Page 36 of Forfeits

“Striptease!” someone yelled.

“No,” Sebastian stated. “Not an option.”

“Dammit,” the man said. “How about a dance?”

Robin heaved a dramatic sigh. “Fine. Even though my feet are killing me.”

I turned to say something to Aiden but his gaze was fixed on Robin.

“Hey,” I said in a sharp tone to get his attention. “You’re here with me, remember?”

Aiden glanced over and gave me a look full to the brim with unadulterated lust. “And very proud of that fact. But this little minx is entertaining as fuck.”

I laughed out loud.

Sebastian started playing the piano, and Robin turned his back to the audience, reached up with both hands then bent over at the waist in one fluid motion.

“One, two, one, two,” he said, touching one toe in its little brown shoe, then the other.

Aiden grinned at my expression of disbelief and amusement. “Oh my God. I love this place!” he said.

“Wow,” I commented, picking up my drink and taking a sip. But his enjoyment made me happy. For the first time in a very long time, I felt almost carefree. Everyone in this place was having a good time, even the servers, and especially Robin, who contorted himself into all kinds of scintillating positions.

“Ah fuck it. Now I’m too tired to dance,” he said with an impish grin and a red face from all the yoga. “How about some jokes?”

“More stretching!” someone yelled out.

“You need your own YouTube channel!” another shouted.

“Gay Victorian Yoga for Horny Bastards?” Robin suggested.

There were hoots and hollers.

“Oh my God,” I said, but I couldn’t help smiling.

Robin struck a pose and cleared his throat.

“Why can’t Miss Piggy count to seventy?”

Nobody knew.

“Because every time she gets to sixty-nine, she gets a little frog in her throat.”

Now there was laughter all around.

“Nice one.”

“I miss The Muppet Show!”

“That Miss Piggy,” Robin said, nodding. “She was an icon.”

I rolled my eyes because how the fuck would he know? He, like the other entertainers-slash-servers at Maverick Molly’s, seemed to have barely entered adulthood. Probably the start of the Gen Z wave that would take hold of society in a handful of years. God help us all.

“You’re two fucking young to know about that!” someone yelled, thinking the same thing as me.

Robin batted his luscious eyelashes and put his hands on his hips, evincing confusion. “What? About sixty-nining?”

Laughter.

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