Chapter 43: Being A Virgin Is Cool
Dina released his hand slowly.
The amusement had vanished from her face. She looked at him for a second, waiting for an explanation he was still searching for. Nothing came.
For a moment they all just stared. Then.
"I’m gonna go." Dina said, her voice oddly calm. She stood up and walked away without another word.
Adrian watched her disappear into the crowd, then looked down at his phone on the table.
BONUS QUEST FAILED.
Forty-three seconds. One hundred thousand dollars. He’d had ten minutes. Multiple chances. All he needed to do was make physical contact.
Somehow, he’d managed to make touching a woman’s breasts look like a criminal offense.
Well... technically, it kind of was.
"Adrian."
He turned. Jenna was staring at him. Not teasing.
It was the expression she wore when something had genuinely knocked her sideways. Her eyes flicked toward where Dina had gone before returning to him.
"What the hell was that?"
Adrian opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
"You’re going around groping girls now?" Jenna waited another second. "Don’t you have a girlfriend?"
Adrian paused, searching for the least scummy explanation he could give. He was looking for balance? No. He was just curious? Definitely not.
Then it hit him.
"Not... not anymore."
Jenna’s glass stopped halfway to her mouth.
She lowered it slowly and studied him, waiting for the rest of the sentence.
None came.
She leaned forward, resting an elbow against the bar.
"What does that mean? Did the redhead slut finally get tired of you?"
"Her name is Rose."
"Oh, okay." A beat. "Did Rose, the red-haired slut, finally get tired of you?"
Adrian sighed.
"She didn’t dump me." He thought about it for a second. "We ended it."
Jenna studied his face long enough for the silence to become uncomfortable.
"Really? Um. How long?"
"A few hours."
"Hmm." She took a sip of her drink.
Adrian raised a brow. "Hmm?"
She looked at him. "What?"
"You said Hmm."
"That’s cause I’m thinking."
"Thinking what exactly?" He said.
She paused.
"That maybe you asked me out because you just needed to get away from a break-up." She leaned back, surprise and skepticism passing across her face. "Is that all I am? Your go to buddy after you fuck up with a girl?"
In his defense she did say she always wanted to be there for him.
"Not really."
Adrian picked up his drink, studying the ice instead of her.
"I didn’t want to sit alone with all of it in my head. You were the person I figured I could actually talk to."
Jenna went quiet.
"... You," she said eventually. "You really see me that way?"
A small pause settled between them. Then she pointed toward the crowd.
"It still doesn’t explain the thing with Dina."
Adrian exhaled.
"I wasn’t trying to do what it looked like."
"Sure."
"I’m serious."
"You literally just got out of a relationship and immediately tried to touch another woman. I’m not calling you a pervert. I’m just saying it’s not a great pattern."
"You’re absolutely calling me a pervert."
"I’m implying it." She smiled. "That’s different."
Adrian opened his mouth, thought better of it, then took a drink.
"Fine. Maybe slightly."
Jenna laughed. A real laugh. It slipped out before she could stop it.
"Okay. So here’s the thing."
She set her drink down and pointed at him with two fingers.
"Next time you meet a woman who actually likes you, just talk to her. That’s it."
A woman that likes him. Like Rose. Or maybe.
"What if I think the girl has a crush on me?"
She looked at him for a moment longer than necessary. "...Do you have a crush on her."
"Maybe."
"Then do what you think is right."
Adrian glanced at her.
"Just dont be a douche." A beat. "Maybe you’ll get lucky and she’ll like you back."
"Hmm." He smiled, lifting glass. "Maybe."
She shrugged. "Yeah. Maybe."
Adrian said nothing as they stared at each other for another beat.
"Here’s your order."
A waitress returned with another round balanced across one arm. Jenna paused for a beat.
"Oh, yeah. We order." She smiled at Adrian who did the same."
She took the drinks and the nuggets ordered, set the drinks down without spilling a drop, then climbed back onto her stool.
"Well."
Adrian raised a brow. "Well?"
"Since it’s just the two of us... again." She grabbed a glass. "Let’s play a game."
