Page 8 of Stags

Athos sidled up to him. “Little drool there,” he said, nodding at his mouth.

“Fuck you,” said Stockton in a guttural voice. He was not drooling, but he might as well be.

Athos cleared his throat, looking down into his gin and tonic.

One of the women turned around, raising her eyebrows at the both of them. “Are you two standing there ogling us?”

“No,” said Stockton, too quickly, staring up at the ceiling.

Athos took a drink of gin and tonic, gazing back at this woman, seemingly nonplussed. “Well, it’s a very nice view, so what can I say?”

The woman turned around all the way. She had a glass of white wine in her hand. The other two women turned around, too.

“What’s your play?” said the first doe. “You can’t think you’re going to win points by telling me you like looking at my friends’ tails.”

Athos considered, toying with the tip of one of his antlers. “You’re not wrong, I guess. But I’m not really thinking clearly at the moment.”

She snorted.

He shrugged.

“The problem with men is weaponized incompetence,” she said.

“Maybe we justareincompetent,” said Athos. “Maybe the problem was that we weren’t aware of it before, you know, when we were taking credit for all the accomplishments that we could only do because of the help of women? Now, we get it. And we’re useless. You expect too much of us.”

“That line work for you?” she said.

“Let me buy you a drink,” he said.

She lifted her wine glass. “Just here for the one. We’re heading out for a girls’ dinner.”

Why was it that they were allowed to call themselves girls, though? Stockton didn’t entirely understand.

“But you are here for the rite?” said Athos, and his voice had gone deep and suggestive.

She glared at him. “You know, we were warned about this kind of behavior in our orientation.”

“What kind of behavior?” said Athos.

“Unwanted advances, harassment, general arrogant dickery,” she said idly.

“That’s what I’m doing, huh?” Athos stepped closer to her. “Really? Is how you flirt, because I have to say, I like it. What’s your name?”

“This is not how I flirt,” said the doe, but her voice had gotten very breathy.

Stockton cleared his throat. “What, um, was warned about in the orientation?”

One of the other women was a younger doe with generous hips that were incredibly squeezable and looking at them made Stockton’s pants even tighter. She spoke up. “Oh, they told us that the bucks are honor bound to stop if we say no. Is that true?”

Stockton looked at her face, and he realized that he fuckingknewher. She was one of his ex-girlfriend Maibell’s friends. He couldn’t remember her name, but... moon and sun, this was embarrassing. He looked down. “I mean, obviously, that’s true.”

Don’t let on that we know each other,he begged her silently.

When he looked up at her, she had tilted her head to take him in, looking confused.

“I’m Stockton,” he said. “We’ve obviously never met.”

“Oh,” she said. “I’m Rora.”

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