Page 92 of Begin Again Again

“That was before I knew there was something juicy to find.” Beth was amazed to see Byron’s ears turn red. “Holy shit, is this embarrassing? Youhaveto tell me, or I will Google this.”

Byron groaned. “Fine. But nobody comes out of this story looking good. Me and Derek were leaving a club, shitfaced, and some dickhead came up to Derek and said… it doesn’t matter. Derek wasn’t in the mood and told him to fuck off. The idiot took a swing, and it all went to shit. Someone got a video and a few pictures, and it was all over the news for a week.”

Beth frowned. “Did anyone get hurt?”

“Nah, more shoving than anything.”

“And that’s national news!? Someone being an idiot to a footy player? What is this, New Zealand?”

Byron cracked a smile. “It was pretty fucking stupid, but Derek’s a household name here. Plus…”

“Plus?”

He gave her a sheepish look. “We were coming out of the strippers.”

“Oh!” Beth laughed. “Is that something you do a lot? Or was that your very first time and you didn’t know what strippers were until then…?”

Byron looked indignant. “I know what strippers are.”

“Then why do you look so stupid?”

He shook his head in mock anger, but the wounded look in his eyes seemed pretty real. It was the first time Beth had seen him self-conscious. She splashed him like she might have done her brothers when they were being too cool. “It’s okay to go to strip clubs, Byron. It’s okay to like naked ladies.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“You know what I think is weird about strip clubs?” Beth said conversationally.

Byron looked up at the sky as though willing a higher power to save him. “What do you think is weird about strip clubs, Bethany?”

“So, the girls are already half naked and pole dancing, but they have to come up to the guys and ask if they want dances like they’re doingthema favour. That’s so much handholding for a place where you pay for someone to rub their ass on you. That’s what’s weird.”

“Is that right?”

“It is. That and how often guys think strippers genuinely want to grind their asses on them and would do it for free.”

The corner of Byron’s mouth kicked up. “You seem to know a lot about strip clubs.”

“My friend Liz stripped for a while, and I find all that stuff interesting.”

Byron kicked onto his back into the water. “Would you do it?”

“How do you know I haven’t?”

“Because.”

“Oh, just because?”

He smirked at her.

“Fine. I could never be a stripper,” she admitted. “I find it hard enough to be nice to men in real life, let alone pretend I want to show them my asshole.”

“And there it is…”

“What?”

Byron laughed. “You couldn’t be nice to someone you didn’t like for a million dollars.”

“I could! For a million dollars, I could!”

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