The Men Next Door

Ch 8 - Luca

I was dying of boredom, minutes away from submitting an adoption request for a random cat I didn't need, when I got a text from Campbell about the half-formed plans we'd made the night before. It had slipped my mind by the time I finally got home from the gym, exhausted from a combo of lifting and cardio and beyond ready to sleep. But I was more than happy to see her name on my screen, and after a little bit of primping, I was tailing her to get apps and drinks with some chick named Addy.

Girls' night out or not, hanging with Bella sounded much better than buying kitty litter once a month. And the way her face scrunched up when she was confused was way cuter than the calico I'd been looking at, too.

"This is it, I think," she said hesitantly. "The place she picked doesn't have an actual name, so I'm a little lost."

"Is it a speakeasy or something?"

She nodded. "No secret code or anything, but it's hidden from the street. Addy said we're supposed to go in at the neon sign, then walk through the curtains to our right."

"You're going first," I teased. My hands closed in on her arms for just long enough to move her between me and the glowing pink letters that clearly read 'psychic.' "I'm not about to get cursed by some voodoo magic if we've got the wrong spot."

"Or," Bella started with a laugh, "we can go in together." She held out a hand, looking over her shoulder at me expectantly, and it took me longer than I'd like to admit to take the hint. But when I finally placed my palm in hers, she tugged me right up next to her and led the way into the eerily dark hall.

Thankfully, there was no weird spiritual shit happening behind the veil...unless you count the alcoholic kind of spirits. We were still early for a night out, but there were already a few rowdy tables full of finance bros, dressed to the nines to suit the surprisingly classy decor. And then there was the cozy, backlit bar, where a small-but-mighty looking brunette was sipping on a long-stemmed drink. The big, bearded guy next to her looked completely out of place against the rest of the clientele, and with the way he was awkwardly leaning into her space while she protected the mouth of her glass, it seemed like he was out of his depth, too.

"That's Addy," Bella said, pointing at the bar. Lowering her voice, she added, "But I have no idea who the guy is."

"Not her boyfriend?" I asked.

"Definitely not," she whispered back, dropping my hand as we approached her friend. The small sting of rejection didn't have time to take root before Addy's eyes met mine and lit up with something like relief.

"Babe!" she said, jumping out of her seat and wrapping an arm around me. "I'm so glad you could make it!"

What the fuck?

"Um, yeah. Me too," I replied, looking at Big Beard warily. I wasn't really eager to throw a punch, but I had four older brothers who gave me shit for years. And three older sisters who weren't afraid to bite and kick and scratch, either. Being the young, annoying one in a family as big as ours basically served as a lifetime of WWE training. I could hold my own if I needed to. "Everything okay?"

"I was just telling this very nice man that you were on your way." She nodded toward Sir Drunks-A-Lot, and he narrowed his eyes at me like I was the one making his night worse. "He didn't believe me."

"Well, I'm here now," I said, pulling her a little closer.

"And I was here first," he argued.

The middle words were all kinds of smushed together, and I could smell the liquor on his breath the moment he opened his mouth. It made me uneasy. I hoped Addy hadn't gotten there much earlier than us, and either way, I was glad Campbell hadn't made the trek alone. Finance bro one and two clearly weren't going to help, nor were their buddies in the trendy, too short suit pants. And something told me this guy wouldn't have been deterred by another woman showing up and telling him she wasn't interested, so Luca to the rescue, I guess.