Catching Avery

by M. E. Clayton

  “Ha. Ha,” Izzy deadpanned.

  Even though I knew no one could hear us with the music beginning for the night, I leaned forward on the table towards my friends. “Okay, are we seriously going to do this?”

  “Chickening out already?” Quinn taunted, taking the first drink of her beer. Isabella remained silent, letting me continue.

  “No, I’m not chickening out. I’m just saying that if we’re really going to do this and share our darkest fantasies with a stranger, I’m going to need shots to get through this.” I sat back and took another drink of my beer.

  “Darkest fantasies?” Izzy’s eyebrows reached for her hairline. “I thought you guys were joking about that. I figured we were starting off light and easy, you know…glitter and peanut butter?”

  “We nixed the glitter, remember?” Quinn reminded her.

  “Point being, I’d like to save my darkest fantasies for my husband. You know, since he’ll be legally bound to me he won’t be able to just leave me once I voiced them.”

  “No, but he would be legally able to commit you to any lovely institute of his choosing, “I pointed out.

  “Only if he made it out of the conversation alive,” she countered. She had a good point.

  “Okay, okay. No matter which fantasy we choose to fulfill tonight, I agree with Ace. It’s more than likely going to take a little bit of liquid courage and beers won’t cut it.” Q started to signal a cocktail waitress that just started making her rounds. “Tequila?”

  Isabella smiled. “Hell, yeah!” In case you didn’t notice that beaming smile, Izzy was a tequila fan. She drank water like a fanatic, so she’s never had a hangover to regret tequila the next morning like most people.

  Quinn looked over at me for confirmation. “I’m not going to get through this night with anything less,” I assured her.

  Quinn hooted as the waitress made her way to our table. “My name is Rhonda, what can I get for you ladies?” She was a lovely blonde, with a welcoming smile.

  “Hi Rhonda, I am Quinn and these are my friends, Isabella and Avery, and we are in dire need of tequila shots.”

  “I don’t know about dire need…” Izzy muttered.

  Rhonda laughed a little. “Which brand would you guys like?”

  “Patron Silver, please, and we’ll pay as we go along. No tab.” Quinn added, “Also, we’ll be refilling our buckets as they empty.”

  Rhonda raised her brows in surprised. “Drinking away a broken heart or are you females just professionals?”

  “Professionals,” Quinn clarified. “I’m quite fond of my liver and I wouldn’t destroy it for any man. Any man.”

  This time Rhonda let out a good natured laugh. “Three Patron Silvers coming right up, ladies.” She then proceeded to turn around and head to the bar to get our shots.

  “So, we’re really going to do this, huh?” Isabella confirmed, taking a big drink of her beer.

  “Yep.” Q looked around the club for fellow adventurers. “It’ll be great, Izzy. Just imagine…going home with a man who is going to please you exactly the way you want? Even if it is NC-17, it’ll still be all about you. How fucking awesome would that be?”

  “Oh, so we’re going to be able to be men tonight. Is that what you’re saying?” I quipped.

  Quinn laughed, while Isabella got serious. “Avery, not all men are selfish like Eric.”

  “I know that.” I didn’t want to think about Eric right now, it would totally kill my mission to have a good time tonight. “It’s just men are so…ugh!”

  “No, men are not ugh. Men are fantastic. Men are challenging. Men are the neatest creatures on earth. We are what make them stupid,” Quinn defended. “If women just had the nerve to tell a man what she wanted and the confidence to not expect less, men and women would get along famously.”

  “So, it’s all us?” No way was I taking blame for Eric being an insensitive, cheating asshole.

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying-”

  Rhonda came back with our shots and placed one in front of each of us. “That’ll be twenty-four.” Iz handed over thirty and told her to keep the change. “Thank you. Enjoy, ladies.” Smiling, she walked off.

