Page 25 of Cosmo

Once they got to the bar, Liam’s eyes involuntarily widened as he saw Goldie and Hippy on top, dancing. Well, dancing was a stretch. With the pop music playing loudly on the speakers all over the pub, Goldie and Hippy were both rolling their hips and lifting their shirts. And all of this was happening while Mims was spraying the crowd in front of the bar with water from a nozzle.

Abs was clapping his hands, but then went right to work, running from one end to the other, taking orders. Liam felt like a deer in the headlights for a long moment, but a cacophony of people were shouting orders to him.

Whiskey and Coke, low ice…G&T, heavy on the G…Mango Mint Julep, no ice…tall dark beer with a shot of Scotch on the side.

The buzzing in his head wasn’t from the voices, but the stress. It hit him hard and fast, but he put himself to work, pouring drinks while Goldie and Hippy jumped off the bar and made drinks too.

He’d never been so busy or worked so fast in his life. It was amazing, but the others were faster, better, and all the time they were making orders they were laughing, playing with one another, tossing bottles back and forth and more.

There was more dancing on the bar, and the way they did this weird “wave” the crowd called for over and over, was something he had no confidence he’d ever be able to do.

A bottle was held by Abs, who winked, posed and flirted, then threw the bottle in the air, to which Haze caught it, did a spinwith his body and the bottle, then he tossed it casually for Hippy to catch.

Hippy caught the thing and juggled three bottles before tossing it for Goldie to catch. Goldie poured some down his shirt, splashing it a little and letting some land on his tongue before he tossed it for Mims to catch. He’d toss two bottles around and then poured three long lines of shots with them, shouting “Wave!”

He’d been told about it, but to witness it was much different. Murphy was the one to call for them, and each time, the crowd hooped and hollered happily. The wave drinks were on the house for those lucky enough to be close to the bar to grab the shot.

“Hey! Get on my drinks,” some lady shouted, and before he could, Abs went over to her and, with his snarkiest voice, said, “I think you’ve had enough, honey. You’re getting a little sloppy.”

She flipped him off, but Abs simply winked at her while she stormed off.

“You can’t let them be assholes to you,” he shouted to Liam over the music. “Murphy would rather lose a customer than let them do that shit to us.”

A fatherly move. Well, unlike Mims, Liam wasn’t in the market for a dad, daddy or anything of the sort. “Thanks,” he said, and took the advice to heart.

“Hey, gorgeous,” someone hollered at him. At first, he looked around to see who the little twink could be calling to, then he realized it was him.

“What can I get for you?”

“Your number! And a Mojito!”

Feeling himself blush, he turned fast to get the drink started as the twink giggled.

After taking the twink’s number, smiling rather shyly, which also wasn’t exactly like him, he got to making three martinis. He ran out of vermouth, which he’d tasted, just so he’d know whatit was like, and he thought it was probably the vilest thing he’d ever tasted.

He saw another bottle of the crap on the bar by Hippy and hollered, “Hippy, are you done with the vermouth?”

“Sure thing, Cosmo,” he yelled back, but instead of sending the bottle down the line of bartenders or bringing it over, he got the vermouth, vodka, and gin and juggled them as he moved closer and closer to Cosmo. That made the crowd go insane. “This is Cosmo, everyone! He’s the newest of us, so give him some love!”

The crowd chanted, “Cosmo, Cosmo!” Hippy flipped and tossed the three bottles into the air, and while two were still high above his head, he’d take one bottle and pour it into the shaker.

While juggling, Hippy made the three martinis, and the crowd continued to chant Cosmo’s new name while applause thundered in the entire bar. It was incredible and something Liam knew he’d never forget.

Sure enough, by the time he was taking the last box of empties to the trash, worn through, feet aching like he’d just run twenty miles, and he figured he had in just ten feet of space, he had almost thirty phone numbers from all kinds of hot men.

The others were sitting at one of the long tables near the kitchen, counting their cash tips, laughing and relaxing. “How many?” Abs asked.

“Numbers?”

“Yeah.”

They were all watching him, waiting for his number, so he pulled out the scraps of paper and receipts to count them. “Twenty-nine.”

They gave him some applause, and Goldie threw his crumpled pieces of paper to the center of the table. “Forty-three.”

Mims laughed and threw his. “Ten. Ten! I’m losing my looks the closer I get to thirty.”

Haze groaned, “You’re twenty-four, Mims.”

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