Page 13 of Gold Rush (Murphy’s Pub #3)

Chapter Nine

Hippy called a meeting at Murphy’s apartment, and Goldie was worried. They didn’t call the meeting usually, not unless it was news about jobs, and then they’d do that in the basement.

As soon as everyone was gathered, sans Eazy and the kids, due to their recent departure for Seattle, everyone stared Hippy’s way.

“Guys, I needed to tell you something, and I hate it, but for my own head, I gotta go for a while.”

Everyone gasped, but it was Cosmo who looked stricken. “Wh-why? What’s wrong?”

Hippy couldn’t even turn his eyes to the guy that everyone knew Hippy loved.

“It’s nothing any of you need to worry about.

I’m not leaving for good. I just have to go for a while.

I’ll be back, but I figured, hey, with Dean here, maybe you can have him fill in for me at the bar, and then he can buss or wait tables besides. If he’s okay with that.”

Goldie assured, “He’ll do whatever he needs to. We just want you to be okay, Hip.”

Abs was in tears. “We’ll miss you so much!”

“I’ll miss you too, babe. I just need…”

“A break,” Murphy said. “We’ve been really busy, stressed, a lot of heavy shit happening, and that’s all on top of personal shit that we’re all dealing with.

You go, you do what you gotta do, and you know this is our home.

Always. Just let at least one of us know where you are at all times, in case we need to talk to you. ”

“For sure, and I’ll get you all up on all the weaponry you might ever need. I’ll wait and leave next month.”

Cosmo got up and left, but no one tried to stop him. Yeah, he loved Talon, but he’d grown close to Hippy, very close. They were rarely separated, and many of them felt that Cosmo returned Hippy’s feelings of…more than friendship.

Mims followed him out after hugging Hippy around the neck. Goldie held Abs close as he sobbed, and he felt tears of his own falling. “This is rough, man.”

He nodded, sniffing back his own tears. “I just…”

“No, man, you don’t have to say anything. Don’t explain. We’re all here for you, and we support you, no matter what,” Goldie scolded.

“Thanks.”

Goldie carried Abs to his room and sat with him while he cried. “Remember when it was…easy? When we just had a bunch of fun, performing on the weekends, getting into some cool jobs where I could break into a place and impress everyone? Where we could all impress each other.”

He nodded and added, “Then get back to day to day. We’d meet in the common rooms two or three times a day, sit on the terrace, even in the cold. When little Mick was born, we were all like proud uncles. Yeah, baby boy, I miss all that.”

“It was before everyone started to fall in love. Cosmo, then Mims and now you! I’m never going to. I refuse.”

“Don’t blame us for that, Abs. The only one leaving is the one in love with someone and he thinks he can’t have them.”

“Well, what if we talked to Taran?”

Goldie sighed, “What have you got brewing now, Absie?”

“Nothing terrible! Just maybe, let him know that…that Hippy is a great guy, and maybe…”

“Yeah, I get it, but we can’t interfere that way. What if Taran broke up with Cosmo to make way for Hippy? What if it broke Cosmo’s heart? You know it would.”

Slumping again, Abs mumbled, “You’re right, and I hate when you’re right.”

“I know, baby. Let me go talk to Cosmo. That reaction…”

“Yeah. I know. I’ll come with.”

“No,” he said sternly. “I’m sorry, baby, but this isn’t a time to scheme or brainstorm plans. This is just…being there for him. No words. No solutions, not that there are any.”

Abs pulled his tablet off his nightstand and said, “Then I’ll brainstorm right here.”

“You do that.”

Knocking lightly on Cosmo’s door, he waited and heard the steps as they neared him, but a cracking voice called, “Who is it?”

“It’s Goldie. Let me in, man.”

The door opened, but he started back for his bed immediately.

Goldie closed the door behind him and went to sit on the edge of Cosmo’s bed.

Cosmo was the newest member of the pub, and it showed. The room, painted red with white trim, barely had any new additions to the walls or on the dresser or desk. It was as if Cosmo still didn’t trust calling it home enough to make the room his own.

Lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, Cosmo whispered, “It’s my fault.”

“What?”

“Him leaving.”

Goldie let a minute pass before he asked, “You know he fell for you, right?”

“Yeah,” he said, surprising Goldie. “Ain’t it my luck?”

“What? Having two great guys in love with you? Hell, man, most of us wish for one.”

Cosmo glared at him. “So, I love one, and hurt the other. How is that good luck?”

“I don’t think it’s good luck, Cosmo, but you gotta figure it out.

I know you are nuts about Taran. But I’ve seen you and Hip together, and you…

mesh so well. It’s like you found your other half.

Taran, it’s that opposites attract thing.

The thing I’ve been wondering, and I’m pretty sure the other guys have too, is that maybe it can work, the three of you. ”

“Get real. Neither one would go for that.”

Goldie heard it and hoped Cosmo did, but when he didn’t seem to, Goldie said, “But you could see it.”

Cosmo shrugged. “Would be kinda cool, yeah.”

“Then, maybe while Hippy’s gone, start talking to Taran about it.”

“So I can lose him? Hey, Taran, mind if we add a guy? You may not like him yet, but hopefully he’ll be okay sucking your dick too.”

Goldie laughed, and finally Cosmo smiled. “It’s a thought. Just a thought. We’re all here for you, whether you want us to be or not. Abs…”

“God, what?”

“He’s hurting for you. You know him. Mims is probably hurting for you too, and Haze will be painting sad clowns for months.”

