“Oh, really? Do her and Luke have a history?” I attempted nonchalance, but nothing got past these women.
“Dallas, do you really want to know?” Brooklyn asked, giving me that face that said I didn’t.
“Yes, I want to know. Luke knows everything about me, so why can’t I know about him? I’m not gonna hold it against him. It was in the past.” The chatter among the guys had picked up and everyone, other than the four at our table, was unaware of our conversation.
“Sometimes she comes to the clubhouse for entertainment,” Brooklyn said shortly, hoping that would be enough to appease me. It wasn’t.
“What do you mean entertainment?” I asked, wondering if she was a stripper or a dancer.
“She’s a dick-sucker. A pass-around. A clubhouse whore who tends to the single guys while they are away from their current pussy project.” Well, I definitely wasn’t expecting that, and my face showed it.
“Hey, you said you wanted to know. Now you do. Be careful what you ask for. If you’re asking me, you’re gonna get that shit straight. I tried to dissuade you, but you just had to know.” Brooklyn was right, as always, and from now on, I would keep my mouth closed, and my inquiring mind quiet when she warned me to.
“What’s a current pussy project?” Maddie asked, entering the conversation, and steering it away from Luke and Renee.”
“You know, when they don’t have a girlfriend or an ol’ lady. Instead they have a go-to girl. A booty call.” Brooklyn explained. Luke had a pussy project? Was she from Hattiesburg? Did I know her?
“Stop it,” Red said, snapping her fingers in my face. “You’re going to drive yourself crazy with this shit. He’s a man. He was a single man for a very long time. He fucked people. Get over it.”
“This is true, Dallas. If it makes you feel better, you were fucking people too. Hell you were looking for a one-night stand when you found Luke.” Maddie said, never looking up from her phone. Out of sheer curiosity, I looked over to see Marty’s head down too, and he was also looking at his phone.
“Maddie, do you always ride with Marty when they go places?” I asked, finding an opportunity for privacy, while Red and Brooklyn were engaged in a conversation of their own.
“Yeah. Even when he was prospecting and we were going somewhere local, Luke would let me tag along with him.”
“Don’t you think that shows that he trusts him?”
“Of course he trusts him. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have let him patch out.”
“Patch out?”
“Get a full cut. Become a patch-holder. We call it patching out.”
“Oh, well have you had a chance to spend some time with Marty since you have been here?” Marty had not been around until this morning, and even then, we had been too busy for me to say hello. If I didn’t know any better, I would think he’d been avoiding me.
“Why do you think I was late this morning?” She gave me a wicked smile and I laughed, just as the waitress returned with all of our drinks.
“It’s okay, honey. We don’t bite. We just don’t like your bitch of a boss,” Red whispered to her. She let out a nervous laugh, fumbling for her guest-check pad in her apron.
“How will the tickets be divided?” She asked, struggling to remove the cap off of her pen. Were we that intimidating? Or had she been witness to Red’s death threat to her boss?
“All on one,” I said, without hesitation. “But don’t tell the guys that right now. Just say that we told you how to divide them.” She nodded in agreement and I ordered, ignoring the stares from the women at my table. When she left to wait on the others, I could no longer avoid them. “I fucked up this morning. I let my temper and my jealousy get the better of me and took it out on a patch-holder’s wife. The least I can do is buy all of you breakfast for putting up with that shit first thing this morning.” This seemed to mollify them, and the stares disappeared. We ate our breakfast with no more drama, bullshit, or Renee. It was the first time I had been out with all of them that things had gone so smoothly. Other than the shit that had happened when we first got here, it was perfect. When the waitress brought the check, she practically dropped it and ran. We laughed at her retreating back, knowing that she was afraid of the outcome once the guys realized I had paid.
“Be sure to leave a good tip,” Brooklyn said, as I pulled my credit card from my wallet. I motioned for the waitress, and she looked as if she was going to pass out.