Page 37 of As The Shifter World Turns

“He’s probably worried because you were his friend first. It’ll get easier.” Probably. “Ivor’s harder on himself than I think anyone.”

“Truth. You want another beer?”

I looked at mine and saw it was mostly gone and downed it. “Sounds good.”

“I’ll get rid of the bottle and we can go.”

“Go?” I’d assumed he meant he’d grab some more from his apartment.

“Go. Burgers and beer at Snyders?”

I couldn’t argue with that and ten minutes later we were down the street aways ordering the greasiest burgers in town.

“I love this place.” I took a big bite of my burger, careful to lean over the plate so as not to have it drip on my jeans.

“As much as you love Archer.” And there we were right back to that. Well, not right back, I was two beers and part of a burger in now.

“It’s no biggie. We banged. It didn’t suck. We’ve moved on.” Gods I sounded like an asshat.

“Whoa—it didn’t suck isn’t quite gonna do it for me. You know all about Kellan and me.”

“And that’s because you over shared about that cheating scum.” I shoved the burger in my mouth before I said more. As much as I hated the guy for how he treated Ryder, it wasn’t my intention to pour salt in his wounds.

“Fair enough. But I think he’s grown.” Gods. Ryder needed a clue. Once a cheater always a cheater.That isn’t the kind of thing you grow out of. It’s a fucking personality flaw.

“Let’s not talk about him.” I drained the last of my beer. “Let’s discuss sports.”

“The kind neither of us pay any attention to?” He wasn’t wrong.

“Then I don’t know. Let’s just drink more beer and talk about the beer cause I don’t want to spend the night with my thoughts focusing on Archer and I’m sure you feel the same about Kellan.”

“I’m down for that, but let’s go to Lou’s instead because if our plan is beers then I don’t want to pay these prices for swill when I can pay less elsewhere.” I couldn’t argue with him there.

We finished eating and headed over to Lou’s. It wasn’t a high class joint, more of a student bar than anything, and it wasn’t overpriced like the burger place.

The music blared, greeting us as we turned the corner. I was getting too old for places like this. Oh well. More beer was in my future and with the volume of noise, I could easily pretend I didn’t hear anything I didn’t want to answer. My only concern was that we’d run into Kellan. Seemed like the kind of place he’d find someone to stick his dick into.

How wrong I was. We walked in looking for a table and what did we see?

Neil, Ivor, and Archer. “Look, the gang’s all here,” Ryder started to pull me toward them.

He wasn’t seeing what I was seeing. They weren’t happy to see us. At least not all of them were and that probably had something to do with the hotties scurrying away as we arrived.

Archer was out getting laid or at least scoping out a new guy.

It was a sock in the gut. Should I have expected it? Of course. How could I not? I fucked things up after all. But it still sucked.

“Come on,” he tugged at my shirt.

“Let them be.” I snapped.

“What the fuck?” He was not impressed and really I wasn’t either. I needed to rein it in.

“Fine.” By the time we got done with our tiff, Ryder had grabbed us a table near the door. Perfect. If Archer and company left before us, they’d walk right past. Seeing Archer leave with a hot young college kid who was almost young enough to be my son wasn’t what I’d planned for the night.

And his expression was anything but friendly. He and the others looked ready to head out. I wasn’t jealous though. Not at all. I wanted him to find someone. He was a nice guy and deserved better than being strapped to the likes of me.

I wondered about the three young guys, the ones they’d been dancing with, who’d melted away. Perhaps they were meeting up outside or at Sunshine Manor. Everyone knew how much I hated loud parties, but what about a noisy all-night sex session. I’d never put that on my list of hates.

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