Chapter 48: fake billionaire, damaged boyfriend 4

Gwen has to push her lips to my hair to say, "It's gin, girl. You'll have to get used to it in this town."

My lips purse at the mere thought of having something like that again. I'm used to cheap beer and colorful cocktails that are almost always bootlegged moonshine. Even then, gin tastes like bad decisions, and I don't need to make any of those tonight in front of my coworkers.

She orders two more drinks in tall glasses now, handing me one while she takes the other, her hand latched and locked on my wrist so she can drag me away to the back of the club, past the stage and the huge crowd of people listening to hard music. It's daunting to be somewhere this crowded and tight.

I hold my breath until we're in the clear, outside on the breezy patio that's lit with cigarettes, people in their nightclub clothes, and some wooden picnic tables that sit under many heat lamps. I meet the guys from earlier, thecoding geeksthat are relatively familiar to me, at least.