Page 111 of Game Changer

“Thank you, some days it takes all I have.Anyway,as I was saying – though you weren’t listening and didn’t give a crap. Your birthday.”

AJ groaned.

Nope.

“What about it?”

“What are we doing for it?”

“Nothing.”

Jeremy made the ‘wrong answer’ buzzer noise you’d hear in a gameshow.

“Dude, your girlfriend said, ‘Jeremy, I can’t be there to give my boy a great birthday. Make it special for him.’ And I ain’t sleeping with you, she’d kill me dead if I took you to a strip club, so you have to make do with the guys, burgers, beer and the band – ‘cause I know you like alliteration.”

“Fine,” he sighed, irritably.

Jeremy raised his eyebrow. “Dude! Rude. I know you miss her, but come on, the gang’s almost all gonna be here. At leastpretendnot to hate every minute?”

“Sorry, man. I do appreciate the effort.”

“Tomorrow night.”

“What? Wait. No. What? Who?”

“Everyone. It’s gonna be a barn burner.”

“No! You can’t just – no! You can’t just spring this on me, Jer.”

“Au contraire, amigo. I absolutely can, and I have. I couldn’t have you slipping your way out of this one. Tomorrow. Be there, or we’ll come kidnap you against your will and inflict fun upon you.”

AJ glared at Jeremy.

“That’s the spirit!”

***

AJ sat nursing a beer on the stage, surrounded by his friends. He was distracted and couldn’t focus his attention for any decent length of time at all. While he’d appreciated the effort his friends had gone to to celebrate his birthday, he secretly wished they’d just let him mope at home, alone, with a pizza and a couple beers. His planned set was way more somber than a birthday celebration called for, but he couldn’t help himself, he just wanted to be elsewhere.

Right Jer, I’ll stay an hour. You have one hour. Then I’m going home and napping ‘til Lisa wakes up. She’s been quiet today and I miss her. We’ll watch a long-distance movie together and cuddle up over the phone.

“Holy crap, it’s Lisa!”

Tell me about it, Chels, it’s always friggin’ Lisa. She’s in my every goddamn thought. How did she know what you were thinking ab–

AJ looked up and there she was, standing in front of him. Wearing a skirt.

Since when does she wear skirts? And boots? Who is this woman who looks like my girlfriend?

“Um. Surprise?” she laughed a little.

“You’re here.” AJ said, his voice barely above a whisper.

How the hell is she here? How did she know where to find me? What the hell is going on right now?

“No shit, Sherlock!”

“Happy birthday?” she tried again.

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