CHAPTER 68: MEETING KEATON

"Hi, Joy!" I greet her as soon as I regain my sanity. I hug her and she hugs back a little hesitant at first before we step back and her smile widens.

"I was surprised! I thought I saw wrongly!" she says excitedly while looking at me up and down, "You look really good!" she says and I can feel her genuine compliment.

"Thanks! You too!" She really does. She's wearing this absolutely gorgeous off shoulder, form-fitting red-velvet dress which drops all the way to her ankles. Her hair is tied up in a very neat ponytail and she wears sparkly flower hair ornaments.

She smiles at me before tuning to Malik with a questioning expression. "Your friend?" she asks.

"Ah, yes! This is Malik," I introduce the two of them, "Malik, this is Joy, my friend from uni."

"Nice to meet you," the both shake hands and Joy returns her attention to me, "I didn't know you're free tonight or I would've invited you myself," she tells me, "my friend owns this place," she tells me.

"Oh?" I'm intrigued, "did Allen come with you? What about Chuck and Marsha?" I ask half curious half terrified.

"Allen's at his parents," Joy tells me with a slightly strained tone, "and Marsha and Chuck's busy with their presentation for Monday, didn't they tell you? Chuck have been too focused on football so he needs extra credit for the internship qualification, and Marsha has been working to accelerate her studies so by next year she could focus more on the internship and the wedding," she tells me and I can feel she feels slightly bewildered because me, Levi Alexander, has to be told this by someone who only know them for a short amount of time.

What kind of a friend am I, you ask? The kind that is selfish, shameless and ungrateful, apparently.

"Well, I've been pretty busy too," is my defense.

"Well, I'm glad I ran into you here," Joy decides to drop the whole thing off and gives me a wider smile, "I want to introduce you to my friends, that okay?" she asks, looking at me and Malik. I turn to Malik who shrugs before I turn back to Joy and give her a nod. She smiles brighter before taking my hand and dragging me to the VIP section while chattering away about her friend who owns the place and her other friends who invested in it. She did too, apparently, which is also why she's so excited tonight.

"Allen did say you've been busy," I say to her.

"Yes. This is my first big project outside of the uni so I'm very excited to finally be able to put my studies and skills to use and I'm really glad how this place turns out," she says proudly and I'm really glad for her. This place is awesome.

"I'm really happy for you. And congrats!" I tell her and hug her again just as we enter the VIP room on the second floor.

The room is half as big as the first floor, minus the dance floor and there's only a small bar. The room itself is packed with more than two dozens of people scattered across a few booths. Joy drags me to one of the booths and starts introducing me and Malik around.

"People! This is Levi my friend from uni and I adore him and he's awesome and very talented so you should adore him too!" is what Joy said to the whole table and I can't help but feeling embarrassed while the whole table roars after a moment of silence which probably came from bewilderment.

Those complements twist my insides I feel like throwing up.

"What kind of introduction is that?!" one of the guys sitting there, an auburn haired, tall guy with a smile so charming and eyes so sharp, stands up and offers me his hand.

"Levi," I shake his hand, trying not to die from shame.

"Keaton," he looks at me up and down with a grin, "she's right, though, you're' adorable." he adds and I grin at him before rolling eyes at Joy who looks way too pleased of herself.

"This is Malik, my friend," I introduce Malik and we take turns shaking hands and saying our names with the rest of the table.

We sit down with drinks in our hands (which I haven't even tasted yet) and the questions come rapidly, I almost choke when answering.

"So, how you liking the place?" Keaton who sits on my left, asks eagerly.

"I'm liking it so far. The place looks beautiful and you have cute bartenders, " I grin at him and he laughs at that.

"Good to know that you appreciate my employee," Keaton says with a laugh.

We seem to have hit it off nicely as we keep on chatting. About the club, his work and study (he's three years older than me and have graduated but is going to study business more after the place is settled), about my studies and the works I do. Especially about the works I do. He takes great interest in my photography and I'm flattered by that.

We keep on talking amongst us two I feel bad for Malik and thought I was ignoring him, but when I turn around, he's very much involved with a girl, Joy's other friend, and they too seem to hit it off pretty nicely because I can see Malik flirting relentlessly with her. She reciprocates, though, so it's nice to see him also have a good time.

"Lee," Malik nudges me as I'm talking to Keaton, "my friends are here, come meet them," he tells me as he stands up and reaches out his hand for me to take.

I smile and take his hand and he pulls me up. I turn to Joy and Keaton, my smile widens as they look at us questioningly, "Come join us pheasants on the battle ground!" I tell them, holding out my hands to Keaton who laughs and takes it.

"Oh no, I don't dance!" Joy says, holding up her hands, horrified.

"Yes you do!" I grin and take her hands before dragging her along and pushing her so she walks in front of us, not leaving her a room to run away. She turns towards her other friends pleadingly, but they decide to join in on the fun and actually enjoy the club as it is supposed to be enjoyed. On the dance floor, drunk.

As we go downstairs, Malik drags me to one of the tables near the DJ booth and introduces me to his friends, one of them being the star DJ of the night. His name is Noah and he's the same age as Malik. He DJs at night and in the morning he's actually a teacher at the local public elementary school.

I introduce Malik's friends to Joy's friends and we have a round of drinks before Noah goes back to his equipment and we head straight to the dance floor. Malik drags me and twirls me around and I let him. I feel really good tonight. I dance and I drink and I sing and I flirt with both Malik and Keaton, to my own horror. I never thought I could do something like flirting so openly with two guys at the same time.

