It's Called Sarcasm [1] ⌲ Twombly

12 | cute guys and strippers

Somehow we end up in a dance club just down the street from this cute little Chinese restaurant we had eaten dinner at. The place is full of people; music is booming, people are whistling, and most of all people are dancing.

Woman are dancing.

On poles.

With hardly any clothes on.

"Are you sure the guy said dance club?" I scream at Billy over the loud music.

"You know, I was rocking Mandarin, he was rocking Cantonese- something clearly got confused in the middle but I say happy accident, right?" Billy laughs.

A woman in a black bar and panties comes strutting up to Stuart, who is messing around on his phone, paying no heed.

"Great big world out there, my friend." Nick says to him. "Just three inches up I beg you."

Stuart brings his face up and looks into the woman's eyes, a dopey look on his face.

"Well, sure, he'll look at anyone like that as long as they have no clothes on." I mumble.

Suddenly the woman is shoving Stuart's fingers into her mouth, making my eyes go wide. "Oh...wow." Stuart shudders. "Holy shit, that's deep."

The woman begins to pull him onto the dance floor and his eyes meet mine for a split second before he's being pulled away from me.

"That's our cue, let's go." Billy says, and the rest of us are entering the club.

"Great. Perfect." I mutter, folding my arms over my chest.

"You okay there, firecracker?" Nick asks me, raising his eyebrows.

"Who, me? Yeah, totally. I'm fine." I say, trying to smile at him. But then my eyes land on Stuart again and it disappears. Billy follows my gaze and his lips part in understanding.

"Is uh, is Stuart the reason you didn't want to talk about that hickey?" He asks, arching an eyebrow. I look up at the two men and sigh, nodding.

"Yeah, okay. We kind of...got busy last night." I murmur.

"I see." Nick says with a nod. "Hey, Macaroni, there's no reason to be ashamed! We've all had workplace romances."

"It's not that I'm ashamed. I just, I don't know exactly what to do about all this. I mean, I've never really had a...Stuart before."

"Oh, I get it. You've never had a real relationship before?"

I nod. "Look, I have imagined everything. But I've never done anything. Especially with someone I work with it."

"Hey, Mack, you're secret is safe with us." Billy says. "And hey, to be completely honest with you, I think you and him actually make a pretty good pair."