ASMTD Ch. 01

May 31

"I've officially exceeded my alcohol budget. Remind me of that tomorrow. Okay, Em?" I tell my friend over the rim of my beer.

She laughs and punches my shoulder. "Dude, I'm drunker than you! Tell Kate."

We turn to Kate, but she's making googly eyes at Ivan. Not one weeks and the pairing of couples in our study abroad group is already solidified. Em and I are the only single ladies, and we loudly declare that every chance we get. The second night in Dublin we made a pact to make out with an Irish dude before we leave. Neither of us have done it yet, but there's still three weeks left.

It's one of the reasons we're out right now at The Kid and Hawk. There are no shortage of sexy Irishman in the college bar, and I've been very obviously looking around for Mr. Friendly Lips since my third or fourth pint.

"Him." Em points to a rail thin, red bearded guy at the other end of the bar. He sees her and flashes a grin before ducking his head and grabbing his beer.

"That's your type."

"Okay. What's yours?"

"Intelligent," I slur. "You know I'm a sapiosexual."

"That's not a real thing."

I shrug and look around the bar again. The men bleed together: dark t-shirts, brown hair, and jeans. The only spot of color is a pale skinned, blonde guy chatting up a red haired woman at the bar. I touch my curls, remembering the fire engine red I had for over a year before I dyed it sable brown. The hair hurt my chances of getting work out of college and considering I was a senior, I needed a job unless a magical fairy popped up and decided to pay my hundred thousand dollars in student debt.

I blink, bringing the bar back into focus and notice the blonde is looking at me. He's got the funniest expression on his face, and that's when I realize I'm yelling. Out loud. "He's hot. I'd totally fuck him."

A smile transforms his face as I scramble to shut my stupid drunk lips. Muttering something to the redhead, he moves away from the bar toward me. I turn around in the stool and nearly fall on my ass before Em catches me, laughing her head off. "Rai, are you okay?"

"I'm—"

"Get you a glass of water?" A sing song voice says behind me, catching our table's attention. Ivan and Kate look up, and Em peers around me, lips forming an O. I look up and over my shoulder at the guy. Sure enough it's blondie.

His eyes are blue and his hair looks natural. There's no way he's Irish. Scandinavian definitely. Maybe Swedish?

"What?"

"Water," he repeats, pointing out the lack of any aqua on the table. There are, however, ten pint glasses with varying degrees of empty. "Do you need some?"

I peek at his clothes, wondering if he's a server. What kind of pick up line is 'let me get you water?' He's wearing scuffed black boots, navy jeans and a cream and green striped sweater. The outfit doesn't scream waiter, so I assume he is just a Good Samaritan who heard my drunken ramblings and decided I needed to sober up quick.

"Yeah. Water would be great." I move off the stool and nearly fall flat on my face as the room tips precariously.

"Careful there." His hands are on my shoulders, eyes looking straight into mine. "Why don't you sit and I'll get it?"

"Swedish?" The word bursts out before I can shut my mouth.

His lips quirk. "Finnish. Wait here."

Then he's gone and I'm looking at my friends to make sure that conversation wasn't a hallucination. Em stares at me for a long moment before bursting out laughing, sending the glasses on the table bouncing. "I think your alcohol budget's safe. Got a feeling I'll be giving you 50 euros."

I blush and punch her arm because she just said that Mr. Finland might take my v-card.

***

Ten minutes later, I gulp down my second glass of water and stare at the man who's made out quartet a quintet. His name's Leo, he's on 'holiday,' and that is as much as any of us get out of him. The guy seems hyper-focused on me, and I fight down the urge to crawl under the table.

He heard. He definitely heard. There's no way he didn't. "So, Leo, thanks for the water. I'm obviously drunk as fuck."

His lips quirk. "Really? I hadn't noticed."

"I guess it was just my stunning conversation and infectious laugher that lead you here."

"And that ass."

I laugh out loud as I clutch my sides. Em slaps my back. "Don't choke."

I look up at Leo through bleary eyes. There's a lopsided grin on his face. The guy is just too much. Funny, hot, considerate.

"Serial killer?"

