My mother’s soft wrinkled hand rubbed mine. “That would be perfect, Constance, thank you. Honey, don’t worry about me. Just make sure you give the newlyweds a kiss for me and tell them I expect a postcard from Asia. Now go enjoy yourself, there are some lovely young women chatting with Sierra by the band. Maybe you should introduce yourself.”
I kissed the meddler’s hand and said, “Goodnight, Ma.” Then, because I was my mother’s son, always a gentleman, I politely kissed the ice queen.
“Asher, good seeing you. Please do apologize to my son for me. It must have slipped my mind, but I have an early charity event back in the city tomorrow or else I would have loved to have attended brunch and seen them off.”
Right, because he wanted to spend any more time with your nasty ass. She half looked like she believed the bullshit oozing from her own mouth, as if she forgot Chase despised her. He would rot in hell before he ever forgave her for what she did. Maybe she needed to pay a visit to my dad’s neurologist or maybe the mortification of finding out your dearly deceased jerk-off husband had been far from faithful made her delusional. Either way, the woman never ceased to amaze me.
“Sure, I’ll pass on the message.” Ahem, bullshit.
After seeing them safely out, I inadvertently scoped out the crew my mother was talking about. She was correct about one thing—they were lovely. I recognized most of them as Lili and Chase’s hospital friends from Philadelphia, two of which gabbed about nothing but medical shit and were most definitely single. Completely irrelevant because they weren’t who caught my eye. The band behind them was busy packing up their equipment for the night. I smirked, remembering four teenage friends rocking out just for the sake of rocking out, back when life was fair. My temporary alcohol-induced nostalgia got interrupted when the lead singer, whose sultry voice grabbed my attention multiple times throughout the evening, leaned over to close a guitar case. Her tight black leather pants rode just low enough to see her inked stamp, while her long blonde hair kept slipping from its loose clip. Mmm. Now, she was someone who needed an introduction. After all, I was a son who followed his mother’s advice.
Chapter 2 Toilet Paper
“You should have told me you had a wedding last night, I would’ve gone with you.” Randi swiveled on her bar stool and looked me dead in the eyes. Oh shit, that was a sign of attachment. Guess I should enjoy her tonight because by tomorrow morning she was sayonara.
“Yeah, I don’t do wedding dates, sorry.” Just being honest. I could have said, ‘then I wouldn’t have been able to bag the gorgeous singer all night and this morning’ but I didn’t. She turned back to face the bar, but not before she pouted her extremely plump, over-injected lips. But, man, did they feel good around my cock. More like an honest asshole. “You need another drink, sweetheart?”
“I’m gonna hit the ladies’ room and then I’ll take another one of those yummy rum and Cokes.” She ran her obscenely long nail down my cheek before pressing her lips to mine. “Don’t miss me.” She flipped her streaky blonde hair, straightened her very short skirt, and left me to chug my beer while I admired her fantastic ass wiggle away. The one I would be watching my body slap against in a couple of hours. Ok, total asshole.
I tipped my head back¸ letting the remaining liquid slide down my throat and stuck up my finger to signal the bartender. He raised his brow from across the bar and nodded. He knew what I wanted; I had been coming here for years. It was conveniently located just a block from my apartment, so stumbling home with the chick of the night was easy.
“What’s up, Ash? You aren’t usually here on a Sunday.” Dave took care of business and slid down our drinks.
“My buddy got married last night out on the Cape. Figured I would take advantage of the long weekend since I get to sleep in tomorrow.”
“Nice. Congrats. And I’d be sleeping in if that hot piece of ass was in my bed, too.”
I laughed and raised my beer in acknowledgement. I kept my you-can-have-her-after-tonight comment to myself. I cringed thinking about that look she gave me earlier. It screamed ‘I want a relationship.’ That sucked. She was a good time, especially when we were on the same page. She seemed to have skipped ahead. A relationship was the last thing on my radar. I do drinks. I do dancing, I do gentleman-like things and I fuck—period. Life was short. I wasn’t making any promises I couldn’t keep.
I leaned back and glanced up at the game. No wonder the bar was packed, the Red Sox were on. Too bad they weren’t playing some pinstripes. Depending on my mood, I loved toying with Dave, feigning Yankee loyalty. Truth be told, I preferred sports that raised my pulse more than two beats above baseline. Boxing, football, hockey—hell, even sex. Now those were more my speed. Speaking of hockey, my girl Lil owed me one. She was probably a bigger fan than I was and I made sure Chase came through for her birthday last month with Bruins season tickets. Since he didn’t know the difference, a luxury box it was. God knew the loser could afford it.
We were going to be doing some serious hockey now that they lived in Boston, and more importantly, since Chase was back. His random Philadelphia stint never really made any sense anyway. I got that Boston held some serious baggage. Shit, we all felt that weight. It was a heaviness that never waned. His sister Kimi had been shipped here to rot after the car accident and ultimately left to die. It was brutal. No, it was just wrong. All of it. But even after she passed, Chase stayed to finish med school, residency, and fellowship. He buried himself in a lab and developed a medical device to honor his twin. And I worked my ass off, investing every leftover penny he had from being one of those ‘trust fund’ grandkids to make sure his little project turned into a whole hell of a lot more. As a son of a self-made businessman, that part came easy. Being a newbie junior associate at a leading law firm, not so much. I harassed and picked the brain of every senior tax, patent, real estate, and corporate partner. Not to mention stepping on a shitload of toes along the way. That being said, KimCore Medical stood a half-mile away and was a leading force in traumatic brain injury research.
It was a sick accomplishment for both of us, but I didn’t see it that way. Kimi would have done twice that for any of us, no questions asked, and most likely under the radar. Scratch that, at eighteen, who knew a damn thing about anything? She was all heart and never got a chance to be more. That was a tough pill to swallow, one that still singed the back of my throat, but choked the life out of my best friend until he couldn’t take any more. Thus, the random Philadelphia stint, which turned out to be the best thing for him. He learned to breathe again, and his new air turned out to be pure sweet. I would never say it to him, but Lili reminded me a lot of Kimi. Not in the looks department because that would have been weird and incestuous, but in personality. Lil was all strength, and all about everyone else, making her choice of profession very fitting. Sadly though, like his twin sister, life had dealt his new bride her own shitty hand that robbed her from finishing her masters in social work in Boston. Needless to say, two minutes after Lili woke up from a coma last year, Chase wasted no time burying his demons. He hauled ass back here, determined to give his woman back every lost dream. Lil enrolled in classes right away, Chase took a faculty position at Boston General, and reassumed his position at KimCore. I got my friend back and could finally increase my nightly sleep time back to five hours.