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Ben
A text from Duncanis waiting for me when I finish work on Friday. After reading it, I’m tempted to throw my phone at the wall in frustration. Instead, I slide it into my back pocket, stand there cracking my knuckles for a moment, then pull the damn thing out again and dial Seb’s number. I know he’s supposed to be working, but I need to make sure he’s still heading out with me tonight.
“I was just about to call you,” Seb says. “Boss wants me to stay late, so I’m not going to make it tonight.”
“Are you serious?”
Now I really want to throw my phone at the wall. The only thing stopping me is the look on Lainey’s face when she thought I’d ignored her and her messages. I don’t want her to try and fail to get in touch with me again.
“Sorry, man. I have to make rent this week, and you know I’m trying to pay my car off. We have tomorrow night. I’d never miss a Saturday night.”
Duncan, Seb, and I went out every Saturday night before I started dating Amber. After the break-up, we started going out on Friday and Saturday nights. Maybe it was wrong for me to expect that it would stay that way forever, but it’s a distraction. One I desperately need.
“I know. And you have a decent excuse for backing out tonight, but this is the second Friday in a row Duncan has cancelled, and he said he can’t make it tomorrow, either.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“He says he’s got some family stuff happening tonight and he can’t get out of it.”
He knows I won’t ask more questions when it comes to his family, as I’ve avoided all of them since Amber broke up with me. It just seems a little convenient that Duncan keeps using them as a reason to cancel. He’s never cared about family time on a Saturday before.
“I think he’s seeing someone,” I say.
“Nah, he’d tell us if he was,” Seb says.
“Would he?”
“Doesn’t make sense why he wouldn’t, unless she’s some hideous sea monster he’s embarrassed to be seen with.”
“Whatever. I want to go out.”
“Then go out without us. You’re good at that lone wolf shit.”
“Randall hauled me over the coals again today for something I didn’t do. I’m so sick of his shit. I need to drink and vent to my mates.”
The boss’s son has a chip on his shoulder and he takes it out on me. Little pissant thinks he’s so much better than me. If he was, he wouldn’t be managing his father’s little security company. Instead, he’d actually have a semi-decent job. Just because he’s pissed off at his old man for forcing him into the business doesn’t give him the right to make up crap and tell me off for it.
“It’s my second warning for something I haven’t done,” I say.
“The guy’s a douche nozzle.”
“The question is: what do I do about it?”
“I don’t know, man. I’m real sorry I can’t make it tonight, but I’ll brainstorm with you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. Tomorrow.”
“Why don’t you go out with Lainey? Your hot girlfriend?”
“She’s not my girlfriend, and you know it.”
“You like her, you talk to her, and you’re not having sex with her. Sounds like a girlfriend to me.”
“Whatever.”
Three weeks ago, I had dinner with Lainey at Barnaby’s. The guys saw me with her before she left and Seb has been hanging shit on me about it ever since. He doesn’t believe I have a woman in my life I’m just friends with. I’m not sure I believe it, either, but she’s called me a couple of times since then to talk. I might be getting the hang of this male-female friendship stuff.
“Yeah, I might do that.”
