Once again, many thanks to "Aaroneous" for the great story suggestions and for all the time it takes editing my 'soap operas'. I understand the patience and length of time it takes to read through my stories and pick out the many repeated errors. Your help is greatly appreciated! Mostly by those who take the time to read our stories.
Silver Lining Playbook
"My house tomorrow. Five o'clock. And I don't give a shit what happens, don't be late," Alex yelled over the partition, from three stalls away. He was in a hurry because he had a tee time for nine holes after work and didn't want to be late.
"I'll try," I said, stringing him along. "What should I bring?"
"Red. Morgan always loves it when you surprise her with a bottle of red." He had his briefcase in one hand and his jacket in the other. "And never mind the 'I'll try' bullshit. Tyler don't fuck me on this one. Five o'clock. It's important to me."
"I won't let you down."
My smile and wave did nothing to quell his anxiety about me being late. In the past I suppose I gave him plenty of good reasons to worry about me not showing, but recently, I'd gotten better, much better and my reliability had improved. At least I Kept telling myself it had.
"Five o'clock" was the last thing I heard as the elevator doors closed in front of him.
Alex shouldn't be worried. Lately I've found that spending a Saturday night at his place was far better than staying home alone. I mean, I like, love, and hate my place. It's the perfect location, but when I'm there all alone, I don't feel normal. Probably due to all of the memories and the urges to entertain, but I have no one in my life other than Alex and Morgan.
I live in Minneapolis. So does Alex. We grew up together. We went to school together. Graduated Southwest High School together. Went to different universities, but we got our degrees on the very same day, moved home, and started our lives.
Earlier on, we shared a condo downtown by the river for a couple of years. We worked at different companies but had the same hours. Our place was always party central. A revolving door of girls, wine in a cardboard box, cases of beer, and pizza boxes. They all entered full, and most left empty, or at least feeling empty. That was until the day Alex met Morgan. I remember it well because it was the day my life also changed.
*****
Choosing beer over work, Alex and I made the short walk to our favorite place. The place he first saw the woman he would marry.
Morgan was lawn bowling upstairs at Brit's Pub. Her small entourage seemed to follow her every move, like when a flock of birds for some reason only known to them, follow the lead bird. She turned left, so did they. She stopped, so did they. Anyway, we watched from a distance. She was way out of Alex's league, but my boy had courage, a bit of bravery, and smarts on his side, so he did the unthinkable and went up to her.
"We'll play the winner," Alex said. It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
"For drinks?" Morgan looked him up and down as she said it.
"Absolutely," Alex said with the cocky swagger of a man about get a free beer from the hottest girl in the bar.
We waited our turn patiently. Morgan and her partner won the game, and we were up. I was a little disappointed as the girl that had been playing moved off the grass and started chatting with a group of her friends. Alex and I stood on the short-bladed lawn waiting, and finally from out of the crowd came another blonde. Morgan's new partner was also a smoke show. Long blond hair pulled over one shoulder and she was sporting a hard tight body.
"Sorry, I had to pee." The blonde wasn't shy about where she had been. She looked at us looking at her and told us so point blank. "What? Everyone does it."
"Ladies first," Alex called out, trying to change the subject.
"Wow. How very chivalrous of you. We usually flip a coin, but since you and your buddy must be dying to buy us a drink, we'll go first," Morgan told Alex.
"Tyler," I held my hand out to the girl that just arrived.
"Lauren." She shook my hand. I noted that her hand was damp. "Sorry, no paper towels. Don't worry, it's not pee."
I laughed and smiled. She was so funny and cute, I wouldn't have cared if it was a little bit of urine.
Alex and Morgan played hard. It was a fierce battle. Well, as fierce a battle as rolling a little ball over well-manicured grass can get, but in the end, Morgan screamed and jumped in the air. I hadn't even been keeping score. I was too enthralled by Lauren.
"Well, it looks like I owe you a drink," I said to Lauren, as the waitress neared us. "Peroni, please. And for the lady..." I looked at Lauren and waited for her to answer.
"Gin and tonic please. Two limes." With our orders in hand, she moved to Alex.
"Hi, can we get a couple of Boddington's?" The waitress began to write the drink order down when Morgan interrupted.
"Are you drinking both of those?" she asked.
"No, I thought..." Alex stated. He was trying to show a bit of machismo by ordering for the girl who had just kicked his ass at the very physical sport of lawn bowling.
"Macallan 18 for me please." Morgan's request stopped him in his tracks. After taking the order, the waitress left a shocked Alex standing with his mouth open.
"Macallan's! What the hell do you order when you're the one paying?" My friend was losing his mind.
"Water," was her simple answer.
The four of us found a table and waited for our drinks. Like us, Lauren and Morgan were roommates. Both worked at the same office and had been friends since they met at college.
With lively conversation and lots of laughs, we seemed to be getting along well. So well, that we lost track of time. The girls had switched to water when we ordered some snacks, so Alex was only on the hook for one Macallan shot. We exchanged numbers and made promises to stay in touch as we walked out of Brit's, knowing full well that similar things are said daily in every pub and bar around the world but only a handful ofpeople keep those promises.
The sun started to dip behind the taller buildings of downtown. The evening hours set in and threatened to turn daylight to dusk. A different crowd would soon take over the bar. A younger, more boisterous crowd. We all agreed we made the right choice to call it an evening but, as we stood in front of Brit's Pub, there was an uneasy silence as nobody seemed willing to go their separate ways.
"Walk us home?" Finally, Morgan broke the ice.
Alex stumbled out a "sure" and looked at me as if begging me to agree.
I looked at Lauren and made my own play.
"Do you like baseball?" I asked.
"Sure. My whole family are Tiger fans." I forgot that upstairs she told me she was from Detroit.
"Feel like going to watch the Twins?" I pointed in the direction of Target Field.
"Hasn't the game already started?" She looked as if she could see the game from where we were standing.
"Yeah, but I have a buddy that's a grounds keeper. He gets me in for free."
Two minutes later, we climbed into a cab and watched as Alex walked away on the sidewalk with Morgan.
*****
