Page 31 of My Casanova

“Yeah, it is a circus,” Dice chimed in with a grin. “And you’re the ringleader, Yarder.”

The laughter spread through the group like wildfire, and even Yarder had to hide a smirk. He couldn’t help himself.

But of course, Stretch wasn’t done yet.

“If you would give us some notice before calling church, I would’ve been here,” he said and leaned back in his chair with a stretch of his own.

Yarder’s glare could have set Stretch on fire. “Sure, Stretch, I’ll work on a detailed schedule for you so it doesn’t mess with sleeping all day,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The rest of the table laughed again, but you could tell Yarder’s patience was starting to wear thin. Stretch, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch.

If Yarder’s glare could kill, Stretch would’ve been dead by now.

But Stretch just shrugged and was totally unbothered. “No one told me church was going to be at eleven today. I’m just doing me, man. No harm in that.”

“You know the drill, Stretch,” Pirate grinned. “Church is when Yarder says it’s church, and that’s that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Stretch muttered and yawned as he rubbed his face.

“You’re lucky I didn’t leave you to sleep through this whole thing,” Yarder said and crossed his arms over his chest. “We got stuff to talk about, and I don’t want to waste time.”

“I’m here, okay,” Stretch said. He was wide awake now, and his usual smirk spread across his face. “Let’s get this over with then.”

I leaned back in my chair. Now, we were ready to get down to business.

Stretch fiddled with his shirt to smooth out the wrinkles.

Yarder cleared his throat, and the room quieted.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Yarder said and leaned forward with purpose.

I gave Stretch one last glance before I focused on Yarder.

“Filming starts again tomorrow.”

Everyone groaned.

We all knew it, but hearing it out loud still sucked.

“How do they not have enough footage?” Throttle asked and shook his head.

“Yeah,” Aero chimed in. “They have to be able to piece together what they’ve got and call it good.”

Yarder shrugged. “I don’t know, guys. Don says they need more, and we have to give them more.”

“Garage and Cakery,” Compass said.

Yarder nodded. “That is the plan. We just need to make sure it’s interesting enough so they don’t go sniffing around and asking questions we don’t want them to know the answers to.”

“We got a theory as to why Don is sending two people this time?” I asked and leaned back in my chair.

“Probably because he’s not fucking around anymore,” Fade laughed. “He lost Adalee and then Clay. He’s burning through all of his producers.”

“I think you had something to do with Adalee,” Pirate said with a smirk.

Fade shrugged and grinned. “She’s way better off here than working for the TV show. She hated that shit and only did it because of her dad.”

“I wonder how Don is going to spin that in the final cut of the show,” Dice pondered and rubbed his chin.

---