“Didn’t think I’d be seeing you again so soon,” Frankie said to me after Darren gave our drinks order and she began pouring a pint.
“You’ve been here before?” Darren asked.
“We had lunch,” Cole answered for me.
I scoffed. “I didn’t get a chance to eat,” I said.
“Feels like I’m missing something,” Darren replied.
“Nothing that concerns you,” Cole said in a way that Darren seemed to recognise.
“Business,” he said. Cole nodded and accepted her drink from Frankie.
“The kind of business I don’t want to see repeated here,” Frankie added.
“I would apologise, but you billed me for the cleanup,” Cole said good-naturedly.
“Just business,” Frankie replied.
“Just business,” Cole agreed and took a sip of her drink.
Frankie handed another pint to Darren and opened a bottle before handing it to me.
“Is there karaoke later?” Darren asked Frankie.
“You know there is, baby,” she told him.
He turned to me.
“Duet with me?” he asked.
Frankie laughed from behind the bar.
Darren didn’t laugh.
“You’re serious?” I asked.
“I thought she was yours,” Frankie said to Cole.
“Not tonight, it seems,” Cole answered.
Frankie put her hands up in a not-my-business type of gesture.
“Of course I’m serious. You’ve never performed a ballad to a room full of your intoxicated packmates?” he asked.
“No,” I laughed.
“You’re missing out,” he said and took a large swallow from his beer. “You can relax tonight, seriously,” he continued and leaned a little closer. We didn’t have to shout to be heard, but we still had to speak louder than usual. “We’ve seen each other around for what feels like years now and never really gotten to talk. I feel like I know you and don’t at the same time. I just want to hang out, have fun, and get to know you on a wolf-to-wolf level, you know?”
“No, I don’t know. Why are you so interested in me?” I asked and took a drink from the cold bottle.
Darren shrugged.
“I don’t know, really. I guess I just always had this idea that we were similar,” he told me.
I laughed, a snort and all.
“What’s funny about that?” he asked, smiling like my laugh was contagious.
