Free Ahead of the Darkness by Simone Nicole Page A

his less-than-confident face. “Do you know how to make a Margarita, or do I need to teach you, too?” I knew that would have his attention.
    “Aye. What are ye rules then?”
    “Three points: one for time, one for taste, and one for presentation.”
    “Aye, and whom do we get to judge?” Hmm ...
    “Angus?” I laughed.
    “We want to be on Mia’s team. Are there teams?” I’d made patrons for life, it seemed. I smiled at the girls.
    “Yeah mate, we’ll get ya back.” A few of the guys Jules had been serving had piped up at the festivities.
    “Aye, too right ye lads will. So it’s settled. We make four drinks each: one for each on our team, and the final judge, Angus. Angus, you in, old chap?
    “Too right I am.”
    “I’ll be needing your tie then, Drew.” I walked up to Drew and gripped the end of his tie. He looked at me curiously. “To blindfold Angus, of course.” The girls loved the idea and made room for him to stand between them.
    Before Drew could disagree, I’d begun to remove his tie. He didn’t protest, but watched me intently. My pulse quickened, and I was acutely aware of how sexual it felt. If it hadn’t been for the cheering in the background I could have forgot we weren’t alone. I snapped to, pulling the tie out from his collar quicker and turned to Angus.
    “This won’t hurt a bit.” Angus laughed as I covered his eyes.
    “Ye ready?” The bar seemed to be much fuller than I had noticed. Everyone was watching the two of us, including a bitter-looking Mac.
    “Ready.”
    “Set. Go.” And he was off.
    Drew and I bumped into each other repeatedly trying to collect the lowball glasses, lime wedges and salt. We butted heads over the tequila and he beat me to it, but I reached for the triples sec first and ran around the other side to get the other bottle of tequila. I grabbed the biggest shaker—surprisingly, there was one—and filled it with ice. Drew was muttering under his breath about needing a better-stocked bar, as he only had a smaller shaker to use.
    I added enough tequila and triple sec for five, just in case, and half a fresh lemon and lime. I was shaking my mixer before Drew. He was wasting time by pouring each shot in separately.
    Then it was my turn to waste time trying to find a flat dish for the salt, and I was about to give up when Jules passed me one.
    “Ye cheating bastard! Ye cannae help her.”
    “No fair, Boss, she doesn’t know where half the stuff is.”
    “Ah, sod off.” I laughed, and instead of taking the dish I improvised.
    I washed my hands real quick in the sink, rubbed the lime around the edge of the glasses and then filled my left hand with the salt.
    “What are ye doing, ye daft?”
    The girls cheered and laughed as I ran the edge of each glass along the salt in my palm, making sure the rim was covered. Dusting off the excess salt, I strained the shaker into the four glasses. Perfect!
    “DONE!” I jumped up and down on the spot with a little too much excitement.
    “Ah, bollocks!” He was still rimming the glasses with lime.
    “Mia wins the first point,” Becki yelled out, the other two cheering when I gave them their drinks. They eagerly dived in then squealed in delight.
    “Easy, girls. You don’t want that to repeat itself in an hour.” They laughed, but slowed down all the same.
    Drew finally finished his drinks and the last one came up short. I fought my laugh, and slid him the remainder in my shaker.
    “Ye a clever wee shite, aren’t ye?”
    “Aye.” I mocked. “But don’t give that one to Angus.” Drew laughed, and shook his head. We put our drinks up on the bar in front of Angus. I added a sneaky lime wedge on the edge, and winked at Drew’s wide-eyed look.
    “Ye sneaky bitch,” he muttered to me. I smirked at just how clever I really was.
    “Angus, you can remove your blindfold now.” The girls helped, and threw it back at Drew, laughing all the while.
    “It took ya long enough, son. Oh, these look