Alex and Annie: A Bad Jokes Spinoff

Chapter 5 (Alex): An Easy, Pleasant Night

Shelby looked from Annie to me and her expression wasn't happy. "I just ran into Creighton—he said he can get us into the club on Saturday. As VIPs."

Now I had a dilemma. I wanted to go to the club to make sure Creighton didn't try anything with Annie but I didn't want to go with Shelby.

"We'll, I'm sure my date and I will see you and your date there," Annie said before walking away with a wave.

Shelby smiled sweetly at me. "Dinner first before the club?" she asked.

"You're welcome to go out to eat before you hit the club, but it won't be with me."

"Well, aren't you going?"

"Yeah, on my own. Not with a date."

Her smile I'd seen before on some serious clingers. "Bet I can get you to change your mind," she said. "Once you see me in my dress."

Which made me wonder what Annie was going to wear. I'd probably need to make sure her dress wasn't too revealing. There were a ton of assholes at clubs and I needed to keep them away. I didn't trust Creighton to watch out for her the way I would.

First, I walked off to find Creighton to get some information.

He told me what restaurant he was taking Annie to beforehand and what time, and coincidentally, it was the same one I'd been planning to go to before hitting the club.

"Hey, my sister and cousins and I were going to eat there. Why don't you and Annie join us and we can all go to the club after?"

"I've heard about your sister and cousins. They sound fun, so yeah, let's make it a party. Are any of them still single?"

Why would he care if my sister and cousins were single if Annie was his date?

"Why do you want to know? You're taking Annie as your date."

Creighton shrugged. "I keep my options open. Just in case."

"Not where Annie or my sister and cousins are concerned."

He nodded and backed away. "See you Saturday at seven at the restaurant."

With that handled, I needed to get Annie to stop acting mad. And find out what she planned to wear, which turned out to be a bad move.

"What exactly are you asking me, Alex?"

Annie normally had a very calm, even, sexy voice, but when I'd told her she might want to run her outfit past me first, her voice got irritated.

"How is it any business of yours what I wear to the club?"

Her tone didn't bother me because I'd grown up with the Bad Jokes and they were always pissy about something.

"I just don't want you to look too..."

"Too what?" She bit off the words. A good agent knows when to retreat, and I had gotten the message a bit too late.

"You know what? Never mind."

"I can't believe you, Alex! I can wear what I want and if I want to wear something that covers only the bare essentials, that's my business. Nothing I do concerns you."

"Right, for sure, absolutely. Have a good time Saturday."

Then I laid low until Saturday, wishing she'd answer my texts, but all I got back was fucking crickets. She stopped showing up in the break room and having lunch when I did. But she sure had time to go out to lunch with fucking Creighton two more times. She was going to see him Saturday so not sure why she needed to go to lunch with him.

If I wanted to talk with her, I had to wait by her car or catch her on the way into the office. If I just coincidentally happened to be going into work at the same time. I hadn't been sleeping well since she wasn't taking my nightly calls anymore, so I had to talk to her some way.

I figured she'd have to talk to me at the restaurant and at the club and we could get back to normal. Maybe she'd tell me what was bothering her because I missed her.

So, when Xane, Rory, Gracie, Justice and I walked into the restaurant and Annie and Creighton walked in just after us, I thought we'd have an easy, pleasant night.

But then Shelby walked in.