CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE A CHARMING STRANGER

JADE’S POV I'm on my third glass now, and I don't hesitate as I gulp and feel the burning sensation of whiskey down my throat. I've been mixing a lot of drinks, be it vodka, whiskey, or rum, and I want to keep drinking, but I know that I can't get drunk so early into the night, so I swivel the stool I'm sitting on to face the dance floor. I watch people dance, some excitedly, some sensual, and the rest nervous or wholly buzzed. I wasn't by any means a bad dancer. I had a few moves, but I was never the type to shake them on the dance floor. People would be rubbing against you, and stupid jerks would forcefully grind against you if you didn't feel like humoring them for the night. Clubs, in general, peeved my senses a lot, starting with the music, which was loud enough to burst your eardrums, the unnecessary conversations most men would begin just to get you for the night, and the unfamiliarity of it all. I didn't feel as strange and out of place as I did here some years ago, an