Page 175 of Sour Notes

Welp, then he better behave before I adopt it too.

38

SWAYZE

“Jesus fuck, man, who goes on vacation and comes back looking like he’s just served time in Alcatraz?”

Beckett Fox, ladies and gentlemen.

Nothing gets by him.

Sure, my stubble is probably closer to a beard than a five o’clock shadow right now, but at least I bothered to show up to the fundraiser. That deserves a medal, not trash talk.

Axel slaps a hand on his shoulder, giving him his shut the fuck up look, before fixing me with a concerned gaze.

“You okay, man?”

I went from living the dream with my girl to crash landing in my own personal hell. I haven't slept. I haven’t eaten. And at this point I’m functioning on caffeine and high responsibility. The latter of which is dwindling fast because I quite frankly don’t give a fuck anymore.

So no, I’m not okay.

I’m so far from okay that the letters don’t even register in my alphabet.

“Sure.” I nod curtly, turning to scan the room, but I still feel the weight of his stare. Of course he doesn’t believe me.

Good ol’ Axel. He’s no stranger to heartbreak, so it tracks he’s noticed the bleeding hole where my heart used to be.

Spinning on my heel, I stride to the bar and order a double whiskey on the rocks. If I need to stand on that stage like a circus monkey for this fucking bachelor auction, I’m damn well gonna make sure I’m drunk doing it.

I drain the glass the second the barman sets it down in front of me before ordering another.

Axel comes up behind me just as I’m about to grab the refill and slides it to Beckett, who throws it back instead.

“Hey, that was mine, Axehole.”

“Clever, Wolfman. Very clever,” he responds dryly, arching a brow at me.

Beckett, on the other hand, roars with laughter.

“Axehole! That’s fucking brilliant. I’m texting Sparky, we need to make sure that’s in our rotation. Can’t believe I haven’t thought of it before.” He pulls out his phone, still chuckling while typing furiously. Judging by the ping that came from Axel’s pocket, he texted our group chat, not that I would know. My phone’s been switched off since I got on that plane.

“Sparky?” I look up at Axel quizzically.

“Lucas. Fox had the harebrained idea to upload the stupid videos he took of Lucas when they were helping me fix up the bakery to… TikTok? Think that’s what it’s called. Apparently, our boy was an instant hit.”

“Thirst trap, Wolfie. Baby Thor, aka ThorSpark is TikTok’s newest sensation. Check this out.”

He swipes to the app on his phone and a video of Lucas dancing shirtless in the half-renovated bakery lights up the screen and makes me laugh despite my shitty mood.

“Holy shit, it’s got a million views?” My jaw damn near hits the floor.

“In three days, my guy. Three days. If we play our cards right, our Viking might just make us rich. Well, if I can convince him to keep posting to his fucking channel, that is. Dipshit claims he’s too busy.”

Axel barks out a laugh just as the screech of the microphone alerts us to someone walking on stage.

Fuck no. Not the auction.

Mary tries to catch my eye from across the room, licking her lips like I’m a steak dinner she’s ready to devour and my dick shrivels up, ready to crawl off and die somewhere.