Turning to face me, she shakes her head with a grin. “Not happening tonight. I get off at twelve, and I have to get up really early tomorrow.”
Tweaking my cheek, she hops off my lap and saunters away with a very exaggerated sway to her hips. Looks like a fucking kid trying to be an adult, really. No hips, she has probably just graduated high school. Ugh. Yeah, I am not going after that.
We wrap things up pretty quickly after that. All the guys are going to head over to a local night club to see what kind of trouble they can get into.
“Here’s your check, sir.” Mandy says with that same fucking smile. Only now it looks really painful on her, like she ain’t shit in a month.
“Thanks,” I say and hand her my credit card. I pulled it out ahead of time so I can get the fuck out of here and the fuck away from her ass.
The guys all end up giving her their cards or dropping cash on the table, and it’s almost a mad dash to their cars as soon as she comes back with their receipts. Watching the fight has put them in the mood for some action, and since they can’t fight I almost feel sorry for the girls they will be chasing.
I look at my total and scribble out a one-hundred dollar tip on the check. I do it every time all the guys and I go out. Mandy sure the fuck doesn’t merit that much of a tip, but some of the guys are really and truly up-and-comers, and they don’t have much to spare. I can tell who doesn’t have a lot of money by what they order. If it’s something full of meat and proteins with a water, they are trying to get the most they can from the food. And they’ll probably skip food somewhere because they spent money on this. We all leave a tip, but not all of us go about fifteen percent. So I do it for us all.
Max walks out the door with me and shakes his head when everyone starts to split up, finding out who’s all going out to the club. Yep, the fucker is sticking with me, and that means he wants to know what he just lied about.
I get in my black truck with big ass tires and a loud muffler, and watch as Max hauls himself up into the passenger seat. Not talking, I pull out of the parking lot and head the opposite way of my house.
I set the truck at a smooth pace and ask, “Wanna hear a story?”
“Do I get a choice in the music?” he asks as he grabs a wire hanging from my stereo and plugs it into his phone.
“Yeah, I guess,” I grumble as I already know where this is headed.
Fucking Max and his god damn pop-rock love. It’s only a few moments before the pounding bass of Gimme More by Britney Spears starts to thump out of my speakers. The bass is heavy enough to rattle the filling in my back left molar. I wouldn’t be surprised if it shatters my windows with how loud he has the da
mn music thumping.
Reaching over, I turn down the music and frown at him. I have no clue what his obsession with Britney is, but it’s at times hilarious– he can name every single song she has and the album it’s on. Or just disturbing– he has used his fighter prestige and a huge chunk of a winner’s purse to buy front row tickets to her show.
The guy fucking worships her.
“Couldn’t you go with something… erm, a little more testosterone filled?” I ask as I turn onto the highway heading out of town and into the mountains surrounding us.
I want to get away from the lights and noise, I need open space. And like most times when I need to get away from it all, I feel the mountains calling to me. I love the mountains, they have something over my soul, and I don’t know what it is but they beckon me now.
“Are you calling me a pussy?” Max asks with an eyebrow raised and a smirk.
The big fuck thinks he could win.
“Man, I would kick your big ass from here to the city without breaking a sweat.”
“Wanna pull over and put that to the test?”
“Nah.”
“Then the future missus Harper is staying on.”
Shrugging my shoulders, I try to tune out the music.
“You remember me telling you about when my parents died?”
“Yeah, you just graduated high school. What’s the waitress have to do with that?”
“She was my first serious girlfriend.”
Chapter Three
Mandy