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I glance around the apartment and realize that Ava, bless her, straightened up the place before she left for work. Not that it’s ever that bad, the common space anyway, but she knew I was having friends over for cards, and it was cool of her to do this.
It’s a great apartment we have, and I know I’m lucky as hell that Ava’s brother Andy, my buddy from college, hooked me up with it via his aunt. Sure, I could do without all the girly throw pillows, scented candles, and the weird green chair in the corner, but it’s a small price to pay to have decent rent, the bane of everyone but the super-rich here in New York City. At least the cheesy ‘Live, Love, Laugh’ sign is over in a corner, mostly hidden behind a dying fern.
The doorbell rings with the guys’ arrival while I’m still organizing, so I just dump the cards and chips in the middle of the table knowing that the uber-organized and anal Ethan will take over the minute he sees what needs to be done.
“Dude!” Leo roars, giving me one of those half-hugs that guys do, as if I hadn’t seen him just an hour ago.
We quickly get down to playing, which is, really, just background noise to our hang-out time. Personally, I tend to play in a half-assed way anyway, because I can’t focus on the cards and talk at the same time.
“That fucker at work will justnotget me Knick’s tickets,” I grouse. “You’d think working atSports Inc. would afford a benefit like this.”
Ethan shifts in his seat. “Sorry, man. You know I’d take you with my tickets if I didn’t have to wine and dine our advertisers.”
I throw my bad hand into the pile and open another beer.
Slow down, buddy.
“Hey, if you don’t likeSports Inc, you can always snag a job down the hall atGlisten,” Leo laughs, smacking me on the back.
“Fuck me,” I say. “Have you looked at that rag? What a piece of crap journalism.”
Leo scoops up the chips he won in the last hand. “Oh, I don’t know. You can learn a lot from reading that girlie stuff.”
Ethan rolls his eyes and throws his own cards down, also pissed at losing. “Last thing I read in that magazine was advice on giving a blow job. Not my thing.”
“Right?” I exclaim. “What about that article on pegging? Jesus Christ,” I say, stuffing my mouth with chips to drive out the bad taste.
“Pegging?” Leo asks. “What the hell is that?”
Ethan and I look at each other and burst out laughing. “Google it, dude. Find out for yourself.”
His eyes widen as he puts pegging in his search bar, and when the reality of what we’re talking about dawns on him, his expression throws Ethan and me into howls of laughter.
“Holy fucking shit, man. How it is I never heard of this?” Leo says, scrolling to the next Google result.
“You wanna give it a try, buddy?” I ask with a smirk. “I hear girls all over town are dying to do their boyfriends’ backsides.”
Leo chugs the rest of his beer and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “I’ll have to get back to you on that,” he laughs, a horrified look on his face.
We play a few more hands, grousing about life in the city and its inconveniences, regardless of the fact that we love it. Yeah, there are pains in the ass about this place, just like there are anywhere you live, really, but I’ve gotten some great friends out of the deal. They get the grind, the aspiration, and the humor of it all.
There’s no doubt about it. I’m one lucky son of a bitch. On more levels than I can count.
Knicks tickets aside.
* * *
6
JASPER
It usually goeshand-in-hand that Ethan, the grump of our trio, loses his cool as his supply of poker chips dwindles, and tonight’s no different. He’s had one bad hand of cards after the other, each one exponentially cranking up his shitty mood.
He puts his last one on the table. If I didn’t know him better, I’d think he’s getting ready to turn the whole table on its side.
Leo glances at me and I throw him a little nod. “Hey, guys, I think we could use a breather. How ‘bout we put last night’s game on?”
Ethan’s scowl diminishes slightly, the desired effect.
