Drunk Text

(Mason)

I put the beer bottle to my lips, but wasn’t exactly having it.

“You’ve been nursing that thing for a while,” Hunter pointed out.

I leaned against the two-seater round table and took a look around the bar. There was action everywhere, but I wasn’t in the goddamn mood.

“What the fuck is on your mind?” Hunter asked. “That thing with Malley?”

I looked at Hunter. I didn’t say a word.

“Brother, we can fix the situation there. One of the new guys fucked up the fuel line. Yeah, it sets us back, but not much. I know the artwork was a little sketchy, but that was a risk with what he wanted. Trying to get that black on deep black look… man, that’s always…”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I called and talked to him.”

“He was pissed. I know it. I see it on your face. Fuck that guy. He’s always pissed. And what happens? We do the work, we get it right, he pays, and he comes back.”

I nodded. “Yeah. Right.”

“So what’s the deal with you?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“Fuck yourself, then,” Hunter said. He walked away from the table, throwing me the finger.

I gave him a wave.

He and I fought like brothers. Shit, he was my brother. Closest thing I had to family. Every piece of my family had been ripped apart a long time ago. And then if it couldn’t get deeper, I lost someone else. The only one. Not the one.

I threw the beer bottle back and drank the piss warm beer.

That’s when someone showed up at the table.

Pretty little thing with a beer and a wink.

“You’re Mason,” she said.

“You caught me.”

She put up her finger into a gun and shot. “You don’t know me.”

“Does that matter?”

“You worked on a friend’s motorcycle. I was there when he picked it up.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Ex.”

“That’s the problem with boyfriends,” I said. “They always become ex’s. Don’t they?”

“Only the wrong ones,” the stranger said.

I turned and leaned against the table. “Let me buy you a drink.”

“Took you long enough.”

“You have no idea how long I can go.”

“Maybe I’ll find out,” she said.

“Oh, you will.”

There were two cures for whatever the fuck was wrong in my head.

Cold beer and a woman.

I now had both.

* * *

It wasn’t working.

She flirted. She drank. The little curls in her hair were cute. Her eyes were bright. She was more than willing for anything I wanted. Fuck, I could have taken her into the bathroom right there in the bar and put her up on the sink and went to town on her.

Yet I was still sipping what once was a fresh beer.

She made fifty comments about drinking faster than me. I had fifty comebacks about her being drunk and me being sober and in control. Stupid fucking comments, but the shit worked like gold.

Finally, she threw an arm around me and kissed me.

I never let a woman make the first move. That was amateur shit. You fucking wait that long then you’re better off paying your tab and going home to jerk off into the sink and feel ashamed as your jizz goes down the drain.

My hands grabbed her hips and I pushed her away.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“You stole my move,” I said.

“I’m only getting older.”

I nodded. “Then we should get out of here.”

“That sounds like a plan.”

She turned and I grabbed her wrist. I made her look at me again. “Listen. You got that one by me. That’s one. It doesn’t happen again. The second we leave this bar I am in control. Don’t fuck with me. You want to see my dark side and you will… but you don’t want to go any darker than you have to.”

“Jesus, you’re half terrifying,” she said.

“You haven’t seen a thing…”

My back pocket vibrated.

I let her go and looked around the bar, figuring it was Hunter texting me. We always had an agreement to give each other space. If he left, he’d shoot me a text. If I left, I’d do the same.

It wasn’t Hunter.

It was Violet. Texting me.

U home?

Two words and I studied like it was ten pages of Chinese.

“Give me a second,” I said to the woman without looking at her.

I turned.

What’s wrong?

I hated text messaging people. Those two words I wrote back could be taken in many ways. A general question or perceived as me being haste because I fucking cared.

Fuck that.

Violet texted back what felt like two hours later.

Nothing. Just hanging around. Was wondering if you wanted to have a drink

Now that text came as a surprise.

“Hey, Mason…”

I looked over my shoulder and nodded to the woman. I’m sure she dropped her name at some point that night, but I was going to break my neck trying to catch it - or her.

My thumbs went to work.

What do you need from me, babe?

There was something wrong. And I was concerned enough to let the world pause all around me while I waited.

That… well, that pissed me off.

Violet shot back at me with one word.

You

That was good enough for me.

I was on the move, breezing right by the woman like I didn’t even know who she was.

She grabbed at me, thinking I was making some kind of joke.

I froze and looked at her. There were an easy fifteen excuses that I could have given the woman to ease the sting of rejection.

But I didn’t give a shit.

“I’m leaving without you,” I said bluntly. “I have somewhere else better to be and possibly someone else to be with.”

Her jaw dropped and I thought she was going to slap me. Which I definitely deserved.

I got out of there before she could hit me.

A few minutes later it finally hit me.

I just bailed on guilt free wild sex… for Violet.