan in the crowd.

~

“Oh my God, but it’s three-thirty.
 
You’re not tired? I’m totally done.”
 
Casey held onto Ian’s shoulder to
relieve her heeled feet.
 
She cocked
her head at Amanda with amusement.
 
“Who would’ve thought you’d outlast everyone?”

Amanda tried to laugh it off as she retrieved her
jacket from the coat check.
 
“I
mean, I don’t know.
 
I figured we’d
just stay till closing,” she said with a smile and a shrug, though the truth
was that she was exhausted.
 
It had
been a mad rush after her fire dance cameo – of having drinks thrust into
her hands, being introduced to Casey and Jaime’s other friends, chatting with
people who wanted to meet her.
 
It
left no time for her to scan the crowd for Dylan or even enlist Ian’s help in
finding him and assisting in a staged run-in – not that he would be
useful in his utterly drunk and high state.