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Out of time and patience, I turned to Thatch in a flash, and when I did, I led with my fist.
“Ouch,” he said through a smile, rubbing his shoulder teasingly.
“Fuck, Thatch, fucking listen to me.”
He mocked me with wide eyes and cupped his hands around his ears.
I considered hitting him again, this time for real, but with a glance in the girls’ direction, I knew I didn’t have time.
“The girl in the picture from the TapNext profile, the one you took it upon yourself to—”
“Traumatize.”
I nodded. “Right. Well, I’ve been talking to her.”
“Behind the lovely Georgie’s back?” he asked in faux outrage. Regardless of his mocking, I could tell he was curious. Talking to two women at once wasn’t like me, and when it came to these “two,” he didn’t know the half of it. And I didn’t have the fucking time or means to explain.
One quick glance showed the women and Will together, hugging and laughing and all too close to heading this way.
I closed my eyes briefly to gain patience. He’d have to wait to hear how twisted my truth had become because that talk required more than fifteen seconds and several glasses of scotch.
“I’ve been talking to her ever since, and she’s here. She’s getting ready to come over here, right now, and she’s gonna be doing it with Georgie.”
With her? Ha! Fuck! More like, it is her.
“Well, fuck me,” he said with a smile, his eyes searching mine in an effort to figure me out.
“Your picture is on that profile. You need to pretend to know her,” I urged.
He paused for a beat, but he couldn’t miss how important this was to me. Whether he agreed or understood or wanted to play along, or not, Thatch would always have my back. When you pulled back all of the prank-pulling, shit-talking layers, he was unmistakably one of the best kinds of people. “Got it.”
I took air all the way into my lungs for the first time in the last two minutes and turned to greet my girl.
But she wasn’t there. She and her friend had disappeared, leaving only her brother Will in their wake.
As Will made it to us, shaking his head, Thatch leaned over and added with a whisper, “And all this after I gargoyle-dicked her?” He whistled low. “You must have more game than I thought.”
“What’s up?” I asked Will, pointedly ignoring Thatch and hoping my face managed to do the same.
“Who knows, man? Hell if I can understand women.”
When he provided no further information, I was sure my eyes tried to crawl all the way inside his head.
“Oh,” he said, turning from the bar to find my inappropriately intense gaze. “They’re in the bathroom.”
I nodded woodenly in understanding, and Thatch nudged me as a result.
“You gotta lighten up,” he whispered, turning me to the bar and flagging down the bartender. “Order a drink, for fuck’s sake, and calm down.”
I nodded again because I knew he was right, and it seemed to be the only action I could successfully complete at the time.
“Macallan,” I muttered, knowing he’d make sure my order got to someone who actually made the drinks. Ordering directly was too complicated for me right now.
“Yeah, man,” he said, smirking. “I know you drink Macallan. Macallan and lime, every day, every night for years now.”
The cords of my throat tightened in frightened reflex. “No lime.”
“No lime?”
I shook my head, feeling the tension drain from my shoulders a little at the memory of my sweet, doped up girl. “Georgie’s allergic.”
“Well, shit. That’s problematic.”
I laughed. “Not really,” I said, then clarified, “Not now that I know, anyway.”
“Make sure to leave out the lime,” Will interjected, coming up on my other side to join the conversation.
“I guess she told you?” I asked with a laugh.
“Eventually. I still don’t think she told me everything, but now that Cass is here, I’ll find out the rest.”
“Cass?” Thatch asked.
“Yep. Cassie Phillips. I’d say she’s like another little sister to me, but I’m not sure she’s the kind of girl who can be a little sister.”
Thatch’s eyes flared with excitement, and my panic came back tenfold. “Wild?”
Will just laughed and jerked his head toward the approaching women. “You’ll see.”
I forgot about everything else as soon as I saw her again. Long legs, a sliver of tan stomach, and a nervous smile, she was so fucking beautiful, I literally couldn’t take my eyes off of her.
I pulled her straight into my arms, put my lips to her ear, and breathed. “Benny.”
