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Which was why my buddies Jax, Leo, and Kent were meeting Cameron and me there. Cam clearly needed a night out after whatever was going on with the bank the other day, and I was in a bit of a dry spell. I’d been so bogged down at the vineyard, I hadn’t had any company in weeks. Usually if things had gotten this dry, I would have gone up to Junebug’s by now and found someone who was looking for a fling. It was all I had time for, and the women there were generally looking for something less serious, so it was the go-to place for me.
Jax, Leo, and Kent, however, were less enthused. All three of them were roughly the same age as me, and most of them were either in relationships or were looking for something more serious. Their speed was more the neighborhood-type bars, where fewer people equaled less noise and no one did body shots. I had tried to go to those places, but the stark reality of seeing old dudes sitting at the barstool they had been plopping down at for thirty years because they missed their chance at finding a partner was just a little too real.
I preferred Junebug’s. And body shots.
“I got you a beer,” Cam said as I arrived. “I’m only having one tonight, since I have to stay sober for a call in the morning, but you can drink. I’ll take you home.”
“You think that little of my ability score a girl?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “However, I will greatly enjoy watching you strike out.”
A heavy hand clapped me on the back, and a booming laugh filled the space around me. I stumbled forward a step and turned around to see Jax, his head thrown back in laughter.
“Still not ready for a real woman?” Jax teased in his thick Russian accent. He had lived in California for over ten years, but the most that had changed from his grasp on the way we spoke was that he occasionally littered his sentences with the word “dude.” Usually at the wrong time, grammatically.
“If you find one that’s single, send her over,” I said, clapping him in the chest. “But I’m not interested in a wife right now.”
Jax waved a hand in front of him, as if he were brushing me off.
“Ah, you have no idea. Wife make man stronger. Think better. Like tiger,” he said in a ridiculous grunting voice. “When energy is not wasted on searching, it can be focused on work.”
“I’m already focused on work enough, Jax,” I said.
“Not that kind of work,” he said, his eyebrows wiggling. As if I didn’t get it already, he began thrusting with his hips.
“Got it,” I said. “Thank you. Please stop doing that—you’re scaring away the girls.”
Jax stiffened up a bit, shoving his chin in the air. “Good. I am a married man. Fly away, little babies. Fly away.”
“I would rather them not,” I said. “I’m trying to get laid.”
“Then maybe don’t hang around a bunch of nerds all night,” Leo said as he walked up to us. “You’d have much more luck actually talking to the ladies.”
“I just got here,” I said in my defense. “What about you? Fish biting at all?”
Leo stared off to the side for a moment as if he was lost in thought and then shook his head. I felt bad for the guy. His girlfriend of over two years had just broken up with him, moving to Canada to pursue some dream job she had in Toronto. They had tried long distance for exactly a week before they realized it wasn’t going to work.
“Nah,” he said. “Not for me. But I’m not really the best bait today. Maybe after a few drinks.”
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get some alcohol in us.”
I took Leo by the shoulder and pushed through the crowd to the bar where Kent, another friend of mine from back in high school, was sitting already.
“Hey, bud,” Kent said. “Cam was looking for you a bit ago.”
“I know,” I said. “I found him. We’re going to do some shots. You down?”
“Can’t. I’m just here for the scenery. Got to drive to LA tomorrow morning for a shoot.”
I nodded. Kent had been honing his computer skills toward the arts, becoming a rather successful special-effects artist. He was still working his way up, but occasionally he left town to head to LA for projects. Shrugging, I waved down the bartender, Lisa.
“Well, at least you can watch Leo and me get hammered,” I said. “I’ve got a bet with Cam. Either I get a girl, or I get blitzed and he has to take me home.”
“Oh, well,” Kent said. “I hope he has trash bags in the back of that car of his.”
A couple of hours later, and a few shots and my third beer in me, not only were the fish not biting, but I wasn’t even casting a lure. None of the girls there that night were interested or interesting for that matter. The longer I was there, the more I felt out of place, like maybe Jax and Cam were right. That I was holding on to routines from the past and I needed to just embrace the fact that I was getting older, and that I needed a woman who wasn’t spending her evenings doing body shots at Junebug’s and looking for one-nighters.
