Page 87 of Apex of the Curve

“There are some things laid out in the chapel to nom on and we got steaks going on out back on the grill. Let’s go get you something to eat.”

I nodded and smiled and he let me go enough to step back so he could slip off the stool. He had me precede him in the direction of the hall and touched doors as we went down it, telling me what they were. The first two doors on the left were bathrooms, the first on the right he said led up the stairs. The third on the left was Maverick’s office, and then the last door on the left what he called the chapel.

It resembled a very cramped boardroom, the table draped with cheap dollar store plastic tablecloths and laden with big salad bowls, with a variety of things – fruit, a garden salad, and what looked like a Caesar salad in another.

Fen swept me past the room onto the cramped little back landing among other men clad in black leather and asked me, “How do you like your steak?”

“Um, medium-rare?”

“Blackjack, one medium-rare! You already know what I like!”

“Yo! Got it!” a man called up from down below where he manned a barbecue gas grill.

“Thank you!” I called down, and the man raised his beer in an almost salutation before looking up.

“Hey!” he said. “Fen, is that your lady?”

“Yeah,” Fen called down. “Aspen, Blackjack. Blackjack, Aspen.”

“Hi.” I curled my fingers in a shy wave.

“Nice t’ meet you, Aspen. One medium-rare steak, coming right up!”

“Hey, girl!” Dahlia came up the steps and shouldered between two of the men. She was dressed in a pinup dress and looked out of sight. She was so beautiful, and I was envious of her confidence.

She grabbed my hands and kissed air beside each of my cheeks. “Glad you made it.”

“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

“Grab some food, get a drink, and stay a while!” she called out, pushing past Fen and into the narrow hall beyond.

I laughed. “I will!”

“Hi, I’m Major,” a tall, thin ebony man said, his pencil-thin dreadlocks held up in a spray that resembled a crown.

“Aspen,” I said and held out my hand.

Phew, what followed was a small flurry of introductions. The other two men on the little back landing were Nine and Squatch, which there was no mystery on how the latter man got his name. He looked like a Sasquatch with all his black wild beard and hair.

Back inside, Fen led me into the boardroom that he called the chapel. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to say this is where they held their club meetings when it wasn’t being used as a buffet.

I fixed myself a plate, and we chatted a bit, the only two making our way around the table. He’d waited for me to eat, and I felt a little bad about that but warmed at the same time.

“What do you like to drink, babe?” he called as we got to the end of the table.

“Cider?” I asked.

“You got it; we’ll stop at the bar on the way out front.

“Okay.”

That’s just what we, did. More introductions shouted along the way. There was Derry and Deacon as well as a couple of men that Fenris said were from the Eastern Washington chapter and new in town. There were men from Western Oregon and Eastern Oregon in attendance, too. However, I would not likely encounter them again.

We took a seat across from one another at one of the picnic tables out front and he yelled out, “Prospect!”

One came running, and he said, “Sauley, Aspen. Aspen, this is our prospect Sauley.”

“Hi, nice to meet you,” I said and Sauley gave me a nod.

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