“I love you guys. Group hug.”
“Yeah, a Frankie sandwich.”
They squished me hard, but I didn’t care. My mind was already counting my stash.
“Bye.” I wiggled my fingers, and as best I could, sashayed over to the bar and José. “Oh. My. God. I got so much money.” I grabbed as much as I could and began to pile the bills on the bar. José’s eyes bugged out.
“Damn, Frankie. If I didn’t see you out on the floor, I’d wonder if you were doing something else in the back room.”
Extracting the last few bills from my jockstrap, I snorted. “I stopped doing that shit months ago, ever since Aaron came back and we got together.”
“Glad to hear, ’cause I been talking to him and I gotta tell you somethin’.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see Aaron watching me with a smile. Like he had been all night. “Yeah? What?”
“You know I meet a lotta people bartending and seen a lotta shit. And when I heard you were gonna take Aaron back, I wanted to smack some sense into you.”
Grimacing, I played with the bills on the bar. José was cool, and I respected him. He’d never been anything less than brutally honest in the time I’d known him.
“Yeah, I know, but—”
“Nah, hear me out, Frankie. I already know you’re gonna defend Aaron.” His eyes bore into me. “I’ve seen him now for a few months, watching you grind up on guys, letting them paw at you, and I gotta tell ya, it can’t be easy on the guy.”
“We’ve talked about it, and he says it doesn’t bother him no more. Plus I’ve toned it down. He knows it’s a job for me. These guys don’t mean nothin’. But you gotta know, José. I don’t wanna do this forever. I mean, I love dancing, but I got plans.”
“Wanna drink? You deserve it. That table ordered so many bottles, you already made your cut for the night.” At my nod, he mixed me up a margarita as he talked. “So what kind of plans we talkin’ about? Care to share?”
“I wanna invest in the stock market and with the money, maybe buy houses, renovate them with Aaron, and sell them.”
“Niiiice.”José gave me a fist bump. “I didn’t know you were interested in that. Ain’t it risky?”
I gulped down my drink. “Maybe. But I been studying and listening. I think I got a handle on it. And Aaron knows construction, so we’ve been thinking about teaming up.” Or we will be once I tell him about my idea. He’ll love it.
“Well, cool. And here he comes now.”
I spun around on the seat and faced Aaron with a smile. “Hi.”
“Hey, babe. Wanna come over and sit with us for a minute, or do you havta get back to work?”
I slid my arms around his neck. “Mmm, gimme a kiss first.” Aaron covered my mouth with his, and I clutched his shirt between my fingers. Maybe I was a sucker all those earlier years for staying with him, but I didn’t think so. I’d lain in bed with him after making love and talked about our hopes and dreams. I saw the tenderness in his hands when he worked with his flowers. So Aaron might’ve lost his way and fallen into the darkness for a while, but he’d fought through the tunnel and out back into the light.
“I already earned out, but I don’t wanna leave James a man short. I’ll come over to sit for a few.” José had already taken my cash and put it away for safekeeping. “Catch ya later.”
José saluted us. “Bye, guys.”
With our arms wrapped around each other, Aaron and I walked to his table, where Austin sat scrolling through his phone.
“You looked good out there. Bet you made a bundle from that table.”
“Hey.” I kissed Austin’s curls and dropped into the seat next to him. “Hell yeah. It was a great take. You remember how it was.”
Our eyes met, and Austin gave me a slight smile. “Yeah. I remember.”
Peace radiated from him, and I couldn’t have been happier for my best friend. The only stumbling block between us had been his refusal to accept Aaron’s place in my life. Tonight, seeing them sitting at the same table, without passing judgment on each other, brought me greater happiness than I’d dreamed possible.
“You okay? Those guys weren’t too rough?” Rubbing my back, Aaron kissed my cheek, and I sighed contentedly.
“Nah. They’re steady customers. They like to touch, but they don’t get handsy. Plus, if I tell them no, they always stop.”
