AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kat: Here’s your weekly reminder that I’ll get the treats tomorrow. See you at nine. Katx
Sad huffed a laugh. “Are you looking at pictures of puppies, or why are you staring all lovey-dovey at your phone, Raja?”
Stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I shook my head. “You know I don’t like dogs.”
The server approaching our table saved me. Sad ordered another beer for himself.
“Can I get a gin and tonic, with the Red Vixen please, not the Selkie made, and a stout, thank you.”
He nodded and left to push back through the crowd between our table and the bar.
My brother had started working for the distiller who made Red Vixen at the beginning of the month, and I figured I might as well support them. And I’d always liked Fitz, the owner.
“How’s Shri?” I asked, pushing thoughts of all the people I’d lost touch with out of my mind.
Sad’s partner was one of the most successful yoga teachers in Kirkmuir. People queued outside her studio to get a spot in one of her classes. I’d grown up with yoga as part of my culture, and it baffled me how much money she charged for them. Just recently, she’d started calling herself Shri, which sounded more mysterious than Margaret, I supposed. I still didn’t know what Sad, one of the best people I had ever met, saw in her, but who the fuck was I to judge?
“Oh, she’s grand. Working a lot, but you know…” He shrugged, finishing the last dregs of his beer. I knew he’donly allow himself one more. Shri, who never touched a single drop of alcohol, didn’t like it when he got drunk.
She and Abbie should start a club.
Mio arrived at the same time as our server did with our drinks.
“Holy shit, what happened to you, Animal?” Sad whistled through his teeth, as he gave him a one-over.
“Fair question,” I added, tipping my gin and tonic at our coach. Never before had I seen him wear anything but tank tops and shorts, the less fabric that covered his body the better.
“I run hot, jefe,” he always said whenever I teased him for it.
And no matter how often I had offered him a free choice of our clothes—shorts and tank tops were, after all, not always the most sensible attire of choice when you lived in Scotland—he had always shut me down.
“Did you raid our display at the gym?” Sadeeq mused between two sips of his beer.
“I didn’t. Roy gave me this stuff,” he muttered defiantly as he wrestled his arms out of the smart jacket he wore on top of a white button-down shirt. He had paired it with black slacks and Beacons. He looked dashing.
“Come on, that was a joke. You look grand, man.” Lightly punching one large fist to the jaguar hybrid’s biceps, he gave him the thumbs up with the other.
“I thought you’d donated all the clothes I gave you.” I grinned, not prepared to let it go as easily as Sad.
“Yeah, rub it in, jefe.” He spread his long muscular arms wide as if he waited for me to take my shot, reminding me of myself whenever Abbie came at me. Suddenly teasing him lost all its fun.
“Nah, Sad’s right, you look great, Mio.” Slugging back my drink, I waved at the server to get me another. She would go crazy if I came home drunk, but I was so tired of it, and I had zero fucks left to give.
Mio told us about a friend of his, a pro MMA fighter who'd suffered a pretty nasty injury during a fight recently, and we talked about the gym, the upcoming launch, and our plans for the brand.
I hadn’t realised how much I had missed hanging out with my best friend and Mio, who came in a close second.
When Sad, who had switched to water after his second pint, excused himself to take a wee, Emilio sniffed.
“Declan didn’t want to come along?” he asked in what he clearly hoped was an offhand voice, his eyes fixed on the half empty beer glass he cradled in his large hands.
“Declan?” I repeated stupidly, before catching on.
Oh.So that’s why he’d dressed so smartly.
“Yes, I thought he might be here. He’s one of our team members, too.”
“True. I completely forgot to ask him. This was always a gym team thing…”
