Page 62 of Never Stop

“Oh. Right…” Gary trailed off as though he finally remembered that not long ago Av and I were doing the long distance thing with our women. “Well, whatever. Nothing has happened.”

“But you like her,” I prodded.

“What’s not to like? She’s hot as fuck.”

“And my family. Don’t make me kick your ass.” Gary was a good guy, but I still had to give him shit because if something were to happen, I’d kick his ass then fire him.

“We need to get this fucker a drink,” Gary said, hooking his thumb toward me. Avery looked over, nodding in agreement.

“Well, so far this sounds like my first bachelor party.”

Avery laughed. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

“I hate you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. I really hated surprises.

Avery pulled his truck into a parking lot that housed a pool hall.

“Pool?” I asked, looking over to Avery.

We hadn’t played a game of billiards in… Hell, I had no idea when the last time was. In our twenties, we played a few times a month after he graduated from college and moved home. Since I was modeling then, my nights were free. At least, I’d thought they were. I left Dana with Cheyenne too many times just so I could get out of the house and grab a beer. Looking back, it was totally a dick move, and I regretted it.

He shrugged. “You said you wanted to chill and not go to Halo.”

“This,” I waved my hand at the black building as Avery pulled his truck into a spot someone just vacated, “is the big secret?”

They snickered, and I narrowed my eyes, looking from Avery to Gary and back.

“We like fucking with you.” Avery put his truck in park.

I growled deep in my throat. These two fuckers had me freaked that they were going to make me do some shit like run naked in Times Square and worry my dick was going to get frostbite.

“Come on, boss. We couldn’t tell you what we had planned,” Gary stated. “It’s fun not knowing.”

“Easy for you to say,” I muttered.

Avery opened his door and I followed suit. Once we were all out of the vehicle, he said, “I didn’t know what we were doing for my bachelor party.”

“Because we were in Vegas and played it by ear!” I snapped.

“I’m still bitter I wasn’t invited.” Gary frowned.

Avery clapped him on the back. “It wasn’t that eventful.”

I pressed my lips together, suppressing my laugh. It was one-hundred percent eventful.

The snow was still trickling down as we hurried through the parking lot to get back in a warmer climate. A bouncer at the door checked our I.D.s and then we entered the long, rectangle building. The front of the house had your typical bar to the left (I wasn’t impressed) and tables for eating to the right. The back was lined with pool tables as far as I could see.

As we stepped a few feet in, my stomach growled at the smell of the fried food in the air. “We’re eating here too?” I questioned.

“Yep. Eating, drinking and then some pool.” Avery stepped ahead of me, and we followed him to an empty table. Even though I didn’t want to pay for overpriced beer, I was still going to do it. You couldn’t play pool and not drink.

We took a seat at a high-top, dark wood, square table, and ordered a beer and an order of potato skins to split.

“Thanks for listening to me.” I smirked at Avery.

He chuckled. “I figured we all could use a night to relax.”