Downhill Fast

"So when's the big day?"  Zach asked casually, over a bite of lasagna. 


Lasagna was one thing I could cook, and cook well.  Aaron locked eyes with me and grinned and nodded at me, telling me to share.


I smiled back.  "We decided September 2, 2017.  Plenty of time to plan and get everything together, plus not too far out where people are going to question whether or not we actually will ever tie the knot."


"Well, congratulations again, to both of you."


"Thanks, man," Aaron patted his hand down hard on Zach's shoulder as he stood up to go get them each another beer out of the fridge.  Over his shoulder he called back to Zach, "What about you?  Any prospects?"


Zach met my eyes and I shifted uncomfortably, focusing way harder than need be on the bite of lasagna was I was trying to balance on my fork.


"No, not at this time.  Truthfully, I don't have a lot of time between medical school and helping take care of my parents' property," he responded simply.


I still couldn't make eye contact with him, so I just focused on finishing my food. 


The rest of the night was uneventful, and we sat around talking and watching football.

~~~~~~~

The following Saturday was Sarah's and my Halloween party we had decided to throw.  We had gotten a great response to our Facebook invite and were expecting a rather large turnout.


We set up a couple of card tables in the garage for a Beer Pong tournament and also planned on playing flippy cup and another drinking game called Boom.


Aaron and I had originally planned on dressing up in a couples costume.  We were going to be the classic football player/cheerleader combo.  However, the detective that was supposed to be on-call had a family emergency and Aaron had offered to pick up, so he wouldn't be at the party.  I was really disappointed. 


Before I'd left our house for the evening, dressed in my overly skimpy cheerleading outfit, hair in pigtails, Aaron pulled me close to him.  He's ran his fingers up the backs of my bare thighs until he was grasping my butt and squeezed. 


He leaned into my ear and kissed the skin right behind my ear, then whispered, "I fully plan on taking advantage of you when you get home tonight, assuming I'm here.  Do not get home and change clothes right away."  His hot breath tickled my ear, giving me chills. 


"Well, if you put on those football pants, you might have yourself a deal," I winked at him.


I grabbed my purse and started towards the door.  He grabbed my hand one more time, pulling me back to him.  "It's probably for the best I won't be there tonight.  I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you."  His eyes roamed my body from top to bottom and back up once more, then he slapped my butt and sent me on my way, reminding me that if I needed a ride to not hesitate to call him.


As people started to arrive for the evening, Sarah and I were pumped.  Most people were bringing some sort of finger food or appetizer to share and lots of alcohol.  We had provided several cases of beer for all the drinking games.  Sarah and her boyfriend had also done a couples costume.  He was Waldo and she was Carmen SanDiego.  It was adorable.


Sarah and I had always been beer pong partners and worked well together, and she had told the boyf that wasn't changing so he better invite someone that would be a good partner for him.  I had laughed when she told me that.


We were two games deep when Zach showed up.  He was in a man skirt and no shirt.  His abs were still defined, always the workout addict.  He looked really good.  I diverted my eyes back to the game, drunk enough to want to check him out, but not drunk enough to know that was going to lead my thoughts to nowhere good.  Before looking back at the game I made eye contact with Sarah who was giving me the side-eye with a raised eyebrow.  What, I mouthed defensively to her.


We won the second game, so we were still up.  By the middle of the third game I was dizzy and Sarah and I were both giggling a lot at things not worthy of that much laughter.  People were flocking around and the garage was pretty full.  Sarah hit a ping pong ball away from a cup and it went rolling across the garage.  I went in search of it, finding it had rolled behind the lawn mower.


I bent down to pick it up, and I stood up dusting it off and turned around and there was Zach is all of his ripping ab glory.  My breath caught in my throat as I quickly focused on his face.


"I hadn't had a chance to say hi to you, yet!" he cheerily exclaimed.  I could tell by his animated voice that he had already had multiple drinks, too.  He pulled me into a tight hug, one of his hands dangerously low on my back.  The hug lasted a few beats too long, and I pulled away.  "You look really... sexy, Aleah."


I blushed.  And before I could respond, I heard my name being called by Sarah.  I held up the ping pong ball to him and gave him an apologetic look before rushing away.  Hearing him say that made my heart beat a little faster, and I felt uncomfortable that I had that reaction.  You just like the attention, I told myself, then pushed thoughts of him out of my head.


After Sarah and I somehow managed to win our third game in a row, we both agreed we needed a short break to get something to eat to help soak up some alcohol. 


Later on in the night, Sarah and I were drunk, and we had moved on to the game Boom.  Zach was next to me in the circle, and it was a battle to make my ball in the cup before he did.  I could tell he was letting me beat him, though, probably because he knew how drunk I was and no one wanted anyone to start throwing up.


After the first game was over, some people were filling more cups for the middle of the table.  Zach and I were making small talk with some of our friends that we both mutually knew.  While standing there talking, I felt his hand on the small of my back, casually.  It felt normal.  Like an old habit.  My guess was that's what it was for him, too.  We were laughing and all drunkenly joking around. 


The next game started, and things went downhill quickly from there.