“No,” Jackson said, staring at his cards. “Surprise. Vanessa’s gran thinks it’s a girl though. Something to do with planetary alignments or some crap thing about Venus. We have a scan in another couple of weeks. Can we talk about rugby or golf or something?”
A few comments were made at Jackson’s expense, warning him that soon all he’d be talking about would be baby clothes and shit. Then the game became more serious, the stakes being raised.
Usually we played on a Thursday, so drinking was limited. But this wasn’t Thursday, it was Friday after a fairly okay week and the only thing we had tomorrow was a training session, or rather an excuse to rib each other while we ran round a field like idiots and then ate steak and drank more beer.
Jackson and Seph both folded, leaving just me and Callum in the game. Cal was a seriously good poker player, a skill he said he’d developed while sitting near to a campfire after spending days looking after wild animals in the middle of Africa somewhere. He’d had a couple of big wins in the past too, but Seph’s dealing had given me a good hand to begin with.
Callum threw down his cards and glared at me. “I know what you’ve got. I was hoping you’d fuck up.”
I smiled and swept the money towards me. “Thank you. I’ll put it towards buying Ava a fucking huge shoe cupboard.”
“How long’s she staying here for?” Jackson asked, putting my best whisky on the table. “I thought it was temporary.”
“It is,” I said. “But she’s not decided on her next project yet. We’ve been looking at places pretty much every evening this week.”
I felt four pairs of eyes land simultaneously on me, each with a similarly piercing glare.
“How long is temporary?” Max said. “Because the ‘we’ in that sentence didn’t help it sound temporary.”
I shrugged, accepting a shot of whisky. I might not have enough chairs in my apartment, but I had enough whisky glasses. “I honestly don’t know. She’s keen to find somewhere she’s going to stay for longer than usual so she’s being picky.”
“Does she want that to be on her own or with you?” Max said, his tone sharper. “Because the way I’ve seen it recently; she likes you a whole lot more than just temporary.”
I looked to Killian to see if I could garner some support but he just shrugged, probably glad the attention was off him.
“It’s her call,” I said. “I’m in no rush for her to go anywhere. Even if the woman owns double her body weight in shoes.”
The doorbell rang with the pizza that had been ordered by Seph. We’d end up with a second takeout before the end of the evening too, but the pizza was predominantly to line our stomachs.
I got up to answer, grabbing my phone from the sideboard as I’d seen it flash a couple of times. There were three messages from Ava and after I’d dropped the boxes on the table, I hid in the kitchen to check them.
Ava:I’m on cocktail number four already. And they’re not normal bar measures.
Ava:We’re comparing cock sizes. You might want to give the others the head’s up.
I had no idea what to say to that.
Ava:After you’ve finished poker, we all want to know if you’ll come over here and bring food? We all want to eat your meat.
Again, I was lost for words.
Me:We’ll come over in a bit and bring takeout. Any other meat eating I’d rather was done in private.
I headed back into the dining room and looked at the table. Max, Killian and Owen were all in the process of checking their phones too and I suspected they’d received similar messages. Jackson was on the phone to someone; I suspected it was Vanessa.
“How’ve they managed to get so drunk already?” I said, sitting back down and grabbing the barbecue meat feast pizza from Seph who was trying to hog it.
“Payton’s sent a picture where they’re holding their hands out like they’re showing how long something is,” Owen said, putting his phone down. “I’m not responding. She doesn’t need any encouragement.”
Max shook his head. “They’re discussing the lengths of our penises. And the best lubricants to use for anal sex. I’m really no longer comfortable with this situation. Can we take poker night over there so we can stop this from going any further?”
“Something to hide, Max?” Jackson said. “We know you’re familiar in the one shade of vanilla territory.”
Max made a noise that sounded like a growl.
“Seph grab the cards; Owen grab the pizzas,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We were there in less than fifteen minutes, not bothering to catch an Uber or a black cab. The weather for the last few weeks had been warm and sunny, a proper English summer for a change and heading to Max and Vic’s was a better option than staying at mine as he had a fire pit and a large garden.
