During the party, there was a moment when one of my high school buddies, Xander, attempted to get me one final lap dance before I entered the married life. A beautiful brunette shimmied in front of me for a few seconds and dropped her bottom on me, gyrating as if she invented seduction.
All of the guys were going wild for this moment. Some even thought I would take one last ride in the sack as a single man, but after the song was over, I said, “Thanks for the dance, sweetheart,” and helped the beauty out of my lap.
“Awe man, do you have to be a party pooper,” Xander said, looking deflated.
“I’m afraid I have to be just that. I’m here to have fun, not fuck a random woman. Tameka will hand me my balls if she finds out I’m out here getting with strippers,” I said. “Where’s the rest of the beer?”
Channing pointed to the cooler on the floor by the refrigerator. “The beer’s in the cooler in the kitchen.”
“You really have gotten soft on me, bro,” Xander said. “What do you think she’s doing tonight?”
Channin
g’s hand came down on Xander’s shoulder. “Xan, my wife and his future wife are being faithful. I can guarantee you that.” He paused for a second. “At least they better be,” Channing added and laughed.
“Man, look at the sweet little bottom on that girl. Tell me you don’t want her,” Xander said to me as his eyes squinted, and he licked his lips.
“He doesn’t want to bang her, Xan. Why don’t you go let her dance with you and see where it goes?” Channing replied.
“Suit yourself, man.” Xander walked off in the direction of the dancer. “Come on, baby, I got a place for us to go for privacy…” he began talking to her as they walked away toward the back of the hotel’s ballroom.
“Thanks, man,” I said to Channing. “Ever since I reconnected with Xander today, he’s been on me about getting my last dip in the ocean of women. I’m definitely not interested.”
“I know, and anytime,” Channing said, patting me on the back. “So tomorrow is the big day.”
“Yes, the best day of my life is only a few hours away,” I said.
Channing and I sat by the bar talking with a few friends. We were laughing at a joke about me kissing Amy Batts when we were six years old.
“Yeah, her father came out of the house to lecture me for hours about touching his daughter,” I was saying when someone roughly clasped my shoulder.
“I had to come see this shit for myself since no one invited me to this bullshit bachelor party,” Dirty Neil said as he sloshed some tobacco around in his mouth. “I heard you been looking for me, Jeb,” he said, and his voice came off as a loud roar that was far louder than the music playing.
Channing stepped up beside me and said, “You must be drunk, Neil. It’s best you leave before you get your ass whipped.”
“No, I got this,” I told Channing then turned to Neil. “You got some nerve to bring your crusty ass in here after you stepped to my woman the way you did.”
Neil raised his hand to punch me, but before he could land it, I hit him with a blow so hard that he dropped on the first punch.
“Stay away from me! And you’d better not even think of coming near Tameka again!” I said as I kneeled down over him, ready to pounce.
Channing pulled me back while Xander and a few of the other men grabbed Neil and dragged him to the door. “You’re fucking up my night,” Xander said as he took him away.
I grabbed my beer, downed it, and left the party heading to my hotel where Tameka had me housed for the night out of tradition. I wanted to go home, but I also needed to clear my head in silence.
I sat in the room reflecting on the night. I was celebrating my last night as a single man, so it was fitting that I ended it defending my wife.
The sound of someone knocking on my hotel room door pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Coming!” I shouted as I trotted to the door. When I peeped through the hole,
I jerked my head back and wondered what he, of all people, was doing here. I flung the door open and said, “Dad?”
“Hi, Son, I know I’m the last person you expected to show up here.”
“Actually, you are.”
Dad appeared to have aged a few years since the last time I saw him at the bar, making me momentarily forget about all of the issues we had with each other as I became concerned about his wellbeing.