“Probably not,” I said with a
little smile. “Maybe you could just come hang out with my friends for a bit?”
Milena glanced around the bar and then picked up her purse and followed me to the other tables. Everyone was into at least their third drink, and the group was pretty loud. I introduced Milena to everyone, and Jonathan gave me a strange look.
At one point, he leaned over and nudged me.
“Since when do you actually like a girl instead of just faking it?” he asked.
I stared at him for a moment, wondering just how he could tell. He chuckled and was about to say something when his arm was jostled by an addition to the group, and beer went everywhere.
“Come on, buy me a shot.”
Evan Arden’s eyes darkened and shifted to the side as he glared at the guy.
It was the dude with the birthday again, leaning against the table and obviously completely sloshed. He was also the least observant person in the world as well. I mean, if nothing else, he was trying to get the most deadly man in the city to buy him a drink. If that didn’t count as stupid, I didn’t know what did.
“I’ll git ya one,” Jonathan finally said.
I got the impression he was actually trying to save the poor dude’s life. I could see the tension in Arden’s neck as his hands clenched slightly. His eyes narrowed at Jonathan as he waved at the server.
“There’s a catch, though,” Jonathan told the kid. “The catch is, I git to decide what shot yer gonna do.”
The drunken idiot agreed.
When the server came over, Jonathan had her get out her notepad and take down his instructions.
“I need a shot that’s half vodka and half half-n-half,” he told her.
“What?” she asked through her lashes. Her eyes blazed.
“I ain’t finished,” he said. “Now, once you have both in the glass, I want ya to microwave it just a few seconds – git it to about body temperature. You know…what d’ya call it?”
“Lukewarm,” Evan said without moving his eyes from his beer.
“Right! Make it lukewarm.” The server glanced from Jonathan’s face to her notepad and wrote something down. “Then put salt on the rim and bring it on over. I’ll totally make it worth your while.”
She shook her head as she walked away.
“You’re crazy,” Evan muttered.
“This is gonna be custom,” Jonathan replied.
A couple minutes later, the server brought back the drink and placed it on the table.
The kid took the shot, and the look on his face was priceless.
“What do you call that drink?” Evan asked.
“Nu Jizz,” Jonathan replied.
“You’re sick.”
Jonathan laughed.
The kid tried to place the shot glass back on the table but missed entirely the first couple of times. On the last try, he threw more of his body into it. The high-top table jiggled on its base as the kid tried to hold onto it to steady himself, but it didn’t work.
“Uh oh,” I muttered. I pulled Milena away from the table as it toppled, taking everything – including the wasted kid – to the floor.