Cosmo threw a pillow at him. “Fuck off.”

They laughed, and Goldie got up, but not before he leaned over and kissed Cosmo right on the lips. “Pretty boys got all the trouble.”

“Didn’t I just say to fuck off?”

Goldie went to his room and fell on the bed, letting Dean fret over him. He told him what was going on, and Dean sat quietly. “You…you aren’t into Abs and will…will someday want us to…?”

“No, Dean. I’m not into him like that. He’s my very best friend. I don’t see him like that.”

Seemingly relieved, he lay next to Goldie and said, “I’m…I want someone just to…like me.”

“You got him. I’m not into the throuple thing, but maybe, for guys like Cosmo, Taran, and Hippy, it might be the best solution.”

“Kinda hot,” Dean said, then laughed. “They’re all…really sexy.”

“Oh? You noticed?”

“I’m not blind. All you guys are, even Murphy, in that daddy way.”

“Well, he chose us for our skills, but he also chose us for our looks. I have always hated that, but I get it. We make nearly as much bartending as we do in our other jobs, and that is because men and women are mostly shallow creatures, into hot bodies and faces. Me? I like a guy’s heart, but that’s not to say you’re not gorgeous. ”

“Thanks. I always thought I was too skinny, too short, but then…I found that a lot of guys liked that about me,” Dean said in a whisper.

“That’s not what I like about you. I like your heart. I like you.”

“Good. I like that you like me.”

Taran came by the next day, ignorant of Hippy leaving or why, and gave them all the newest information about the pimp and his men.

They sat around the table downstairs and listened to him, but Goldie noticed that Cosmo barely turned his head to look Taran’s way.

“He got bail, of course, and we knew he would, but the thing is, he hasn’t raised a fuss about his money being gone.

That’s a big indication of guilt, of course, but that also doesn’t mean he’s written it off.

Now, we think he may be paying a lot of that money up to someone else. We just don’t know who.”

“The BBC?” Murphy asked.

“Possibly, or some other criminal organization. We need to remember not to have tunnel vision about the BBC. They are not an island. There are thousands of them out there, and it’s all the FBI can do to catch a few of them.

That’s why, well, one of the reasons, I’ve thrown in with all of you.

You are a way to get to some of the others. ”

Murphy laughed and said, “Glad to be of service.”

“Well, I hate to say it, Murphy, but I think it was wise to send your family away for now. I don’t like the quiet. It always means trouble.”

“I’m hiring security for the pub for the time being too. I was just gonna tell the guys about it.”

Goldie and the others listened to Murphy’s plans of hiring a team of security personnel to walk the pub on busy nights and have one on duty during the less hectic weeknights. “Now, this is pricey, but we can afford it. We may have to do few jobs to make up for it, but I think it’s worth it.”

“And that’s when I take my leave. I can’t know about your other jobs,” Taran said.

Cosmo and he went off together, and the rest stayed behind to brazenly talk about them. “He doing okay?” Murphy asked the group.

Goldie said, “He’s hurting. Hip being gone, just like that, it hurt. He’s in the unenviable spot of being in love with two men.”

Abs laid his head on Goldie’s arm. “Yeah.”

“Damn. That’s tough. Does he have any idea of what to do about it?”

“Not one,” Goldie informed him. “I suggested, you know, that he might want to see if they could make it happen, the three of them, but…”

“I wonder if Hippy would even do that,” Mims said. “I mean…does he even like Taran?”

No one knew.

“Well, gentlemen, keep an eye on this for me. Not that we need extra drama, but the hearts and minds of you all are my top priority alongside your safety. The thing I worry about with Cosmo, anything could set him off to leave and go punish himself alone. We don’t want to lose him, in any way.

So, I’m counting on all of you, be aware of him and his urge to bolt. ”

Goldie knew that was true, and he, for one, knew how to keep an eye on Cosmo.

With so much turmoil, the next day’s rehearsal, the first for Dean, was nearly bereft. Goldie didn’t know how they’d do that weekend, if they’d have the heart for it. But they had patrons who came every weekend for the show and the good times the group brought. They wouldn’t let them down.

Dean picked up the routines quickly, and he was twirling around as he tossed the practice bottles into the air within an hour. Everyone was impressed, but what was better, Dean felt like a prince.

In Goldie’s humble opinion, he should always feel that way. They went for a walk later that evening, and Murphy was losing his shit about them going out alone, but Goldie knew the city better than most. If anyone was following them, he’d know.

Hand in hand, down dark, treelined streets that were older than the city itself. The homes were Victorian and Craftsman, loaded with character, but he, for once, didn’t stare at them, wondering what it would be like to live in one.

Instead, he thought of living on a beach with Dean, watching him running along the sand as the sea sprayed him. That thought ran through his mind during the entire walk, while Dean cast flirtatious eyes at him every couple minutes.

“Where would you like to live? Like your dream place?”

“Hawaii, or maybe South America. I’ve always been fascinated with the cultures.”

“You’ve been?”

“Sure. Years ago. We spent almost a full summer in Brazil once, and I loved it. My father was buying land down there.”

Goldie had a lot of money, but he didn’t use any of it. Socking it away, he planned to use it to live a life much different from the one he’d known so far. Giving himself and Dean a sweet life would be his dream.

“What about you?”

“I don’t know,” he said with a sigh. “Maybe someplace just…far from anyone. I love being around people right now, but after all this, maybe, for a while anyway, just to be alone with a special someone.”

“Me. Take me with you.”

Goldie laughed and said, “I think you qualify as someone special.”