  Quinn went on to finish her life lesson, “All I’m saying is that if men felt women were strong enough to take it, maybe they would be more honest with us and communication could be a real thing in relationships and not up there with mystical unicorns.” Quinn got ready to take her shot. “Maybe, had you told Eric to go fuck himself the first time he finished in bed before you, and instead of being ‘sensitive’ to his quick draws, the sex and your relationship would have been better. Instead, you kept quiet to spare his feelings, then stop giving it up because he sucked in bed, which helped lead to him cheating on you. I’m not trying to be a dick here, Ace, but some of that disaster was on you too.”

  And that was Quinn, honest no matter whom the recipient was. It was one of the reasons I loved her so much. Her honestly, whether hurtful or not, always made me a better version of myself. “You’re right, as always,” I agreed. I reached for my shot. “Okay, hoes. Let’s do this!”

  As one, we took our shots together and got this ridiculous night started.

  Chapter 4

  Gluttony: Because who the hell stops at only one drink? Weirdoes, that's who!

  Avery~

  Two bucket of beers and three tequila shots later, my buzz was going full force. After our second shot, we proceeded to dance a couple of times and the DJ was good. He played a perfect mix of dance music and didn’t slow anything down. For the kind of night Q, Izzy and I had planned for ourselves, slow music would not do. It was also creeping up on eleven o’clock. We needed to make a move soon.

  We had just downed our fourth shot of the night when Quinn started kicking things off. “Okay ladies…the night is a wasting away. We need to start stalking our prey.” She began looking around the club for who looked single and available. Quinn didn’t have particular type. She really did appreciate men as a species. She was very casual in her dating life because she wasn’t looking for a commitment. She was very set on the belief that if you didn’t get serious, then you could never be left. She had abandonment issues stemming from the deaths of her parents, I think.

  Isabella was a little more serious about her dating life. She was more selective about who she dated because, while she wasn’t looking for forever, she didn’t appreciate games. She was always looking for a man who would just date her without any expectation of happily-ever-after. She was a commitmentphobe. Her mother spent her whole life waiting for Izzy’s dad to make an honest woman out of her, and it still hasn’t come to be. Isabella once claimed she would never be a slave to that kind of relationship, so…no commitment; no expectation.

  One of my issues-because I did have way more than just one-was that I had trust issues. My parents were still together, but my father had had an affair when I was fourteen, and while my parents worked through it, it altered our family dynamics completely. I didn’t understand how such a great father, friend and husband (up until that point) could make such a horrible decision. It made me question everything. I mean, how was I supposed to be able to tell the bad guys from the good guys now? The fact was that I couldn’t. This made it very difficult for me to be completely free with men. Quinn was partially right. Eric hadn’t been the only one responsible for our failed relationship.

  Maybe stranger sex was the way to go.

  “So, how does this work?” Isabella asked, looking around the club, same as Quinn. “We just walked up to them and ask if they want to help us fulfill our fantasy of the night?”

  I knew I was borderline drunk when that approach appealed to me. “That strategy sounds just as good as any. Maybe we buy them a drink or something before bringing up the peanut butter.”

  Quinn put on her serious face. “We have to be smart about this if this is going to work-”

  “Seriously,” I interrupted. “We boycotted smart choices back at Izzy’s when we c
ame up with this stupid plan.”

  Quinn waved my outburst away. “By smart, I mean we can’t scare them off and being that forward may give them second thoughts.”

  Iz lifted her perfectly arched left brow. “You’re seriously going to tell me that if a man had a fairly decent looking female approach him and ask him to make all her fantasies come true, he would balk?”

  “All?” I asked confused. “I thought we were rationing out our fantasies and limiting tonight to just one.” I think I needed another shot. Asking for more than one fantasy fulfillment a night seemed a bit gluttonous.

  “One, ten, twenty…you know what I mean,” Quinn clarified, all exasperated-like.

  “Twenty? You have twenty unfulfilled fantasies?” I asked, all of the sudden feeling very virginal. I turned to Isabella. “Iz, how many do you freaking have?”

  She drew in her brows, giving it serious consideration. “There’s a top three that I have in rotation when I’m solo loving, but I’d have to say I have at least six real ones I’d like to try.”

  “Will you focus, Ace?” Quinn tried bringing me back to the topic at hand.

