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We were an odd trio if there ever was one, but we’d known each other too long for us to not fit.
Tye shrugged. “I’m still me.”
“You couldn’t convince Logan to join us?” I asked about his husband.
Tye shook his head. “He said to send his regards. He’s been working doubles right now on the docks.”
“Sad I missed him,” I told him, clapping him on the back.
Cush threw his arms around both of us. “Hell yeah. It’s like college all over again! No chicks, no dicks!”
Georgia rolled her eyes, after finishing the shot she took with Annie. “I am standing right here, babe.”
Cush sighed. “Fine. Maybe not just like college.”
Annie giggled. “Who knew Jordan Wright was such a party animal?”
Cush, Georgia, and Tye all turned to look at her at once. I nearly put my face in my hands. Oh boy.
“That’s a joke, right?” Georgia asked.
“She’s definitely joking,” Tye agreed.
Cush burst out, “Jordan Wright is the party animal.”
Annie looked between them all incredulously before landing back on me. “You’re the party animal.”
“Let me learn you a thing or two,” Cush said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her deeper into the booth.
Tonight was going to be interesting.
26
Annie
Of all the things I’d anticipated about meeting Jordan’s friends, this was the most surprising. Jordan spent more time at work than I thought was humanly possible. He was hardly a party animal. The only time I’d seen him out was the time I invited him the night of our one-night stand. Actually, maybe that was why he’d said yes without question. I just thought he wanted to get into my pants.
“No way,” I said with a laugh.
“I thought you said this was your girlfriend, Jor,” Cush said.
Georgia elbowed him in the side. “Shut up, Cush.”
Jordan shook his head and took a seat in the booth. “That’s who I used to be, Cush.”
“Jordan went out every night,” Cush informed me.
“Not every night,” Georgia said with an eye roll. “Could you please let the experts tell this story?”
“Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights,” Tye added. “Minimum.”
“Half the time, it was to see you play,” Jordan countered.
“Well, yeah, but what about the other half of the time?”
Georgia cackled. “The other half was for all of you to chase ass.”
“We were young,” I offered.
Cush arched his eyebrows. “Young? You were still doing this shit in Vancouver up until you left. What happened?”
Jordan shrugged. “There aren’t clubs in Lubbock.”
I laughed. “Yes, there are. You just don’t go to them.”
“You’ve domesticated him,” Georgia said with a wink. “We all do at some point.”
“Not me!” Cush cheered.
Georgia shot me a look. “Even Cush. This isn’t normal for us anymore. We were lucky that these were his days off in surgery.”
It was hard to imagine that this had been Jordan’s life. It didn’t mesh with what I’d seen of him the last three years. But I liked getting a more complete picture of who he was and had been. No wonder Lubbock felt so simple to him and he had so much to get used to. He’d gained a family and lost everything else.
Cush turned away from the group to order drinks from their private bartender and returned a minute later with a shot-laden tray. He passed them out efficiently.
“Cush was a bartender in college,” Jordan said, pulling me down next to him and wrapping an arm around my waist. “He hates having other people pour our drinks, but he endures.”
Cush held the drink aloft. “To friends, old and new!”
We all held our drinks up and yelled, “Cheers!”
I downed the shot, letting the vodka course through my system. It was going to be quite a night indeed.
An hour later, we were all thoroughly tipsy, and Cush was regaling us with stories of their college adventures and all the ways Jordan had apparently gotten out of things by having too much money.
“And there we were,” Cush said dramatically, “about to be arrested because someone had vomited in public.”
“That was you,” Tye drawled.
“Whatever,” Cush said, pushing it aside.
“It was him,” Jordan said to me. His hand was still around me. His face nuzzled into my neck.
“And Jordan started pulling out hundred-dollar bills.”
Jordan shook his head as he kissed my shoulder. “It was twenties, and we were drunk.”
“Hundreds sounds better,” Tye conceded.
“He told the cops that they should just let us go.”
Georgia rolled her eyes. “And they fucking did because you’re white boys.”
“Aww, baby,” Cush said, pulling her against him. “You’re ruining the story.”
“With the truth?”
I snorted. “I think you’d like my friend Cézanne.”
Jordan groaned. “We shouldn’t put them together in the same place.”
“Afraid we’d take over the world?” Georgia countered.
“I’d happily let you take over the world, G,” Jordan said, coming to his feet and pulling me up, too. “You and Cézanne together would burn it down.”
“Then I definitely want to meet her,” Georgia said conclusively.
