We have plans to meet up with Aubrey, Ella “Gabriella”, Kellie and Kimberly at a restaurant and bar called Python’s. Ella’s all-in-one owns it; it’s like Hooters, only for the opposite team. The guys are ripped just enough that every straight woman within a hundred-mile radius wants to run their tongue down those delectable lines. Their dress code is jeans that hug their bodies in all the right places. Shirts are mandated to stay in the employee locker and the boss pays a bonus if they wear cowboy hats. Sounds like the perfect place for girls’ night.
Brie and I settle into the Uber and it takes off down the road toward Python’s.
“I have to ask, why do you call your dad Yogi and he calls you Boo-Boo?” Brie asks.
A warm smile spreads across my face recalling the memories. “My dad used to work the night shift a lot when I was a kid. Friday night into Saturday was always one of them. I would always try to get up around the time he would get home, but I was always early. I couldn’t wait to see him. He’d come home from the hospital and shower and he’d pick me up; we’d eat cereal or pancakes while watching The Adventures of Yogi and Boo-Boo. After it was over, he would impersonate Yogi Bear and say How’s about a Pic-i-nic, Boo-Boo sounding just like Yogi Bear and I would always respond, him Okay, but I don’t think Ranger Danielle is going to like this, Yogi.”
“That’s so cute! It just stuck?” Brie asks.
“Yeah.” I smile.
The rest of the ride to Python’s is relaxed and easy conversation.
Chapter 2
Liam
This is the last time I will ever tell my brother that I’ll help him out. I always get roped into doing shit like this. All because of one sentence. “Hey Bro, let’s hang out.” Xander and I were going to hang out tonight until he called me saying there’s an emergency at his bar Python’s. An employee of his called off again. Not wanting to waste the sitter I had already set up, I agree to meet him there to hangout while he works. Instead of sitting at the bar like I had intended, he immediately puts me to work behind the bar. Normally, I don’t mind helping my family out. After all, I am one of the managers over at our family’s lodge. My brothers and I spent a vast majority of our lives working and bartending there. The problem I have with helping at Python’s is being eye fucked by every straight woman in this place. The dress code is form-fitting jeans, but not “skinny jeans”, shirts are mandated to stay in the lockers, and wearing a cowboy hat got you a bonus in your pay. Except, I wasn’t getting paid. Thankfully, I’m toward the end of the shift that I’m covering. The employee that I’m covering for apparently forgot about his grandmother’s eightieth birthday. For the third weekend in a row. Yeah, one of those bastards. I look up and notice a group of beautiful country girls walk in the door and sit down at a table. I recognize them right away.
“Not a bad way to close out a night, right?” Xander says, flashing me a smile.
“Hey, I am not responsible if your girl decides she wants me instead of you by the end of the night!” I joke back. My brother, Xander, knows that I would never go after Ella. It’s just the type of stuff we bust each other’s chops about. Xander and Ella are handcuffed to one another in more ways than one—the car accident, and him being a single dad to his twin boys, Kale and Reed. They found a way back to each other and had their daughter, my niece, Briar Rose. To their kids and my other nieces—Kale and Reed are my only nephews—I am Zio, which is Italian for uncle. I’m looking forward to seeing them all tomorrow at a birthday party; it’s been a while as most of them are in college now. Damn, where did the time go? I think to myself as I make my way over to the table the girls sat at.
“Aubrey, Ella, Kimberly and Kellie, what kind of trouble are you ladies up to tonight?” I say as I approach their table.
“We’re waiting on Mia and Brie to get here. We finally talked Mia into coming out with us tonight,” Kimberly chimes in.
“The one that just went through a horrible divorce?” I ask.
“Well it wasn’t just, it happened like six months ago,” Aubrey says.
Ella chimes in, “Who just up and leaves his wife and kids for the winter?”
“What the actual fuck? You’re serious?” I ask in complete shock.
“He’s actually dating someone young enough to be his daughter. It’s disgusting,” Kellie commented.
“You’re serious?” I exclaim pissed off for this woman I have never met.
“Yeah, at the courthouse, right after the judge’s gavel came down dismissing the case, that slimy bastard, Chris, said the same exact thing to that homewrecker as he did to Mia when they got married!” Kimberly says in disgust.
“Get all of this out of your systems now, because the last thing she is going to want to hear about on her first night out is this ex-bashing meeting you ladies are hosting right now,” I say sincerely. Sounds like this woman could really use a night out with her friends without the added ex-drama.
“We know, Liam. She is such an amazing woman. She’s smart, funny, has a heart of gold and she is always the one sacrificing everything for everyone else’s happiness. We just get so heated where Chris is concerned because he has treated her like shit and Mia called it love the entire time, like she didn’t know what love should be. She deserves so much better,” Ella explains.
“Let her have some fun tonight.” A brief pause and then I ask, “Can I bring you ladies anything while you wait?”
Aubrey gets a text as I ask. She looks down, reads it and then says, “Brie said they would be here in five minutes, so can we get some drinks?”
“Of course, what would you ladies like?”
“Mia has never been here before,” Ella says with a smile and I immediately catch on to what she’s saying. This is her code for let’s break her in to Python’s the right way.
I smile shaking my head. “You got it!” I walk back to the bar and start to make their drinks. Now, we have warnings all over this place about the sexual innuendos and all that fun stuff. In fact, the hostess makes sure everyone signs a form when they enter Python’s.
The form is simple and very matter of a fact. It reads as follows.
I the undersigned, understand that everything I see and hear within Python’s is all in good fun.
I understand that I am NOT allowed to touch the employees without their permission.
I understand that I am free to leave if I am uncomfortable AFTER I pay my tab. Failure to pay the tab will result with a visit from a real cop.
I understand that if I feel that an employee is crossing a line that I am only allowed to bring it up with the management on duty.
I understand that by signing this, what happens at Python’s stays at Python’s.
The form seems a bit much, but Carter, my brother’s lawyer says it’s more to cover his ass in case a snowflake gets offended. As much as I like to complain about working here on a day off, I enjoy it to an extent. The female attention is nice for a change. Between work and my boys, I don’t get out much.
I place the girls’ drinks on a tray and walk back to their table, setting them down in front of each of them.