Page 104 of Kismet

“Hey, Mol.” Walking into her house, I’m hit with the aroma of baked brownies. “That smells good.”

“Thanks. It’s not for you, though,” she responds, throwing a smile over her shoulder as she heads past me.

“What? Why not?”

“They’re for Julian’s club. They’re having an event Friday. I’m pre-making these, so they’re ready.”

I walk over to her fridge and pull out a beer. Twisting off the cap, I take a large pull before throwing the cap away. “What kind of event?”

“The Lubbock chapter is opening their club.”

“What kind of club?” This is the first I’ve heard about any club. Not that I’m always in the know with these things.

“It’s a, uh… like a nightclub.” She shrugs her shoulders, avoiding my eyes.

“A nightclub?”

“Yup.” Her voice is high pitched as she throws me a half smile over her shoulder.

“So why are you being weird about it?”

“Shut up. I’m not.” She’s saved by the bell… or, in this case, the door. Julian walks into the kitchen in his work clothes. He owns his own construction business. He’s had it for as long as I can remember. It’s pretty successful, from what I can tell.

“Hey, Stone. What’s up, man?” He lifts a hand in a wave before leaning down and kissing Molly on the cheek. He’s an impossibly large man, so he basically has to bend all the way down to reach her. Their size difference never ceases to be comical.

“Hey, man. Molly was just telling me about this club grand opening your chapter is hosting Friday. What kind of club is it?”

Molly shoots daggers at me, but before she has a chance to protest, he laughs and responds. “Oh yeah. It’s a sex club. You should come. Invite Cash.”

As I laugh and look over at Molly, she’s rolling her eyes and turning away from us. “A sex club? Like a brothel?”

“Nah. Not really. It’s a strip club, but underneath it is where the real magic happens. There are private and public rooms for, you know,” he provides, wagging his brows at me, “viewing areas, and performers. It’s dope. You should really come. We hired a dominatrix to perform on opening night. It’ll be interesting.”

“I don’t know, man. I don’t really want to accidentally see my sister doing something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Molly replies at the same time Julian says, “We wouldn’t be doing anything… out in the open.”

My face screws up. “Okay. Enough of that. I’ll think about it.”

“If you do, you really should invite Cash too.” Molly smiles, practically with hearts in her eyes. At our weekly dinner last week, I told her about my weekend with Cash. Not all of it, of course, but the gist of it. I swear, she’s planning our fictional wedding behind my back.

Julian grabs us all another beer as we start to dish up dinner. We eat, talk about our weeks, Julian tells me that he and his work crew built the club from the ground up, which is pretty fucking impressive. After dinner, we decided to watch a movie. It’s about nine now, and I’m just walking through my front door.

I’m exhausted and my phone died a little while ago. Heading into my room, I plug my phone in on the charger by my bed before heading to the bathroom to strip down. I brush my teeth and run some water over my face, then head back toward my bed. My phone has powered on and two text messages have come through.

Once I’m lying down, I grab the phone—still plugged in—and see Cash texted me. My stomach does a ridiculous flip-flop when I see his name. We normally don’t text this late.

Cash: Hey, how’s it going?

Cash: Wanted to see if you had lunch plans tomorrow? Thought we could talk?

Good talk? Bad talk? Why am I so fucking nervous? Pull it together. Shit. Tomorrow is also a terrible fucking day for a lunch date.

Me: Hey, Cash. Sorry for the delay in response. I was at Molly’s for dinner and my phone died. I just got home.

Me: I have meetings almost all day tomorrow, so lunch wouldn’t work. Do you want to grab dinner after work instead?

I don’t have to wait long. Seconds after my reply goes through, the little white box appears, letting me know he’s typing.

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