Thoughtful(21)

Griffin smacked my shoulder and raised his eyebrows, like I wouldn’t believe what happened next. While I wasn’t sure what might have gone down during the game, I had a pretty good idea how his story ended. I’d heard variations of this before.

Leaning in, Griffin told me, “She eye-fucked me for a good twenty minutes. I was hard as a fucking rock!” He closed his eyes like he was remembering…or he was getting hard thinking about it. I seriously hoped not. Opening his eyes, he told us, “This girl, damn, she had the best rack I’ve ever seen.” About a foot and a half away from his chest, he mimed boobs with his hands. “And the shortest skirt too. Everybody around us was completely wasted, so I ducked under the table and shoved that skirt as high as it would go. Then I grabbed my beer bottle and stuck—”

Out of the corner of my eye, I happened to notice people approaching the table. I instinctively smacked Griffin across the chest to get him to shut up. His stories usually weren’t safe for mixed company, especially with what I was sure he’d done with that bottle.

While Griffin looked confused, I glanced over to see Denny and Kiera standing at the end of the table. Kiera was bright red and looked like she wanted to be anywhere but here. She’d definitely heard him then.

“Dude…I’m getting to the good part, hold on.”

He looked like he was about to resume his story, so I quickly interrupted. “Griff…” I pointed at our new arrivals. “My new roommates are here.”

“Oh yeah…roommates.” Griffin gave them a cursory glance, then turned back to me with a pout. “I miss Joey, man…She was hot! Seriously, why did you have to tap that? Not that I blame you, but—”

I quickly cut him off with a hard rap on the chest. Griffin could get exceedingly graphic if left unchecked. And I didn’t really want Kiera to know what happened with Joey. She wouldn’t understand. She’d think I was a pig. Wait, what? It shouldn’t matter what she thought of me. With a surprising amount of effort, I shoved that thought out of my mind.

Ignoring Griffin’s annoyance, I pointed up at my roommates. “Guys, this is my friend Denny and his girlfriend, Kiera.”

I looked around for more chairs while Denny and Kiera said their hellos. Spotting some at the table across from us, I stood up and walked over to where a couple of girls were staring our way. Both women started getting a little frantic as I approached, so I figured they were fans. With a disarming smile on my lips, I walked over to the girl beside the two empty chairs I needed. I leaned over the back of her chair so I could talk directly into her ear; it was pretty noisy in here.

She was shaking as I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Sorry to intrude, but would it be all right with you if I took a couple of your chairs for my friends?” She nodded that it was okay, and her friend giggled. I thanked her, straightened, then grabbed the two chairs for Kiera and Denny. There was a lot of tittering behind me as I walked away.

Kiera was watching me as I set the chairs at the end of the table. She seemed a little uncomfortable with the friendly flirting I’d done to get the chairs. “Here, have a seat.” Kiera frowned as she took a seat, and I had to stop myself from laughing. She was even cuter when she was uneasy.

When I caught Rita looking my way, I motioned to her to send two more beers to the table. She gave me an Anything for you smile, grabbed some beers, and handed them to Jenny. I turned to Denny while Jenny worked her way over to us. “So, what are you going to be doing at your new job anyway?” I asked him.

Denny gave me an amused smile. “A little bit of everything.” He started going into the specifics of what he’d be doing for the advertising company, and I could hear both the nervousness and excitement in his voice. Since Kiera was sitting between us at the table, she was in my line of sight as I listened to Denny. It seemed like she’d heard his story before, so she was checking out the bar. Her eyes drifted over the front windows, plastered with neon bar signs, to the darkened stage, waiting for us to play. Then she shifted her attention to the bar at the other end of the room, where Rita was busy keeping everyone refreshed.

Jenny approached with the beers while Kiera was looking around. Jenny seemed rushed, and I understood why. Like it usually did before our set, the bar was quickly filling up with customers; the band was good for business. She handed Denny and Kiera their beers, then hurried off to the kitchen.

Sipping on her drink, Kiera started taking in the other half of the bar. Her curiosity was as endearing as her awkwardness. Thinking I was spending too much time eyeing Denny’s girlfriend, I did my best to tune her out and concentrate on having a conversation with Denny about why some commercials had absolutely nothing to do with the products they were selling.