CHAPTER33
TANNER
Ihadn’t realized that my friends were meeting with Larisa today, but I was glad she was there. It was another stroke of luck, especially since she seemed to be in a good mood.
When I’d come to sit down beside her, I’d known I was taking a chance by putting my arm around her shoulders. The truth of it was that I just hadn’t been able to resist. I wanted to hug her, hold her, but this was the closest I could get.
She didn’t lean into me or scoot closer, but she also didn’t pull away or slap me for it. Chalking it up as a good sign, I grinned. “So other than showing her embarrassing pictures, how’s your meeting going?”
“Good, I think,” Bart said, as always the first to be happy to get back to business. He turned to Larisa. “Was there anything else you needed from us? You’re welcome to call us any time if you do think of anything later, but while we’re all here, you might as well ask if there’s something you still want to know.”
“Oh, there’s a lot I still want to know, but none of it is really relevant to the design,” she said, smiling like she’d known them for years and was in on some kind of inside joke. “On that front, I think I’m okay for now. I might ask you to look at some stuff once I’ve had a chance to do the sketches of what I’ve got in mind, now that I’ve spoken to you.”
“Great, so we’re drinking?” Shawn half-asked, half-said. “If you’re done working, that means it’s after hours now, right?”
I nodded. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Bart suddenly smirked at me and sat back. “By my count, you were the last to arrive and you know what that means.”
“I’m not picking up the bill when I didn’t even know what time you guys were meeting here. It can’t count as being late.”
“Yeah, but the rule is that you pay if you arrive last to any group get-together, and you arrived last. It’s got nothing to do with being late and this is a group get-together. Only we know Jeremiah’s not coming, so it’s all on you.”
“Damn it,” I muttered but then shrugged. “Fine, but just so you know, this counts as you cheating again.”
“Hold up a second,” Larisa said, arching a brow at me before sending a questioning glance at the others. “What’s happening right now?”
“We have a rule in this group,” Shawn explained with a shit-eating grin. “Whoever arrives last pays. We’ve had it for a long-ass time and we all stick to it. Since Tanner was the last to arrive today, he pays.”
“For everyone?” she asked. “That doesn’t sound right. He wasn’t even supposed to be here.”
“Thank you.” I clapped my hands together slowly before putting my arm back around her shoulders. If she wasn’t complaining about it, I wasn’t quitting. “At last we have someone in the group with some sense.”
“It’s a rule.” Shawn gave her a what-can-you-do shrug. “He obviously knew we were here and he decided to come, full well knowing that he’d be getting here last.”
She sighed but then turned to me with a smile spreading her lips. Her eyes were alive with humor, so whatever they’d told her before I’d arrived didn’t seem to have put her off, at the very least.
“Well, they do have a point,” she said lightly. “You knew what you were getting into, so maybe it is fair.”
“Traitor,” I breathed in mock outrage, but then I dropped the act. I’d have paid a lot more than the check was going to be for the chance to spend the evening with her and my friends.
It wasn’t quite the dinner I’d had in mind, but the buffalo wings here were good, and since she was already here, it meant I didn’t need to convince her to come out with me. “That’s okay. I’ll pay, but if we get an uneven number of wings, Larisa gets the last one.”
“Wings?” she asked.
“They’re great here,” Bart said, looking a little like his mouth was already watering even though we hadn’t even ordered them yet. “You do like buffalo wings, don’t you? The cook here makes his own hot sauce to go with them, and it’s unbelievable.”
“I like buffalo wings,” she said and the guys cheered like she’d won some kind of contest. I laughed, but I couldn’t deny that it was pretty damn good to see her getting along with them. She took a little bow without leaving the table, then wrinkled her nose. “I’m not such a big fan of hot sauce, though. A mild burn is fine, but I struggle with anything more than that.”
They stopped cheering abruptly, but then Shawn rocked his head from side to side like he was considering something. “Liking a mild burn is acceptable.”
Bart grinned. “You may want to take it easy on this sauce then, though.”
Our waiter came around and we ordered a pitcher of beer, opting to have a couple drinks before we got our food. I offered to get Larisa wine, but she assured me she was good with beer.
Once our drinks arrived, Larisa turned to Shawn with curiosity shining in her eyes. “How did you get into modeling? Isn’t that a notoriously difficult career path to make a living from in this city?”
He laughed. “Probably, but people kept telling me I should try it. Nothing else really felt like the right fit, so eventually, I just decided to give it a go and it worked out.”