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She smirks, and rears back, throwing the ball with deadly accuracy at the button. I realize that she missed the first time on purpose as she hits the button and he goes falling into the water. She takes a bow, and puts her hands up in victory as the crowd in line cheers for her.
“I guess I’m up,” I say. “Frankie, will you check on how the line is moving? I want to make sure that we’re still turning people over.”
He salutes, pulling his dry shirt back over his head. “Will do, boss.”
I head over to the booth and I say to the people lining up to try to dunk, “I’ll stay for three dunks, good luck!” I strip off my shirt and shoes and take my place sitting on the flimsy little board and watch as people buy the balls to try to sink me.
I should have agreed to just one, because the second guy who steps up to the line sinks me. I’m plunged into cold water and I come up gasping. Okay. I hold up one finger to the crowd so they know. Someone with a big camera snaps a picture, and I know that my picture is going to be somewhere tomorrow, soaking wet. Probably in a tabloid story of some kind. Frankie and Wallace too, for that matter.
It takes another ten minutes for me to get dunked the second time, this time by a petite girl that no one suspected would actually do it. “That’s two!” I call.
Water is streaming down my face as I climb back up to my perch, making sure it’s stable again. I wipe my hand across my face as I sit down again, and then I go perfectly still.
Because Diamond is standing at the front of the line, smiling. And in a throw that makes it look easy, she dunks me my third and final time.
8
Diamond
Liz was right, this is fun. I was sulking in my apartment today, since the salon I currently work at is closed on Labor Day. I wasn’t planning on doing anything or seeing anyone after the baby shower. All I wanted to do was sleep. But when Liz called and said she wanted to drive over to Green Hills, a town about a half hour from Eastborough, I decided to drag my ass out of bed and go.
I mean sure, part of it was that she promised to buy me alcohol, but another part of me knew that I really needed to get out of my apartment. And this was a great idea. There’s a mini-street fair in front of the bar Liz takes us to. I’ve heard of this place for a few years now, but I’ve never been. First Shot, where the first shot is free. I’ve heard they’re all over the place, and I actually do think that I saw one while I was in Nashville. But I’ve never been in the right place at the right time.
This is their flagship bar, and they’ve really gone all out to please the crowds. Which is good because I’ve never seen a line this long to get into a bar before. But there’s free water, chips and salsa, and a bunch of fair games raising money for a good cause to keep the crowd entertained.
The dunk tank is the favorite because they’re dunking local celebrities and people who work at the bar. Liz tells me a little bit about it while we wait, the three friends who had the idea to do it together, and never expected it to take off the way it did, but now that it has, they’re doing everything they can to keep the brand exciting and fresh.
She points out the owners who take their turns in the dunk tank. They both are tall and handsome, and they get dunked by women who it turns out are their wives. “How do you know so much about them?” I ask her.
“They’re popular,” she says. “The stuff they do gets reported on pop culture sites. Three hot men who run the most popular bars in the country? It doesn’t even matter that two of them are off the market now; they’re going to get attention.”
“Fair enough.” There’s a commotion in the crowd, and I look up to see a third man climbing up into the tank. “The third owner, I presume?”
“Probably,” Liz says.
He looks out into the crowd, and I think my heart stops beating. Oh my God. It’s Glenn. It’s fucking Glenn. Or should I say the Glenn that fucked me so well I can’t stop thinking about it. He’s shirtless and barefoot, and I can’t stop staring at him. I honestly thought I would never see him again, and now I know not only that he lives close to me, but he’s a millionaire. I knew he was rich, but this?
