hang
out and do my own thing, but they eventually talked me into it. So
to combat my inability to mingle, I took control of the keg,
content to just sit there and fill up everyone else’s cups while
periodically doing the same to my own.
After an hour or so of filling people’s
cups, I started to recognize a few regulars, people who were
drinking as much as I was. They’d give me a little head nod or a
thanks for being the kegmaster and I’d return their brief show of
gratitude with a little gesture. Most of the regulars were men. But
one was a young woman who couldn’t have been a day over 21. She
came over alone every time, got her drink, gave me a little smile,
then went on her way.
She was hot as shit, with long hair that was
dyed a dark red, and a sexy, angular face. Her makeup was skewed
towards gothic without being out of control, with black eyeliner
and red lipstick to match her hair, and I could see part of at
least one tattoo sticking out at the edges of her clothing. She was
dressed like a punk dominatrix, with a tight, black-leather corset,
a long, red and black plaid skirt and black leather boots that
almost reached her knees. With her four-inch boots on, she was just
about my height, which made her right about six feet tall, with a
long, lean, but athletic body. Pale skin, perky tits, long legs,
toned arms and an incredibly tight ass. In short, my dream
woman.
As the night went on I found myself watching
her more and more. When she worked the room, it reminded me of
myself, staying on the edges, observing more than mingling,
occasionally saying a few words here or there but not lingering in
one spot for very long. Plus she had a wry little smile on her face
the whole time, and that grin, combined with the look in her eyes,
was a familiar one. It was a look of detached amusement. I saw it
in the mirror all the time.
“ Hey,” she said after
I’d filled her cup for the sixth or seventh time in that hour.
“Thanks for doing this.”
“ My pleasure,” I replied
with a smile, trying to play things down, like I always did. A
small part of me wanted to tell her how I’d been admiring her all
evening, but the larger part thought this was a mistake. It would
most like come off as at least creepy and possibly even disturbing,
a couple of traits that never lead to anything at all except maybe
a beat-down. So after holding eye contact with her for a few
seconds, I turned my attention to the next person in
line.
I expected her to move on like she had all
evening, but instead she lingered, even after I started filling up
the cup of the guy behind her. Eventually she climbed up onto the
kitchen counter and sat atop it, a few feet to my left.
“ Do you live here?” she
asked as I filled up another cup.
“ No,” I said. “I live a
couple places down.”
“ But the guys throwing the
party are your friends, right?”
“ Yeah.”
“ And I take it you felt
obligated to come?”
“ Exactly,” I said, laughing
under my breath.
“ Because you don’t really
like these kinds of things, right?”
I turned to look at her. “How did you know
that?”
One half of her lips turned up in a grin.
“Because I’m a mind reader.”
“ Yeah, right,” I said,
laughing.
“ Actually, it’s pretty
apparent to anyone who’s been watching,” she said. “The way you’ve
sat here the whole time, filling everyone’s beer without even
starting a single conversation, not even pretending to
mingle.”
“ It’s that obvious,
huh?”
She nodded.
“ Yeah, I guess it is,” I
said, chuckling under my breath. I stood up and walked over towards
her, standing beside her, letting everyone fill their own cups from
now on. “But let’s get to the more important issue
here.”
“ Which is what?”
“ You’ve been watching me
this whole time.”
“ That’s right,” she said
immediately, and with no shame whatsoever. “Just like you’ve been
watching me.”
I started to blush and dropped my eyes.
“
Doris Lessing
Wolf Specter, Angel Knots
Therese Walsh
Anton Piatigorsky
Jack Frost
Sherry Ficklin
Max Allan Collins
Robin Covington
Kim Harrison
Gareth L. Powell