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Drinks were flowing freely. One of the perks of this game, you don’t have to do jack shit for yourself. I hadn’t even made it over to the table in the corner before someone had plied me with two bottles of beer. Personally, I’m a whiskey drinker, but beer would do just nicely as a starter.
“What are you sitting down for?” Matt hollered over the raucous music. “Have you not seen the amount of pussy out there? Come on, dude. Get your ass out here on the floor!”
“Count me in!” Daz sang.
Daz has been an on-off relationship with a girl called Dana for the past five years. By the excitement in his eyes over the word ‘pussy’ I assumed they were going through an ‘off’ period. Gavin’s also got a girl, but he just likes the chase. He’s happy to buy chick’s drinks and chat them up with the others but he always goes home alone. Matt… well I doubt anyone will be able to tame him.
“Just waitin’ on Elle. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Whatever, man,” he dismissed, waving me off with his hand. He was gone as quickly as he came, Daz and Gavin following behind, and then I spotted Elle in the distance. She waved, letting me know she’d spotted me, then she shimmied over to my table in one of the shortest black dresses I’ve ever seen.
“You forgot to put your skirt on,” I teased. She slapped me on the arm and then gave me the middle finger. Smiling, I took a swig of my beer and saw Ryder, Jake and Dave approaching.
“Have you talked to Kip yet?”
“Sorry, gorgeous girl, not had a chance yet. But I will before the night’s out.”
“Fuck me, I think I just saw Parker fucking Emerson over there!” Ryder screeched, making himself comfortable beside me. “This place is fucking amazing!”
I let out a small laugh. Places like this didn’t blip on my radar anymore. Sad really. I kinda miss ‘normal’. I miss being able to blend into a crowd, enjoy time with my friends without being watched. Hell I even miss simple things like taking a twenty out of my wallet and handing it to a barman.
“How do you go about getting a drink around here?” Ryder asked.
“Just head up to the bar, tell ‘em what you want. You don’t need money.”
“Sweet!”
“How come you’ve never mentioned him before?” I cocked my head in Ryder’s direction while Elle scooted closer to me on the plush bench seat.
“We never really talk about the salon. It bores you, remember?”
“Sure, but it sounds like you’ve done a lot for him. That must mean he’s important to you. I thought we shared shit like that.” Wow. I sounded like a teenage fucking girl.
“He’s a good lad. Hard worker. Crazy fun too. I knew you wouldn’t mind me bringing him with me and he’ll have sorted somewhere to stay by the time the tour is over.”
“Course I don’t mind. He’s seems nice enough. Never had you down for someone who’d employ a porn star though,” I joked, raising my bottle to her.
“He told you?” She sounded surprised but then seemingly thought better of it. “Of course he told you,” she tacked on, shaking her head and smiling. “You should check out some of his movies. They’re hot enough to make me want to grow a dick of my very own.”
“You know, I sort of admire him. Such a young guy yet he seems to know exactly what he wants out of life.”
“He wants to be happy, that’s all. Sure, that’s what we all want, but too often we let what other people want for us hold us back.” Ain’t the damn truth. “But not Ryder. He doesn’t take shit from anyone.”
Jake and Dave, drinks in hand (sodas of course), came to sit with us then, and our conversation about Ryder ended.
“So, Dave,” I started, “How’s the divorce going?”
“She’s a fucking psycho,” he said, offering his usual answer. “Says she’s entitled to seventy percent of the house because she did the interior fucking design. Stupid bitch.”
Dave’s divorce has been going on for months, and it often leaves me wondering how you could possibly feel such a way about someone you once loved. Unless it wasn’t really love. How do people even know what love is? I sure as hell don’t. It’s not like you get a badge, or your nose turns blue or anything. There’s no proof it even exists. It’s just a word people toss around too often that usually ends up causing pain. Or, as in Dave’s case, excessive debt.
Ryder came back over to our table and put his beer down before sitting on the plush red stool opposite to me.
“The people here are pompous fucking twats,” he grumbled. “Seriously, does no one know how to use manners anymore?”
“You’ll find most people in this business are like that,” Elle said.
“But not all,” I added, feigning offence.
“You’re kidding right? Bloody hell, Sawyer, you are the king of all miserable shits!”
Hmm. Yeah, she was probably right. So I let it go.
“Why do you invite these kind of people? We should just go some place else,” Ryder suggested.
“Not that simple I’m afraid. You saw the effort it took to get us in here right?”
“Yeah I guess,” he agreed. “Shame though. I know an awesome club not too far from here. Spiral. I used to come up here a lot when my grandma was alive. I’d come stay with her when shit got too bad at home.”
“Spiral?” Jake butted in. “I know that place.” He did?
“Amazing, right?”
“We might have time to sort something out. I can arrange something with my team if you want to go, Sawyer?”
What the hell? Jake didn’t do spontaneous. Ever. That was another thing I missed though – spur of the moment.
“Sure,” I said. Taking another swig of my beer, I used my free hand to start texting the guys to tell them to come to our table. “What about Claire? She won’t be happy.”
“She never is,” Jake said, rising to his feet. Every one of us, except Ryder who hadn’t had the pleasure of getting to know Claire yet, laughed.
