“Okay, you pu**y-whipped son-of-a-bitch. No excuses, we’re going to celebrate this, and you’re coming with us right now. You better have dollars in that wallet of yours because we’re going to Spanks!

I roll my eyes, but I know I can’t really get out of this one, not if I want to survive the next two months on the road with Ben and the guys.

“Fine, but not all night okay?” I say, guzzling down the rest of my beer. I reach into my wallet to settle up the tab, but Kevin pushes my hands away.

“This one’s on me. I have a good feeling about you guys, and if I’m right, then buying you a beer is the least I can do,” he says, and I let out a big breath, taking in his compliment.

Spanks always goes the same. I don’t know why I thought this time would be any different. Beers turn to shots, and then the next thing I know every naked girl in the place is hanging around our table while Ben hands out everyone else’s money because the f**ker never has his own.

“Mason, dude, come on. Just give me one more twenty. I swear this is the last. I need to have a little one-on-one sesh with MaryAnne. Come on, buddy,” Ben says, leaning heavy into my arm. I know if I moved too quickly he’d fall flat on his face, and I’m tempted. But it’s more tempting to give him the twenty so he’ll leave.

Matt and Ben are practically making out with two of the girls. There’s always been a loose ‘hands off’ rule at Spanks—that’s why we’ve always come here. It started when we were seventeen, and Ben found a guy to make us fake IDs. Usually, after a few hours of lap dances, I’ve picked out a girl and taken her to the bathroom for a little bonus, but everyone in here looks different to me tonight—it all seems sad and pathetic.

“How about you, baby? You want some of this?” one girl says, running her hands up her body and squeezing her tits together just to jiggle them in front of my face. I’m pretty f**kin’ buzzed, but I haven’t drank enough to make me want that. All I want is Avery.

“No thanks…but I tell ya what. I’ll give you this twenty, and how about you make that guy’s day over there and hang out with him and your friend,” I say, tucking my last bill in the side string of her panties and pointing over to Ben and…what was her name? MaryAnne?

The girl pulls the twenty from her hip and stashes it in a small pouch tied to her wrist, then she rolls her body against mine just once before she leaves, just to show me what I’m missing. I can feel my pants get a little tighter on instinct, but my head is still on straight, despite how drunk I truly am, and I keep my hands to myself and watch her walk away.

I have half a beer left, and I finish that off along with one last shot and then I find Matt to let him know I’m leaving. “I got things, man. But hey, let’s hook up tomorrow, okay? You keep an eye on that one, make sure he doesn’t land his ass in jail,” I say, throwing my head backward to where Ben is now in heaven with two strippers at once.

When I stumble from Spanks, I’m struck by how cold it is outside. When we came to the bar, it was maybe five or so in the afternoon. Still in only a T-shirt and my jeans, I beep open the back of my car and look for a jacket. I find a nasty old gray sweatshirt, so I put that on just to stay warm and then walk over to the edge of the parking lot to pick up a cab. That’s always been my line—I don’t drive drunk, and neither do any of the guys. I drove us here, so someone will give me a lift back to my car tomorrow.

“Hey, I need to get to…” I pause for a second, suddenly not able to remember Avery’s address. “Ah hell man, you know where Dusty’s is in Cave Creek? Get me there and then I’ll walk you through the rest.”

The driver just nods at me, and I settle back into the corner of the cab, my head resting against the window. The closer we get to Cave Creek, the less lights there are along the road until finally the sky is pitch black. I don’t know what made me look up, or why I even decided to sit like this for the ride home, but in that very second I see a white light streak across the sky and my heart falls into my feet.

Max!

I pull my phone from my pocket, and when I realize it’s 10:45, I go into a full-on panic attack. “I’m sorry, I just realized I’m late for something. Can you drive a little faster? I swear man, I’ll pay for your ticket,” I clutch the seat in front of me, half considering diving from the car and just sprinting the rest of the way home.

I feel the car move a little faster, but it’s never fast enough. The driver gets me to Dusty’s, and I still see Ray’s truck in the lot, which for some reason makes me feel a little better. At least he doesn’t know what a huge, f**king ass**le I am. I give the driver directions for the last few blocks and hand him my credit card the second he pulls up in front of Avery’s house. I’m waiting at his window for him to hand it back to me, and when he does I literally bolt inside.