Page 99 of Craving Paradise

The bartender interrupts our walk down memory lane, asking Daniel what he would like. He orders a tequila shot and old-fashioned.

“This is …” he says, looking anywhere but at me.

“It’s fine. We are strangers at a party together, nothing more,”I tell him in French.

“You speak French?”

“Might be easier to speak like this.”

“Did your date really leave you here?”he asks as his brows pull together.

“Embarrassingly, I was my mother’s backup date. Everyone else in my family was busy.”

Daniel chuckles.“I’m here with a friend, but he’s not in the mood to have fun. He’s feeling a little sorry for himself.”

Panic floats across my skin. He’s not talking about Jasper, is he?

The bartender puts Daniel’s drinks in front of us.

“Cheers,”he says, clinking our shot glasses together as we knock them back.“Shall we move over there where it’s a little less crowded,”Daniel suggests.

“Sure.”

There’s a tall bar table empty but no seats, which is fine. It’s tucked away in a corner, hidden from the rest of the guests.

“What happened to your friend to make him sad?”I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.

“He fucked up,”Daniel says, giving me a side-eye.

“That’s a shame.”

“Yeah, he liked this girl he wasn’t supposed to like, got scared, and messed up.”

“Maybe it was for the best. It would never have worked anyway,”I state as I turn the glass of champagne around in my hand.

“You think that?”

“Yes. It’s not the right time.”

“And if it was?”

“Can’t think about what-if’s.”

Daniel stands there silently for a couple of moments taking in my confession.

“Not much more I can say to change your mind, is there?”Daniel no longer pretending he doesn’t know who I am to his friend. “Shots?”

I nod. Shots it is.

It doesn’t take us long until we are standing in the corner laughing to ourselves after one too many shots of tequila.

“What the hell is going on here?” Jasper demands when he sees Daniel and me standing together laughing. He doesn’t look happy at all—those forest-green eyes swing back and forth between his friend and me.

“Just having shots with a new friend,” Daniel explains to him with a smirk.

Jasper’s attention turns to me, and I shrug my shoulders. I owe him no explanation as I’m not doing anything wrong.

“Thanks for the shots, Dan. It’s been fun. It’s nice seeing you again, this time with your clothes on.”