  I refused to budge. “Do you really have twenty, Quinn?” I seriously wanted to know.

  “No! I have about ten like any healthy woman,” she replied.

  “Well, if ten is healthy, I must be slightly sick with only my six,” Isabella said, seeming disappointed in her number.

  “Then I must be anorexic, because I don’t even have six in my line up,” I confessed. I need to start watching more porn. I didn’t want to be anorexic.

  “Sweet Baby Jesus, you two.” Q waved over Rhonda again.

  “Ready for another round?” Rhonda started reaching around the table, picking up our empties.

  “Yes, please. Both beer and shots, if you don’t mind.” Quinn apparently was on a mission of courage.

  “Coming right up,” and off she went to get our round.

  Quinn went back to scouring over the club. “First, let’s find the-” Quinn stopped, her big, doe eyes rounding to impossible proportions.

  “What?” I grabbed her arm, alarmed. “What is it, Q?”

  “Don’t look.” But, of course, the first thing Iz and I do is start to look around. “Goddamn you fools, I said don’t look as in the opposite of look!” Quinn whisper yelled.

  “Well, what the fuck is it,” Isabella demanded and I knew Iz was on her way to drunksville. She only cussed when she was drunk or angry. She didn’t have the mental capacity to monitor her words when she was under the influence of alcohol or rage.

  Q leaned in. “Just promise me you guys won’t look all obvious like.”

  “Us promise?” Isabella asked. “This from the woman who pisses all over sacred pinky swears?”

  Quinn threw her hands up. “We can redo that one later and I’ll pinky swear to pinky swear. Now will you shut up and listen for a minute!”

  I glanced over at Iz. “This must be good.”

  “Up on the balcony floor, in the room that’s decorated in blue, are our bosses,” she divulged.

  Rhonda chose that moment to arrive with our round of drinks. “Here you go, ladies.” I passed her enough to cover the shots and beers and still leave enough for her tip. She hesitated for a second.

  “Am I short?” I went to go into my purse again.

  “Oh, no, no, no,” she stammered, shaking her head. “I just….it’s just, well, you girls seem so cool and I just wanted to…” She bit her lower lip. “When you guys feel like you’ve had enough, please let me know so that I can call you a cab and have one of the bouncers see you guys outside. I wouldn’t want anything unsavory happening to you girls, ya know?”

  “Awwwwwe,” I started, “that is so sweet, Rhonda.” Drunk me leaned over and gave her a kiss on her cheek. “You got a deal!”

  “Great.” Then she sashayed her way to her next table.

  I looked back at Quinn and Izzy. “How sweet was that?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah…Hallmark worthy and everything. Now can we get back to the discussion at hand?” Quinn frustratingly asked.

  Isabella-loving hip hop the way she did-started rapping at that. “Perfection is perfected, so I’ma let ‘em understand, from a young G’s perspective and before me dig out a bitch I have to find a contraceptive.”

  And because this song is da shit, I couldn’t help myself. “You never know she could be earnin’ her man, and learnin’ her man, and at the same time burnin’ her man.”

  Then together, “Now you know I ain’t with that shit, Lieutenant, ain’t no pussy good enough to get burnt while I’m up in it.”

  Before we could continue, Quinn interrupted. “And it’s ‘but, uh back to the lecture at hand.’ not discussion, you weirdos,” Q corrected.

  We both just looked at her.

  She was no match for us. “And that’s realer than Real-Deal Holyfield and now you hooka’s and hoe’s know how I feel. Well if it’s good enough to get broke off a proper chunk, I’ll take a small piece of some of that funky stuff.”

  Izzy and I finally join in with her. “It’s like this and like that and like this and uh, it’s like this and like that and like this and uh, it’s like this and like that and like this and uh. Dre, creep to the mic like a phantom.” I couldn’t hold in my laugh any longer ruining our flow. Quinn and Izzy immediately joined in.

  “Okay, okay, okay,” Quinn started calming down.” As I was saying, our bosses are drinking up in the VIP rooms.” Quinn’s directed us upward with her eyes.

