Quin couldn’t respond to Taylor’s comment for a moment. Had he really just told her that he should sleep with her because he wanted her and because he was good? In that moment, she knew that he was every bit the spoiled, over-sexed rock star she’d figured him to be.
“Oh, is that so?” she asked, sipping her drink again.
“So, what do you say?” he asked.
“Do you honestly think that’s how you proposition someone?” Quin asked, “Though, I’m sure women are usually just throwing themselves at you. Can’t get their panties down fast enough, am I right?” He looked at her with a furrowed brow.
“Did I offend you? That wasn’t my intention.” Quin wanted to roll her eyes at his obvious attempt to turn up the charm in order to make up for his severe lack of tact.
“No, Taylor Hanson, you didn’t offend me. But I’m not going to sleep with you. It takes a lot more than a pretty face and a tight pair of jeans to win over a real woman. And trust me, I am a real woman.” And with that, she walked away, searching for Magda’s face in the crowd so she could give her an earful for leaving her alone with him. Who in the hell did he think he was, coming over and asking her to have sex with him before it was eleven o’clock. She wasn’t even buzzed yet, something she noticed with great distaste before downing the rest of her martini.
“How’d it go?” Magda asked once Quin found her hiding in a corner that had provided her with a perfect but distant view of the encounter.
“How did it go?” Quin repeated, “Well, you would know that if you hadn’t run off and thrown me to the horny wolves.” Quin sighed and took Magda’s drink from her hand and took a drink.
“He hit on you? Good for you!” Magda smiled, looking disturbingly like a proud mother.
“Oh yeah, it was just great for me to have a twenty-three year old proposition me like he expected me to drop to my knees and fellate him in the middle of the bar.”
“Stop being dramatic, I’m sure it wasn’t like that.”
Quin sighed, not wanting to admit that it hadn’t been quite that bad because her version of the story made it a lot easier to shove him to the back of her mind. The unfortunate truth was that despite herself, she did want to sleep with him. He was famous, adorable, young, and out of all the women in the room, he’d picked her to hit on. But she knew men well enough to know that she couldn’t let herself take it too seriously. Even though the amount of hot young men hitting on her had significantly decreased in recent years, she still got her fair share. This one just happened to be famous, unlike the rest, and also terribly over-confident. The fact of the matter was that he had blown it by going about it horribly. If he had spent the evening talking to her, actually getting to know her, then maybe things would have gone differently for him. Unfortunately, Quin was now destined to go home to sleep with Sylvie yet again because of Taylor Hanson’s massive ego.
“He came on way too strong. Told me that I should sleep with him because he wants me and because he’s good in bed.”
“Mmm, he probably is. Just look at him. He’s not leaving much to the imagination in those jeans is he?” Magda asked.
“Will you stop looking at his package?” Quin scolded in a hushed tone, “We’re both old enough to have given birth to him. But if I was his mother, he’d be a lot better behaved, that’s for sure.”
“You’re just mad because even though he bugged you, he still made you hot.”
“Stop reading my mind, Magda. It’s really annoying,” Quin mumbled, “I need another drink. Will you come with me to keep me safe?”
“Safe from the big bad horn dog? I think I should start ditching you more often,” Magda teased. Quin glared at her and they headed for the bar together. Quin knew that she’d already consumed a lot of liquor in a fairly short amount of time and that she should probably slow down. The more she drank, the more likely she was to give in if he came back over to her later in the night. Vodka had the tendency to make Quin give in to any desire she had, no matter how stupid it was. All rational thought flew out the window after four martinis.
They were standing at the bar, waiting for their drinks to arrive when Quin felt a presence to her right, a space that had been pleasantly vacant mere seconds before. She didn’t have to look over to see who it was and he didn’t give her time to glance in his direction, speaking first.
“So, what makes a real woman?” Taylor asked, smiling and feigning innocence after receiving a seething look from Quin, “What? You’ve got me curious!”
“Experience and biology,” Quin replied after being elbowed hard in the side by Magda to respond, “I’ve been around a lot longer than you and I just happen to be in my sexual prime. You are already past yours, so, you’re no good to me.”
“That’s really a matter of opinion. And for the record, I’m offended. How can you make a judgment about me until you’ve experienced it for yourself?”
“Oh honey,” Quin replied, placing her hand on his upper arm and patting it twice, “That’s where the experience part comes in. And besides… the bigger the talk, the smaller the cock.” Magda choked on her drink and Taylor just kept smiling at her with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“You wanna bet?” he asked.
“I’ll sleep with you… if that’s an option,” Magda offered. Quin wanted to rip the drink from her hands and throw it in her face, but was happy to see that Taylor had ignored Magda’s comment to maintain eye contact with Quin.
“No, I’d hate to take your hard-earned money. I’d feel bad about it,” she shrugged. He shook his head, still smiling, annoyingly enough, and leaned over to rest his elbow on the bar top.
“Do you really expect me to believe that you don’t find me attractive?” he asked.
“Would you just go away?” Quin asked, almost pleading with him.
“You didn’t answer, so I’m just going to assume that you do find me attractive,” he stated happily, “So are you going to come home with me or not?”
“No! I thought I already made that quite clear.”
“Well, I can go home with you if you’d prefer.”
“Taylor, it’s not going to happen.”
“I just don’t understand…” he said, trailing off and looking genuinely confused.
“Well, try to. Have a good night,” she said before setting her drink on the bar and leaving, Magda following suit a few seconds later.
“Are you crazy?” Magda whispered harshly as they left. Quin turned to look at Taylor again and immediately wished she hadn’t. He was standing at the bar, still smiling at her and he gave her a little wink when he saw her look at him.
“Get me out of here now,” Quin groaned.
“Why? Afraid you’ll change your mind?” Magda asked.
“I hate you right now.”
“Only because I’m right… again.” Quin didn’t answer and hailed a cab, wanting to get as far away from Fuse as possible as fast as the cab could take them. The three martinis in her were working in overdrive and it was taking every ounce of willpower to keep remembering all of the annoying, cocky, assuming comments he’d made to her and to forget his gorgeous blue eyes and the feel of his hard arm muscles beneath her hand.