Page 48 of Rum & Coke

“Take her to my wedding,” Paul chimed in.

“Do you three talk like this all the time?” Seth cut in.

We all turned to look at him.

“What do you mean?” Gabe asked.

“Like chicks braiding each other’s fucking hair. I used to live with Joss, and she wasn’t even as bad as you three.”

Paul slapped him on the back and squeezed his shoulder. “It’s because you haven’t found your girl yet.”

“I’ve only been in love once, and I have no desire to ever fall in love again.”

“Young love is just the beginning, man,” Paul stated. “Once you find the one worth fighting for, you won’t give up if shit hits the fan. Look at Joss and me. She thought her past and being FBI would turn me away, and it didn’t.”

“Look at Autumn and me,” Gabe went on. “I literally fought her husband for her.”

All three of the guys turned to me, and I shrugged. “I got nothin’.”

“You will,” Gabe stated. “It’s only a matter of time for the both of you.”

“How the fuck do you know?” I asked.

Gabe chuckled and grabbed Paul’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Because the night of my bachelor party, I told this fucker that someday soon some woman was going to barge into his life and he wouldn’t know what to do without her. A few weeks later, Andi, aka Joss, showed up on his doorstep ordering him to let her inside.”

Their stories were nothing like ours. She wasn’t married or asking to move in with me. We were just doing our thing and getting closer with each passing day.

Seth and I looked at each other and chuckled. “You’re so full of shit, Gabe,” I stated.

“Okay.” He grinned. “When something goes down with you and Tessa, you owe me a grand.”

“Speaking of a grand,” I said, thinking about the fact that Tessa’s boss wanted her to go with him to a fight tomorrow night. “Since you’re getting married on Saturday, what are we doing for a bachelor party?”

Paul shrugged. “Nothing.”

“We can’t do nothing,” I stated.

“Yeah,” Gabe agreed. “Not after you stripped me down to my boxers and made me run in the fucking woods with you all shooting paintballs at me.”

Paul laughed. “That was epic.”

“And I warned you that paybacks are a bitch.”

“We don’t have time to do anything,” Paul stated back to Gabe.

“We can go to the fight tomorrow,” I suggested.

“What fight?” Seth asked.

“Steven “The Predator” Williams versus George “The Thunderstorm” Campbell,” I replied. So, I might have gone home after dropping Tessa off and looked into what fight she was going to. I had to admit, I was a little jealous that she was going out with another man, even if it was her boss. “At the arena. There are tickets still available.”

“I’m in,” Gabe agreed.

“Me, too,” Seth replied.

“I’ll get Nick and Brad to come, too,” I said. “It will be fun.”

“It’s not paying you back for my shit,” Gabe stated. “But going to a fight does sound like fun, and I’ll have plenty of time to pay your ass back.”