Cheap Champagne

LONG, BLONDE HAIR CASCADED DOWN, her back in loose curls, and she moved with ease on impossibly high, black boots that covered her long legs save for the patch of tanned skin of her thighs that peaked out from between her boots and the hem of her chunky knit, cream coloured sweater dress. She moved through crowds of people; weaving in and out and around groups of people, stopping and offering a short greeting and a wide smile at anyone she knew. It was effortless, like everything she did. A casual flip of her hair over her shoulder, pouty lips stretching into a smile, her touch on their arm, and then she moved on.

He wasn’t sure where her final destination was but he kept his dark eyes on her; watching the way her hair swished around her when she walked and he wondered, briefly, if it still smelled like her peach shampoo. Her hips swayed from side to side in a delicate and feminine way and he wondered if they were still curved like they were made for his grip. When she turned to slide around a group of girls that were in the way of where she needed to go the light caught the shimmer she had expertly placed across her chest and collarbones and he once again found himself wondering. Did her heart still have the same rhythm it did when he used to place his palm against her skin, dipping his fingers just beneath the neckline of her shirt?

The further she got from him the more his head screamed at him to catch up before she was too far gone, again. It would be easy too; all he had to do was get up and cross the bar in a few long strides. He would tap her on the shoulder and she would turn around and those perfect, pouty lips would stretch into a blindingly white smile he would kiss her like the last six weeks hadn’t happened.

He had it all planned out in his head, right down to the fact that she would be wearing her caramel flavoured lip balm. His favourite.

It was all there. Except for the fact that, the last six weeks had happened and if he marched over there and caught her attention he was more likely to have a drink tossed in his face than he was to be greeted with a smile.

He was almost prepared to say it was worth it and get up from his table but then she had finally come to a stop, arriving at her destination and that feeling described as your heart plummeting into your stomach? It was real, he was having firsthand experience with it as he watched her allow another man to embrace her. His arm wound loosely around her back, hand tangling in the ends of her blonde curls as she stood next to him, he leaned in close, pressing a kiss to her cheek before he tilted his head to speak into her ear. Whatever he had said must have been amusing because she tilted her head back and let out a laugh.

He couldn’t hear it but the sound echoed loudly through his ears because only a few weeks ago it had been he her laughter had been directed at.

He watched her, dark eyes boring intently into her, as she tucked her hair behind her ears and smiled shyly at the mystery man with his arm around her. It wasn’t until he had leaned in again, getting impossibly close to her that Auston had to force himself to turn away. He couldn’t watch it anymore, it was torture. Torture he knew he deserved but still torture.

He grasped his glass and took a long drink of his beer and, for the first time that night, he wished that he had ordered something stronger. When he placed his glass on the table in front of him it was loud enough to catch the attention of Mitch, who was sitting next to him.

The lanky brunette quirked his eyebrow and Auston let out a sigh. He leaned back in his hair and rubbed the palm of his hand roughly against his face, telling his friend, “Cece’s here.”

Mitch choked on his drink, sputtered, and then set his glass down next to Auston’s previously discarded one before he looked around the bar with wild eyes and asked, “What? Where?”

“By the bar.” Auston stated, and he sucked in a breath of air before croaking out, “With a guy.”

“Oh…” Mitch stated, his eyes finally falling onto Cece, and, in correlation, the blonde who had his arm around her, palm rubbing her hip through her sweater, lowering dangerously close to her backside with each movement. Mitch was forced to clear his throat, look away and state, “Right. Him.”

“How long have you known?” Auston asked him, he had to force himself not to let his eyes search for Cece by the bar again so he focused on the glass in front of him. He wasn’t mad at Mitch for keeping it a secret, sure it would have been nice to have a warning that she was seeing someone but Toronto was a big city, up until tonight what were the chances that they would actually run into each other so soon?

And yet Mitch cleared his throat and stammered out an admission of, “Janie told me the other day. It’s a new thing, only like a week or two.”

“Right… yeah.” Auston muttered with a nod of his head.

Mitch was a little too quick to remind him, “Come on man, you knew this would happen eventually.”

For the record, he did know that, but he hadn’t thought it would happen so soon. It had only been a month and a half since their break up, and to be perfectly honest he had been expecting her to still be reeling over it the way that he was. But that just didn’t seem to be the case.

When he didn’t respond Mitch elaborated carefully, “It’s not like you’re gonna be miserable forever. People just move at different paces, you’ll move on when you’re ready to.”

If he was ever ready to. He was pretty sure that seeing the way that Cece had moved on, and how soon she had done so, wasn’t making him feel any better about his process. In fact, now he just really wished he hadn’t even left the apartment.

He was beginning to think that social gatherings were bad luck for him. Or maybe it was just mixing alcohol with pretty blondes.