Page 20 of Last Night Was Fun

Gabe cleared his throat again and stepped back to where he’d been standing.

“Well, that’s it for me. Have a great night, you guys. Don’t get too carried away,” Alice said. She waved at the bartender again and made the universal motion ofcheck please.

“What?” Emmy asked. She stepped toward her and lowered her voice. “You’re leaving? We just got here.”

“I have to go back to the park,” she said as she scribbled her name on a tab.

“Alice, you can’t leave me here with them!” Emmy hissed. “I never would have come if I’d known you—” She cut herself off, realizing she’d been tricked.

Alice casually shrugged, not looking at all guilty. “You’re already out. Try to have some fun. Bye, guys,” she said to the other three with a wave.

“Thanks for the drink, Alice,” Gabe said. “Have a good night.”

Alice bobbed her head at him in acknowledgment and then slipped into the crowd like a stylish little fish.

“Traitor,” Emmy muttered in her wake. She turned back to her three companions and considered making an excuse for why she needed to leave too, but she saw a glint in Gabe’s eye. Somethingthat looked like a challenge. As if he was daring her to see the night through. She knew in one blink if she left, it would be admitting defeat, and she was not about to lose to him. Again.

“Another round?” she said with a cocky tilt of her head.

His lip twitched the same way it had in the conference room the other day. As if helikedit when she challenged him. The thought sent a surprising thrill tingling her spine.

“On me,” Gabe said as if he had accepted her acceptance of his challenge.

They went with beers, and Emmy was thankful for being able to slowly sip instead of gulp something that tasted like an oak barrel lit on fire.

“Well, that worked out for the best,” Pedro said, and wiped the foam from his lip. “No shade to Alice, but her hanging around would have ruined the surprise I have planned for later.” A mischievous secret hid in his voice.

Emmy, Gabe, and Silas all looked at him in interest.

“A surprise sounds intriguing, Torres, but the last time I went along with one of your surprises, I ended up in Tijuana at twoa.m.,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, and I was wearing someone else’s pants,” Silas said with a flash of his eyes.

Emmy couldn’t stifle her giggle. She’d heard stories about that night they’d headed for the border. Something about a dare and a donkey and the best tacos in TJ. The details were hazy, but she hoped, at least for her sake, that Pedro’s surprise was nothing of the sort.

Pedro gulped his beer and rolled his eyes. “Relax. No international travel involved this time.”

“Then what is it?” Gabe asked.

Pedro shot them a coy grin. “You’ll have to wait and see. Another shot to go with these beers?” He already had his hand raised to flag the bartender.

To Emmy’s surprise, anyonly girlawkwardness faded away quickly, and soon they were just... hanging out. Of course, the copious amounts of alcohol they were drinking didn’t hurt in aiding the situation, but still. She was pleasantly surprised to be enjoying herself.

Somewhere around the fifth inning, they got tired of standing and decided to venture in search of a bar with open seats. It was a tall order given the crowd out and about for the game, but Pedro possessed a certain charm that worked in their favor. That was, he could talk his way into anything. The sidewalks teemed with fans, music, cheering. The whole neighborhood turned into a giant block party during home games. An electric booze-and-asada-filled current hummed through it all like lightning.

Although Emmy had ordered as many drinks as the guys had, she wasn’t finishing them all like they were. They were equally drunk; it just took her less to get there given she wasn’t a six-foot-something, broad-shouldered ex-baseball player who wore jeans like he was doing them a favor. Or was that just Gabe Olson and not every man in their group?

She realized somewhat ashamedly that she’d been staring at his ass in front of her the whole time they’d been walking down the street. She almost tripped when she glanced around to make sure no one had seen. Mortified and in need of a distraction, she pulled out her phone. The little glowing screen danced before her eyes in a blur, but she immediately saw she had an unread message from Axe Murderer. She hadn’t heard it ding inside the noisy bar.

Exciting Friday night?

Her face instantly split into a smile.

Meh. Out at a work thing. I’d rather be at home.

Hey, me too. To both.

Does your work thing involve guzzling booze to keep up with your co-workers?