  I finally stopped laughing. “Well, since I’ve been instructed that I can’t look, are you sure it’s them?” While Xavier’s was a nice place, it seemed a little too common folk for Mr. Savage, Mr. Moretti and Mr. Alexander. Of course, I didn’t know them personally, so maybe it was an unfair assessment.

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Q confirmed. “I mean, you’ve vibrated to their cover picture on Forbes before, would you mistake them?”

  Shocked that she would bring that up, I stink-eyed her. “Is nothing sacred with you? I told you that in confidence!”

  “It’s not confidential if you told Iz, too,” she pointed out.

  Isabella just shook her head. “It all started with the violation of the pinky swear.”

  “Anyway,” Q stressed. “It’s them. Should we leave?”

  “Why?” this from Izzy, as she drowned her shot.

  “Because they are our bosses and isn’t it inappropriate for them to see us face down drunk and picking up random dick?” Q took her shot next.

  “First of all, we’re not face down drunk, and second, we’re off the clock. We’re not management, Quinn. It’s not like we’re wearing our key cards around our necks advertising that we work for SMA. Fifty bucks they don’t even know who we are.”

  “She’s got a point, Q,” Isabella agreed. “They can’t reprimand you for things you do off the clock. That’s not how it works.”

  “Okay, maybe you guys are right.” Quinn was still taking sly glances upwards towards the rooms.

  “I can’t take this anymore.” Izzy jumped off her seat. “Before we start traumatizing random innocent men, I’m heading to the bathroom to make sure there’s no lipstick on my teeth. Plus, I’ll be able to sneak a peek at the men who control your destinies. Buahahahahaha,” she started laughing like a ghoul.

  “Idiot,” I mumbled.

  “I’m coming with.” Q jumped off her seat, as well. ”You coming?”

  “No. I don’t care if I have lipstick all over my teeth.” I reached for another beer. “Besides, someone might snag our table. It’s getting packed in here.”

  “Okay, we’ll be right back,” Izzy promised.

  As they made their way towards the restroom, I noticed Isabella quickly glancing upstairs. She tripped upon herself at the sight and I had to laugh. They had that effect on women.

  I wanted so badly to look up, but I wanted to be able to play ignorance if this turned out badly for Q and me. Besides, I was fairly certain those
three had their night already planned and it didn’t include two of their employees.

  And as much as it pained my female ego, I had no doubt I was right, and those three up there had no inkling of who Q and I were. I finally took my shot and toasted, sadly, to being unnoticeable.

  Nicholas~

  I knew the girls were off limits, but it didn’t stop me from passing glances their way all night, though. They were a sight to behold, especially when they would dance. They were obviously having a good time, but they were very carefree when they danced….and sexy.

  “What are you looking at over there, Sav?”

  I turned away from the front glass wall to look over at Chase. “What do you think?”

  Julian sighed. “Again, off limits. Look elsewhere. Pick someone else. Try door number two. How many different ways do I need to explain it to you fools?”

  Chase kicked his feet up on the table. “More than once, because I have been looking at that front door most the night for something else to catch my eye, and my eyes keeps finding their way back to a particular table that is occupied by a particular trio of females.”

  “Admittedly, it’s been awhile since I’ve read it, but do we have a no fraternizing policy clause in the employee handbook at work?” I asked, still looking at the girls.

  “No,” Julian confirmed.” But what we do have is a no bullshit drama pact we made when we started this company. That takes precedence over any employee handbook.”

  “How do you know they would be drama?” Chase leaned up to be able to look over at their table. “How do you know they’re not just here for a one night stand, too?”

  I turned to look at Julian. “Yeah, how do you know?” Julian raised both his brows at me. It wasn’t often I supported Chase in his arguments,-because Chase was usually ridiculous with his shit-but, damn if my dick didn’t twitch every time I looked over at Avery.

  Much to Julian’s annoyance, Chase and I had harassed him into giving us Avery’s and Quinn’s name. We still didn’t know the name of the third girl, but I didn’t need her name. I was fixated on Avery and Avery only. I couldn’t make out much from the distance, but what I could make out was enough to entice me.