Victoria was getting married next week, though. I would be the lone old maid in the group. I would turn twenty-two next month. I really was the old maid. Lovely.
Tru gave the girls a look, held back the eyebrow raise I knew they wanted to give me, and gestured towards their group.
“My friends, this is Natalie, a friend from class.” They turned to me again. “We’re here for a bachelor party of our own for Brandon and Franklin,” they said, gesturing to the others at the end of the table, both with frilly white sashes, large beards, and tiaras. They looked amazing.
“It’s nice to meet you all.”
Tru introduced me to the rest of the group and asked me if I wanted to sit for a drink.
“I should probably return to the group I came with because I am here for a bachelorette party.”
“Considering that one of them is glaring daggers at you, you’re probably not wrong,” Franklin said. “Thank you for the congratulations. And if you need a place to hide, we’re here for you. It’s always a safe place with us.”
I smiled widely and hugged Tru again. “I don’t know the etiquette at a strip club, but can I send over a drink? Or maybe a lap dance?” I said with a laugh. Everybody joined in, thankfully.
“Look at you. Again. I wouldn’t have thought those words would come out of your mouth.”
I shoved playfully at Tru’s shoulder. “Be nice. I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Clearly. But we love you anyway. You’re welcome to send over a drink. The lap dance…not so much because we’re a little territorial,” Tru added with a grin. I smiled, said my goodbyes, and took a little extra time handing over a fifty to their waiter. The waiter smiled and went over to the booth, and I made my way back to the girls.
“What were you doing with them?” Victoria asked. I narrowed my eyes, ready to defend my friends, but she held up a hand. “Not because they seem to be having a lovely gay bachelor party, but because you were with our group, not them. We may be bitches, but we’re not bigoted bitches. Duh.” She held up her martini glass. “Now, sit and enjoy the show.”
Relief spread through me, and I was grateful that she had just come right out and said it. She was right. They were bitches and proud of it, but they only judged people for their money and class—or lack thereof—not anything else. And that was a horrible thing to think about my former friends.
I sat down at the end of the booth and looked at the sparkly pink drink in front of me. Karen leaned over. “It’s a sparkling rosé with strawberries. Sounded good.”
“It looks tempting. Thank you.” The others held up their half-empty glasses, and we clinked and said our cheers. I took a drink of my sweet and sparkly concoction.
We were taking the limo home, so I could have as much as I wanted, but I wasn’t in the mood to drink tonight. Everybody seemed as if they were having fun, and I felt like I was two steps behind.
A voice came over the speaker, and I instinctively looked towards the stage. “And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. It’s time to tame this bad boy. He may be wearing leather, and he may have a few chains waiting for you behind these curtains, but…here we go. Let’s see what he has in those hips tonight.”
I winced as the girls screeched when a younger man with dark hair he’d brushed back slid onto the stage. He wore jeans with holes in the knees, a leather jacket, and a white T-shirt. He moved those hips so sensually, I couldn’t help but be drawn to them. I swallowed hard, wondering why I cared about this guy’s hips and not the firefighter’s—or his hose attachment.
“Look at him. Look at that bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks,” Samantha joked. “I wouldn’t mind figuring out exactly how bad he can be.”
“I know, right? Just a fling. Of course, my flings are over,” Victoria said, and I looked over as she wiggled her finger with her four-carat diamond ring.
I pulled my gaze from her and ignored how they continued talking about the bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks. They had no idea who this person was. They shouldn’t be talking bad about him, and I didn’t want to hear what they thought of him.
He moved his hips and slowly stripped off his leather jacket—to the delighted squeals and shouts of the crowd. He worked the music, getting low to the ground and grinding, but the shadows were above his face, and I couldn’t see any details.
Those arm muscles as he stripped off his shirt, though? Whoa. Dear, God. And that back of his was all broad muscle, too.
He was gorgeous. I couldn’t help but blush, yet I knew this was wrong. Ogling him. I shouldn’t be enjoying this. But I was a warm-blooded woman. Maybe I could have just a little fun. I let out a squeal with the rest of them, wanting to join in. And then he turned.
I stiffened, met his gaze for an instant, and all breath rushed out of me. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. I had to be seeing things. After all, I’d never been to a strip club before. Surely, the first one I went to wouldn’t have a stripper I recognized.
He didn’t seem to care when our eyes met. Instead, Tanner moved his hips and put one hand on his belt.
I swallowed hard, watching how his thumb swiped at the button of his jeans, first one and then another. I realized I hadn’t known men still wore button fly jeans.
I couldn’t breathe.
Tanner Hagen, the final roommate, my somewhat friend and somewhat nemesis, was currently stripping at my friend’s bachelorette party.
This was what death and mortification truly felt like.
My cheeks flamed, and I took a big swallow of my drink, nearly choking on it. “I have to use the bathroom.” The girls waved me off, not caring about my crudeness.
I nearly tripped over my heels as I made my way down the hallway and past another bouncer. “You going to hurl?” the bouncer asked.
I shook my head, my cheeks red. “I just need some air. Can I go out this back door?”
“No problem. You got your ticket?”
I held up my hand and waved it so his gaze went to the glowing wristband that served as the ticket. “Jeff out there will let you in when you’re ready. Just breathe. Take care of yourself.”
“Thanks,” I said, warmed by his care.
“You’re welcome. You won’t be alone out there. He’ll keep you safe.”
I stumbled out the back door, nodded at the other bouncer, took a few more steps, and then put my back to the brick. I sucked in a deep breath of the cool air and let out another. I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t do anything.
Tanner was a stripper?
I knew he worked late and long hours to pay for school and other things, but I didn’t know he was a stripper. Did anyone else?
No, they would have told me. Or…maybe not. It was none of my business. Hadn’t I just said that people were allowed to do whatever they needed to pay for school?
Tanner, though… The man who had starred in more than one of my fantasies was a stripper.
And he was even sexier in person than he was in my dreams.
All hard ridges, dark hair, and light eyes. He had a smattering of chest hair that glistened under the lights, but he was mostly all sweat-slick skin and rigid muscles, with a little trail of hair down from his belly button into those jeans I hadn’t looked too closely at because I had run before he fully pulled them off.