Sitting in the patio chairs were two men. Both were tall with dark skin and massive bodies that would barely fit through a doorway, even one at a time. The darker one was bald and had a bushy black beard. The other, slightly lighter-skinned man had a goatee and short, sculpted hair.
“What’s up, Hunter?” the man with the goatee practically screamed as they both stood up.
“Where the hell have you been, motherfucker?” the bald man asked, his voice equally as loud. “You missed a big-ass bash at Redeye’s last weekend.”
“Ohio,” Aiden responded. “Had some business.”
“Oh, yeah. How did that shit go?” Goatee asked.
“Later.” Aiden glanced quickly at me and then back to Goatee.
“Gotcha.”
“And who is this fine lady?” the other man said as he jabbed Aiden in the ribs.
“Chloe,” Aiden said as he took my hand and pointed to the darker complected of the two visitors, “this is Lorenzo, or just Lo, we call him.”
“Please ta meet cha!” Lo said as he shook my hand.
“Good to meet you, too,” I said as I took his.
“And this is Mo,” Aiden said. “As far as I know, it isn’t short for anything.”
“It’s short for mo-ron! Ha! Ha! Ha!” Lo said as he belly laughed at his own joke.
The sharpness and volume of the laugh actually caused me to jump.
“Look who’s talkin’!” Mo replied as he shoved Lo on the shoulder. He turned back to Aiden. “So where did you find this one?”
“Back up north,” Aiden said. “She needed a little vacation in the sun.”
“She’s too cute for you,” Mo said. “Let me take her off your hands.”
Aiden took a step forward, standing between me and Mo.
“You keep your hands and everything else to yourself,” Aiden said. Though he smiled when he spoke, there was an undercurrent of warning. “She’s my guest here.”
Mo laughed as loudly as Lo had, startling me again.
“So what’s Hunter been doin’ with ya?” Lo asked me. “You must be hard up if you’re hanging with this loser.”
“We went skydiving,” I replied.
“Holy shit! Are you serious?” Mo asked. His eyes bulged as he looked at Aiden. “Like, real skydiving?”
“Yeah, we went down to Homestead,” Aiden said. “I’d always wanted to go, and Chloe needed to let loose a little.”
“You crackers are crazy,” Lo said as he pointed a finger at Aiden. “There’s no way I’d jump out of a perfectly good airplane.”
“There’s no way you’d fit into an airplane, perfect or otherwise!” Mo said, and they both laughed loudly.
“These guys are characters,” Aiden said as he leaned close to me. “Watch out for them.”
“There’s no point,” Lo said as he ran his hands suggestively down his body. Mo began to dance around in a circle with his hands up behind his head. “No one can handle all of this!”
Mo and Lo both started laughing again. Now that I was expecting it, the sound wasn’t so jarring. I even smiled a little as Lo sashayed his hips back and forth. I looked at both of them carefully, trying to figure out just what their relationship was. If it wasn’t for the variations in skin tone, I would have thought them to be brothers just based on their similar mannerisms.
“You’re going to scare the neighbors,” Aiden said. “You guys want a drink?”