Best Friend's Ex Box Set

"No, but that could be arranged. Interested?" he asked. When I shook my head, he continued, "C'mon, Wallace, we need to cut loose and have some fun! Besides, I've already arranged a night of pure debauchery for us."

"What the hell, Bugs?"

"I'm always three steps ahead of you when it comes to planning," he said grinning mischievously. "We'll head out to the clubs and throw a blowout bash to end all parties. We'll get the usual suspects to pony up and foot the bill, and then we'll rake in some cash to fund the next phase of Agape's development."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"As a heart attack, my friend," he grinned. "I'm serious, Adam. We can fund this thing fully if we play our cards right. We'll get some investments and we'll plough them back into the business and fund your trip. Plus, we'll have some fun doing it. Don't tell me you've forgotten how to have fun!"

"What do you think?" I shot back defensively.

"Now that's the spirit!" Bugsy said as he cheerfully punched my shoulder. He turned serious for a moment and said, "You know you're going to have to live on a budget while you're selling the project, don't you? Can you do that?"

"You're an asshole, you know that?" I said shaking my head. "I practically live like a monk."

"Uh huh, a monk who wears Prada and Ferragamo," he said with a knowing look. "Look, all I'm saying is that you need to keep the expenses to the absolute minimum on this trip, but you need to make it look like we have all the money in the world. We need to land the contract and get the turbines into production with the money we have right now. We can't afford any additional expenses because my dad's investment money runs out at the end of the summer. I want to put as much as possible in savings so we don't have to cut corners on the design elements."

"I get it, I get it," I said waving him off without looking up from the report I was reading. Bugsy had always respected the fact that I remembered more of the technical details than he did, and that my methods of researching and designing the turbines had been what had gotten us to this point. He was the public face of Agape Resources, but he never failed to acknowledge that we were equal partners in the business. I muttered as I read, "Besides, I'll only need to be down there for two days—three at the most.

"I hope that's all the time you'll need. What do you think?" he asked after I'd quickly skimmed the report.

"I think we'd better get moving on our plan or else these engineers are going to beat us to the punch," I said seriously. "They've got a lot more funding behind them and since they're being touted by Harvard and its alumni, they'll get more publicity. However, I'm not convinced that their turbine can beat ours."

"Well, there's that good news," Bugsy said with a grim smile as he ran a hand through his tousled, blond

curls. Over the past few months, he'd morphed his look from modern old-school gangster to hygienic surfer dude. It wasn't the first time Bugsy had changed his look, but I knew this look wouldn't last long because it didn't offer the seriousness he was going to need as he negotiated contracts.

I, on the other hand, had a look that hadn't changed much since the fourth grade. Tall and lanky with dark eyes, thick eyebrows, and full lips, I'd occasionally let my curly black mop of hair grow only to head into the barber and request that he hack it back into a more tamed look. But no matter what I did with it, my hair always looked slightly wild, making me always appear to be more serious than I actually was. I attributed part of this to the fact that next to Bugsy, everyone looked serious."

"So, let's get this party started, shall we?" Bugsy said as he began tapping the screen on his phone. He scrolled through his contacts and zeroed in on the gang he wanted to fund tonight's action.

While I finished rereading the Harvard study and making notes on the plans, Bugsy called around and found a bar in the South Loop that was willing to host the festivities. In true Bugsy fashion, he arranged for everything to be ready to go in a short period of time, and then winked at me as he finished his last call.

"Let's go have a sauna at the club and then grab some dinner," he said as he tucked the phone in his front pocket and motioned toward the door. "Tonight we're going to let it all hang out, my good friend! We’ve got ten days until you’ve got to get out and sell, sell, sell! Let’s make the most of it!"

I knew from experience that this statement could have many different meanings, but I'd also learned that it was usually better not to try and anticipate what they might be.

#

"Will you look at that?" Bugsy said as he flashed me a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin. When we pulled up at the front door of Blast, Bugsy's nightclub of choice, there was a line stretching out almost two blocks. Club kids dressed in a wide array of designer clothes texted each other as they waited to find out if they'd be deemed worthy of entry.

"This is insane!" I said as Bugsy tossed the keys to his black Audi R8, a graduation gift from his parents, to the valet and warned him not to scratch it.

"It's a great turn out," Bugsy said scanning the line and quickly identifying several scantily clad young women that he wanted let in immediately. He indicated which girls he had chosen and the bouncer sent a liaison out into the crowd to fetch them as he waved us in.

Inside, the club was pounding with a beat provided by Kygo, an EDM DJ that Bugsy had asked to fly in and oversee the night's dance music. The disco ball above the dance floor spun in time to the music, shooting out short bursts of light to the beat. As the expensively dressed bodies writhed on the dance floor below us, Bugsy popped the cork on a bottle of Cristal and quickly poured the golden liquid into flutes, offering one to each of the pretty ladies who'd been ushered onto the private balcony overlooking the dance floor.

"To new ventures and new acquaintances!" Bugsy shouted holding his glass up in a triumphant toast. "May we live like kings!"

I gave my friend a wide grin as I tapped my glass against his and then drank deeply from it before turning my attention to a beautiful redhead in an emerald-green dress that looked like little more than a handkerchief. She smiled at me over the edge of her glass and then suggestively licked her brightly painted lips after she finished drinking.

I was mesmerized by her green eyes and her voluptuous body, and before I knew it, we were headed for the dance floor where she cast a magical spell as she pressed her body against mine as we spent the next several hours engaging dancing with and grinding against one another to the beat of the music.

On the last trip back up the stairs to the balcony, I took her hand and pulled her into a side room off one of the landings. I knew these rooms well because the club had specifically remodeled them to serve as convenient spots for quickies between club goers. Formerly supply storage closets, the rooms now had low lighting and plenty of space, and more importantly, they kept the bathrooms free of the less savory activities that tended to require police intervention.

"In here," she said as she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the room, closing the door behind us. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me toward her for a deep kiss as she pressed her body against mine. She was aggressive, but I liked that and I followed her lead. When she moved my hands to her shoulders I slipped the thin straps of her dress off and slid them down to expose her large, heavy breasts. She smiled as she wiggled the dress down over her hips and stepped out of it. Clad only in her strappy high heels, she unzipped my pants as she leaned forward and lightly bit my bottom lip before dropping to her knees and taking the entire length of my shaft in her mouth.

"Wait, wait," I gasped.