Page 64 of Mark my Words

“Fine, give me five minutes, and we can get out of here.”

“Damn, dude. If you only last five minutes, no wonder the office girl is blowing you off,” Kent teased.

“Fuck you,” I laughed as I flipped them both off.

“Nah, I’m good,” Blake laughed as he got up and grabbed his bag from under the bench. “I’ll wait outside so you two can finish spilling the tea.”

“You coming with us?” I asked Kent as he zipped up his bag.

“Maybe for one beer, can’t stay out too late, or she’ll threaten to change the locks again.”

“You sure I should get married?” Between the shit my brothers-in-law said about my sisters, and now Kent talking shit about his wife, maybe I was alright being a bachelor for a few more years...or a decade. Men could father children at any age, right?

“If you find the one you can’t imagine living without, definitely.”

Unlike the last time I was in a bar, I wasn’t waiting for someone to show up. Kent and Blake drove back into the city to meet up with us while the rest of the team shared an Uber XL to a sports bar near Boston College that we typically went to if we played on the campus field.

“Who’s up for shots?” Blake asked as he signaled for one of the young female servers.

“Don’t you have to drive home?” I laughed as I looked at his eager expression. You could tell these guys’ nights out were the highlight of his week.

“Nah, my sister is on campus with a friend. They’re gonna meet me later and drive back to Mom’s.”

“So, you’re using your teenage sister as a sober driver?” Kent laughed before he tipped back his beer bottle.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t used your pregnant wife for the same damn thing,” Blake shot back.

Kent lifted his bottle in a salute. “Touché. That I have.”

For a Friday night, things hadn’t picked up yet around 9:00 pm. By 11:00 though, this place would be crawling with desperate young college students out to drink and hook up. It was hard to believe that three years ago, I’d been one of them. So many things had changed since then, and now I had to think about where I wanted my future to lead, not how to get the hot girl in the corner booth’s phone number.

“You looking for a hookup tonight?” Blake asked as he slid a shot glass across the table.

“Why are you guys so concerned with my love life today?”

“We’re living vicariously through the unattached successful bachelor among us,” Kent teased as he continued to nurse his beer.

“Not that successful and not that unattached,” I laughed before I threw back the shot, grabbing another one off the tray at the edge of the table.

“Ooh...so office girl is more than just a casual piece?” Blake chuckled as he turned in his seat and scanned the college students crowding the bar.

“Can we not talk about this tonight? I just want to have a drink with you and go home. I’m getting too old for this shit.”

“Damn, Sam is a little pissy bitch when he’s in love.” Frankie, who was a defender, taunted from across the table.

“I’m not in love. It isn’t like that,” I denied, shaking my head.

“Then prove it. Pick up some chick tonight and take her home. If the office girl is casual, she won’t care.”

“Nah, man, don’t be like that,” Kent scolded him, throwing a wadded-up cocktail napkin in his direction. “That’s a dick move, and you know it.”

“You’re just pissed your lady cut you off,” Frankie shot back.

“At least I have a lady,” Kent smirked. “At last count, wasn’t it two failed marriages under your belt before thirty? How’s that division of assets thing turning out for you? Didn’t the last one take your truck?”

“Fuck you, asshole,” Frankie shot back, and I shook my head at the turn this conversation had taken. So much for a relaxing night out with the guys.

“Tinder is where it’s at,” Todd, another defender, chimed in, changing the subject. “The girls on there know the score, and you can just block ’em if they get too clingy. You got an account, Sam?”

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