Page 13 of Switch Pitching

As the bartender swings by, I catch him with a quick wave. “I’ll take a beer,” I say, and before he can walk away, I turn to the women. “What about you guys? Looks like you’ve been trying for a while.”

They look at me in surprise before one of them, a short brunette with a cute smile, speaks up. “Oh, that’s so nice of you! We were all gonna get vodka crans,” she says, still smiling. “I’m Natalie, by the way. My friends here are Clara and Vanessa.”

“I’m James. Nice to meet you all.”

We chat for a while, the usual small talk and confirming if we’re locals or visiting. They all came here for a wedding, but the bride ran off with one of her bridesmaids and the groom started not-so-secretly hooking up with the bride’s brother. I ask if they’re on reality TV, but all three of them deny it. Long story short, they booked hotels for a week and aren’t letting the lack of a wedding stop them from enjoying the city.

Natalie and I are vibing hard. She’s laughing a lot while leaning in closer, and I find myself mirroring her energy, joking back and nudging her arm. Her dress is doing her curves all kinds of favors, and yeah, I notice. But I stay cool. Tonight is all about being out with the team and having fun.

Still, I wouldn’t mind if we went back to mine together. Not at all.

As the two of us talk, I notice that Clara and Vanessa occasionally glancing over at the team’s table and whispering amongst themselves in Spanish.

It’s hard to catch what they’re saying, but I can pick outalto,bueno, andcamisa verde. Oh damn, they’re talking about Ethan. Who else here is tall, hot, and wearing a green shirt?

“You want me to introduce my friend?” I ask in Spanish. They stare at me with surprised expressions before bursting into laughter.

“Yes, we’d really like that,” replies Clara.

I grin and nod, grabbing my beer and waving for them to follow me. As we approach the table, I notice that Will has vanished. Ethan is sitting alone now, nursing his drink and absentmindedly looking around.

“Hey, Ethan,” I say, tapping his shoulder. Startled, his head jerks up, but he recovers after seeing the group behind me. “These are my new friends, Clara, Vanessa, and Natalie.

Ethan flashes a friendly smile at them. “Hey, I’m Ethan.”

Clara and Vanessa waste no time sliding into the empty seats next to Ethan, instantly focusing all their attention on him. I turn back to Natalie, and she smirks while watching her friends flirt with Ethan.

“It seems like they’re super into him,” she says.

“Yeah, good for Ethan,” I reply, and Natalie giggles. “He doesn’t like being the center of attention.”

She tilts her head. “Huh. That’s interesting.”

I shrug, glancing over at Ethan who’s laughing at something Clara said. “He’s different,” I say, leaning back in my seat. “Kind of shy when it comes to stuff like this.”

“He’s cute,” Natalie says, her brown eyes flicking back to me. “But I’m more interested in the guy who bought me a drink.”

Hell yeah. I wrap my arm around Natalie, pumped that the wild night I was looking for seems to be taking shape.

Okay, when I wanted to organize a wild night, I didn’t bargain for somethingthiscrazy. Natalie got wasted out of nowhere, started dancing on the table, and got ushered out by Clara and Vanessa at some point.

Somehow, those two went from being flirty to friendly, dragging Ethan out onto the patio to shotgun beers at one point.That totally caught me off guard, but Ethan looked like he was having the time of his life.

As if that wasn’t enough, the team kept buying him shots. Hats off to Ethan, though, because the guy can hold his alcohol like a champ.

Now, things seem to be shifting. I assured the team that we’d be fine to stay, but Ethan’s starting to stumble.

“I’m gonna shleep riiight here,” Ethan slurs, his head slumping forward onto his arms. A silly grin spreads across his face, and I laugh. This is going to be a long night.

“You hungry?” I offer. A burger might soak up some of that tequila-vodka-beer-scotch mixture that’s gotta be wreaking havoc on his stomach right now. To my surprise, Ethan’s eyes widen and he shoots up from the table before heading straight for the door.

Shit. This guy has like five inches on me and walksfast.

“Ethan, wait up!” I call out, trying to catch up to him.

His fast pace means it isn’t long before we reach a stand on the side of the road where the line is pretty short. Ethan orders two double cheeseburgers, and I get a bacon burger for myself. We find a bench off to the side and I watch as Ethan devours his food with surprising speed. Burgers seem to sober him up a bit, giving me some hope that he recovers. I don’t have the energy to chase a drunk Ethan around the city, not this late into the night.

All my hope is misplaced, apparently, because the two double cheeseburgers he ordered might as well have been full of sedatives. Now, instead of drunk Ethan, I have tired Ethan to take care of. Not that I mind. Hanging out with him has been a blast.

---