"Only Coco Puffs. Can't stand the other stuff."

Witty? Check!

"I'm a Lucky Charms girl myself."

"We're natural enemies. Can't talk to you now." He turns to leave but gives me a questioning look. "Unless you want to change your answer?"

Holding up my hands placatingly, I say, "Think I'll have to or you might pass out from the devastation of not getting with all this."

Leo leans closer, soft laugher warming my cheek as he casually places a hand on the back of my stool. I cast a glance over to Ivan and Kate, but their hands are under the table, and from the heavy breathing I know they're paying zero attention to me. Em's equally bad. She's caught up in a conversation with two girls about Ms. Marvel.

I cross my ankles and tug them behind the foot bar of my stool. "So you're on vacation. Are you in university or something?"

"I own a small tech company."

"Really? What kind of tech company? I mean, what do you all do?"

He smiles and reaches forward to tuck a curl behind my ear. "We build websites. Usually large ones for various corporations, NGOs and government agencies in Finland."

"Why do I feel like you're giving me the most basic of answers?"

"Because I am. Discussing Drupal 8 on Symphony and how much freaking better it is than Drupal 7 and crazy different from Drupal 6, or how big of a pain it is to move a university website off of what looks like an secondary school's final project and onto our servers seems like boring conversation."

His words sink into my brain as I craft an intelligent response that doesn't give away the fact that I only understood 20 percent of what he said. "If it's what you're passionate about, why wouldn't I want to understand more about something that is such an important part of your life?"

Leo's eyes fall to my lips and he doesn't bother to raise them. "Do you know what a CMS is?"

I shake my head no. "Teach me."

The words are loaded, and he doesn't fail to understand everything I don't say. Lips pulling in a sly smile, he leans forward and explains CMS, Drupal, and the more complicated intricacies of his work. I'm hooked. Not so much by what he says, but how he says it. All heart and soul; his business is his baby. Even now, on extended vacation, her's never far from his phone or computer. Never without internet though the fees kill him.

The conversation spins to me and my writing and university. There's no half assing it, no dumbing down my passion or words. Leo has a question; he asks. Same with me.

We drift closer, inches apart as he compares writing a singularly amazing line of code to the perfect character pronouncement with equally excellent grammar. I add a comment about the perfect sex scene, and how I struggle to write the complicated thoughts and turning points that go into the act. Our lips are an inch apart—No. Less. Almost...

"Hey." Em taps my shoulder and I nearly fall out of my stool for the third time. Damnit! "Ready to go?"

Her eyes don't miss a thing and they certainly don't shutter. She clears her throat and that one sound says she knows exactly what was happening and is totally fine with it. "Bar's closing, and we should probably head back to the hostel."

"Oh. Right." My voice couldn't be more sober if I was at a funeral.

I turn back to Leo and give him an apologetic smile. "Looks like I have to go."

"No way I can talk you into coming back to my place." He doesn't sugar coat and I appreciate it.

"Not tonight."

"But some night?"

"Maybe." I shrug, an open book. "Not sure if I can trust you with my v-card."

"What card?"

Em punches my shoulder and glares. Apparently drunk Rai is more in control than I thought. "Nothing. An American thing." I rush on, "Tonight was a lot of fun."

"Tomorrow will be too."

A laugh falls from my throat as I grab my phone and bag and get up. "Very confident."

"Hopeful. I enjoyed your company."

And nothing else he could have said would have been better or made me react the way I do. Reaching up on my tip toes, I kiss the Finnish hottie. It's my first kiss and clumsy as hell. But I go for it. His lips part and his hands snake out to wrap around my waist. Leo takes over, tilting my head, coaxing my tongue, taking a few moments to teach me how he likes it.

When I pull back, my lips feel puffy and the sting of whiskey sits on my tongue. "Thanks," I whisper, ducking my head and blushing furiously.

"I should be the one saying that."

"Well, as a your welcome, give me your phone and I'll give you my number."

He doesn't hesitate. With shaking fingers, I type in a new contact and do him one better: my name, phone number, and email. Just in case.

"I'll text you," he promises.

But as I turn and leave with a punch drunk Em, I don't hold my breath.