"Keaton seems to like you," Malik whispers into my ears as we dance chest to chest with my arms around his neck and his around my waist.

"Does he?" I look up at him, not really concerned about it. "You seem to like Anna," I tell him instead. Malik grins and bites my neck, making me yelp.

"She seems to like me too," Malik says with confidence I'm so envious about.

"That's good to know," I grin at him.

"But tonight," he says slowly, licking and nibbling my neck, "it's me and you, babe," he says.

I hum in satisfaction and let out a moan as he starts sucking on my neck. I don't even care that we're on the dance floor and the whole world could probably see us. Also Joy. the whole world and Joy. "You sure daddy?" I ask teasingly.

"What? Baby not happy?" he asks, biting harder and I, again, yelp and slap his head. "Oh. Here comes Keaton," Malik says, grinning and turning my body around and pushing me towards the unsuspecting Keaton, who, thankfully, is still sober enough to catch me and not letting me face plant the dance floor.

"Oof!" Keaton catches and holds onto me as I giggle and put my arms around his neck like I did Malik. The latter has planted himself once again on my back, trapping me between him and Keaton. "Sorry," I say to Keaton but have no intention of letting go whatsoever.

Keaton laughs, "glad you're having fun," he tells me.

"He wants to have more fun," Malik says to Keaton who then looks up at Malik with a glint in his eyes. Malik nods from behind me and then I can feel Keaton's hand sneaking up to my waist, just below Malik's hands who has found their way to my chest.

"Does he, now?" Keaton asks Malik.

"'He' is here," I tell both of them half annoyed and half amused, "and yes, He wants to have fun, so, beat it," I push both of them away and instead walk towards Anna and Joy and take them both on each of my arms and start dancing with them.

I can hear Malik and Keaton laugh before they follow me and circle the three of us as we dance. Anna and Joy, first bewildered, start to enjoy the attention and we dance and drink and sing and I'm sweating profusely but I'm having so much fun. That is until Joy drags me to a corner and starts 'talking' with me.

"Hey," I smile at her once we reach a more secluded, less crowded and definitely less noise corner of the club near the bathroom and back door.

"Hey…" Joy starts a little hesitant, "I'm glad you're having fun… Lee, but… um… your friend…" she asks half embarrassed half concerned.

"Malik's good," I try reassuring her, "he adores me so as long as he does, he'll do nothing bad," I tell her.

"But… Isn't he… Like… too old?" she asks and I'm pretty sure she's blushing right now even though I can't see it.

"He's only 35, Joy," I laugh, "he's good. Really," I tell her again. She says nothing and just stares at me calculatingly, "Not sure about Keaton, though, Anything you'd like to say about him?" I ask, raising my eyebrow at her and she widens her eyes in surprise.

"Keaton?" she asks, making sure she heard me right.

"Yes. Your friend. Keaton," I say to her with a frown, "we've been flirting all night didn't you realize?" I ask in bewilderment.

"I don't…" Joy admits.

"Well, we did." I stare at her. I wasn't really looking for permission, just letting her know that I may do something about the flirting and whatnot.

"Oh… Does Malik…"

"He knows and he enjoys it, too," I smile at her at that, "No worries there," I tell her. This kind of thing is probably never in her radar. I mean, she comes from a very wealthy, very decent family so I'm pretty sure they have never encountered such situations before. I'm pretty sure Keaton hasn't either. Probably why he keeps hesitating.

"Keaton is a good guy," Joy starts telling me, "he's very driven and probably more of a workaholic than me. He's very close with his family, especially his mother. He's good," Joy nods, assuring me.

"Well, that's all I need to know for now," I laugh, "at least he's not a serial killer. That'll be a bummer," I laugh and she laughs with me.

"He's very busy, though… So I don't know about relationships…" Joy starts again and I cut her off at that.

"Hey, wait, wait," I hold out my hands to her, "Joy, if I wanted to be in a relationship, one, I wouldn't have flirted with him while I'm here with Malik, and two, I wouldn't look for it at clubs," I tell her.

"Are you sure? I mean… What if it turns into something else?" she asks and how did the conversation steered towards this?

"Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it," I reassure her once again. I really don't want to take things far too seriously and I definitely don't want to think much right now. "Also... can you keep tonight between us?" I ask her, suddenly remembering the implication of Joy knowing my newly found hobby.

"From Chuck and Marsha?" she asks between surprise and suspicion. I nod and she stares at me. "They're just worried, you know. Do they have a reason, though?" she asks back.

"What?"

"A reason. To be worried."

"No. Of course not, Joy," I laugh and wave my hand casually at her, "I'm just having fun. That's not a crime and also, I really don't want them to meddle too much in my business anymore. As long as I'm not neglecting my studies and taking care of myself, I don't think they have any reasons to meddle, no?" I ask her and she stares at me with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Well… I sure as hell have no intention of meddling," Joy shrugs, offering me a smile, "but I still gotta keep my eyes open, you know. Since you and Keaton are both my friend. I really don't want anything bad to happen, that good?" she asks.

"I can have that," I nod to her, "thank you for that."

"And I won't tell Marsha and Chuck," she adds one more time just for a good measure.

"And Allen," I add, grinning.

"And Allen," she rolls her eyes and grins at me before pulling me into a hug. "Glad you have fun. If Keaton bothers you in any way, tell me," she offers as we head back to the dance floor, laughing.

Well, I want him to, though. But I don't tell her that or else I'd really be the weird friend who sleeps with anyone just a little attractive. Not that I am. Or am not. But, you know, reputation and all. Heheheh.