BRANDON’S POV
Anthony came striding in, grinning from one side of his face to the other. “Guess what, mate? We’re done here! Time to celebrate.”
“Done?” I picked up his head, half amused and obviously tired. “More like need twelve hours of sleep.”
“You can catch up on sleep when we’re dead. You’ve been in this office for days on end; enough’s enough. This evening, we hit the town, have a few drinks, and generally let off steam. And I really will not hear no for an answer.”
I learned one thing at least – arguing with one of Edward’s moods never paid. I had a barge-pole mentality, and it was best not to struggle after he had set his eyes on something. Besides, really, at that moment, a lot of drinks did not sound like a bad idea. “Fine, lots of drinks. But not getting crazy.”
Anthony grinned wickedly. True that “‘Wouldn’t dream of it, mate.”.
An hour later, having circled the town, they sat in the corner of one of its countless bars-this one, at any rate, being the one that they mostly inhabited, or seemed to have celebrated with unnumbered countings of Brandon’s victories.
This was the one that was mostly dark, save for the walls of low, softly murmured conversation that beat around and through it. I sipped the sure whiskey with his friends, letting the warming minute temperature of the alcohol swell into a pool in his stomach and tense the knots he’d allowed to build ever-so-slightly this week.
“I don’t mind admitting it, man,” Anthony rocked back a bit in his seat. “I just didn’t think we were going to quite pull that one off, but you did. You saved the day. Again.”
I shrugged and smiled modestly. “I wouldn’t have done it without you, Anthony. We do make a good team.”
“Yeah, damn right. To us, unstoppable.” He lifted his beer, saluting the two of them.
The clinking of glasses. I lowered him again for another closer look at the woman. He liked the solid, almost thick feeling of brotherly camaraderie that came over him every time he and Anthony visited each other or knocked at each other’s doors. Whatever life rolled his way, they had each other’s back.
“How’s married life, then? Last time we spoke, you weren’t far short of a tangled ball of twisted strings.”
I snickered, then looked up toward the ceiling, inhaled deeply, and dragged his hand back through his hair. “Y-yeah, ‘conflicted’ is a word for it. It’s just weird, Anthony.”
“Baby, that’s weird?” Anthony raised an eyebrow. “Other than the fact that your marriage was a business proposition?”
I neither confirmed nor denied, only a shrug before he began idly turning the whiskey between his hands, spinning the empty crystal tumbler on the table. “Right. That started out as a deal. But at some point along that dark and winding road, I started to feel things I wasn’t supposed to. Real things.”
“Wait, you’re saying. you’re in love with her?”
I paused for a long moment before finally nodding.
“Yeah, suppose so.”
Head thrown back, laughing like a hyena, Anthony fell into the space between them. “Man, I can’t believe it. Brandon Martinez, who swore up and down he’d never fall for a chick, now he’s tripping? On life? That’s some funny stuff, right there.”
A somewhat pained chuckle. “Shit, believe me, it’s not half as funny as it sounds. Hate to say it, but I didn’t plan for this, Anthony; it just happened. Now I’m stuck trying to figure out what the hell to do.”
Anthony finally dragged his gaze away from the TV and looked at me with some measure of seriousness. “This is huge.”
I nodded slowly as his brain started to process what Anthony had just said. He really had to admit it; of course, his friend was right, but to just lay himself out like that? Yeah, that did scare him. What if Natalie doesn’t feel the same way? What if it messes up everything
He had thought this, at least-that his brain was divagating down several paths that culminated in the expulsion of his breakfast, but now I just wanted to wrench the conversation onto any course that would allow him to think something quasi-positive about the both of them.
“But, hey. Enough of that heavy shit. We’re here to celebrate, remember? So, let’s get another round and forget all the complications for a bit.”
I rustled up a somewhat lame smile; “Yeah,” he mumbled, “another round does sound good.”
They ordered another round, but in a very few minutes, the alcohol was in, partnering with the sharp corners of Brandon’s nerves against a home invasion. What they said was in the way of nice easy chatter, which had nothing much to do with anything, but maybe old stories or jokes and just enough shop talk. He was actually starting to let up a bit when Anthony jabbed him in the ribs again, and this time wordless, jerked his chin to the far end of the bar.
“There. See her? That girl,” Anthony said in a whispering voice and with all the inflection of total reverence in his voice.
His eyes swept the length of the bar until they came to rest on a blonde beauty sitting alone at the far end of the bar. There was something about her that seemed to take total possession of a room. Everybody else seemed to fade into the background. Anthony could almost feel the drool rolling off his chin.
He continued looking at her for a moment more before letting out a sigh as he turned back to the guys. “She’s hot, and I am so going on her.”
I just rolled my eyes and couldn’t help smiling. “You’re absolutely impossible to teach, do you know that?”
“Guilty,” Anthony winked back at him. “Wish me luck, mate.”
Two minutes later and there he was: Anthony, his dimples flashing, his charm in overdrive. She had been speaking for what felt like all of two minutes, and he would whisk Anthony away before night fell.