"A game?"
"Never Have I Ever."
"No."
"Yes." She shot back. Jenna slid a shot toward him.
"C’mon. I’ll start easy."
She did.
The first few questions were harmless enough: never having eaten something off the floor because of the five-second rule, never having pretended to be asleep to avoid a conversation.
The game quickly became less of a drinking game and more of a conversation that happened to involve shots.
Jenna had apparently once pretended to be asleep through an entire family dinner.
Adrian had eaten something off a bus seat on a dare in middle school and refused to elaborate.
"You’re disgusting."
Apparently his confession was worse.
"I was eleven."
"Doesn’t matter."
The questions kept getting worse.
M Then Jenna sat up a little straighter.
"Never have I ever..." she pondered on it as a giggle escaped her lips. " slept with someone."
Adrian drank without thinking. Jenna froze. "What?"
He set his empty glass down. "What?"
She pointed at him. "You’re not a virgin?"
"Uh. Yeah... something wrong?"
"I didn’t think you were the type."
Adrian raised an eyebrow. "What type did you think I was?"
She didn’t answer immediately. That was answer enough.
He turned the question back on her.
She protested that the game didn’t work that way. Adrian argued that the game worked however two people agreed it worked. After a brief negotiation, Jenna finally took her shot.
"I haven’t," she admitted. Adrain paused.
She leaned against the bar, her expression changing as she noticed Adrian’s look.
"What?"
"Nothing." Adrian took another drink. "It’s not a bad thing
"Screw you." She smiled. "You sure know how to make it sound like one."
"I’m serious." He said. "Being a virgin is honestly... cool."
"Fuck you." She stared at him for a moment, then took her shot.
He smiled and took his. Then it hit him.
The bar had grown louder around them, or maybe Adrian was simply noticing it less. The room felt warmer now, the edges of everything softer than they had been when they’d arrived.
Was that normal. Probably not.
Bzzzt.
His phone buzzed against the bar. He picked it up mostly out of habit.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Nutritional Multiplier Active
Current Alcohol Absorption Rate: 340% Baseline Efficiency
Recommendation: Cease Further Alcohol Intake Immediately
Current Trajectory: Impairment Within 2-3 Additional Units
Adrian stared at the screen. With the day he’d had this his only escaped.
"Fat chance."
He took another shot. He put the phone facedown.
Then. The room tilted.
Not physically.
The bar hadn’t moved. The space between him and the bottles behind it simply felt deeper than it should have.
Huh? He thought. I thought you said... two units.
He looked down at the table and saw three empty glasses. The hell? Had he lost count?
Jenna was saying something. He caught none of it.
"Okay, that’s it. You’re done." She had already taken his glass. Then his keys.
"I’m fine."
"I know a drunk guy when I see one."
"I’m..."
"Give me the keys, Adrian."
He looked at the outline of the keys in his pocket.Then at her. Then at the outline again.
"...Fine."
Outside, the air was colder than he’d expected.
Adrian leaned more heavily against Jenna’s shoulder than he would’ve liked to admit under better circumstances.
She didn’t comment on it. She simply hooked an arm around him and steered him toward the passenger side.
"Careful."
"I’m walking."
"Don’t blame me. Blame the pavement."
"The pavement is the problem?"
"It’s being unreasonable."
Jenna snorted.
She opened the passenger door and guided him inside, then reached across to buckle his seat belt.
"You are genuinely such a lightweight."
"Not my fault." He paused. "The system lied to me."
Jenna paused.
"What system?"
"Don’t pry, Jenna." He said.
Jenna stared at him.
He pulled out his phone one last time. The screen was becoming annoyingly difficult to focus on.
SYSTEM UPDATE:
Nutritional Multiplier: Alcohol Absorption Has Reached Maximum Efficiency
Current Condition: Entirely Self-Inflicted. Player Will Now Receive What Was Coming to Him
Adrian stared at the message. Once. Twice.
"What the fuck?"
His head dropped against the seat.
The last thing Adrian saw was Jenna reaching across and picking up his phone.
Then everything went black.