Page 29 of Desperate Haste

“Hey, I didn’t know you were going to be here.” I reach an arm towards him and he fist bumps my glove. The silver ring he always wears on his left hand touches my glove as he gives me a smile.

He lifts the straw fedora he likes to sport and adjusts it on his head. “I, uh, thought I would stop by and talk to Reese after a morning appointment.”

My eyes glance towards the training clock on the wall. It’s hardly ten in the morning, what kind of appointment do you go and come back from before ten in the morning? I look back towards my mentor and sponsor with narrowed eyes.

“What kindof appointment?”

“The kind of appointment you don’t need to worry about or get to know about because you’re not my kid.” He laughs once, trying to be funny. “I’m gonna go talk to Reese, see you later at the bar.” He smacks my sweaty arm with the back of his hand and nods at me before heading off towards Reese’s office. As he goes, I notice a slight dip in his step that I hadn’t noticed before now.

Looking back at the clock, I know I need to get a move on if I want to get to work on time to open at eleven. Grabbing my bag, I toss it over my shoulder and shake the sweat out of my hair as I make my way towards the showers. Before stepping into the locker rooms, I turn and look towards Reese’s office which has a large window in it so you can see inside from the main part of the gym. As I look in, I see Reese stand from his chair, clap hands with Marshall, and pull him in for a hug. The somber expression in his eyes causes my stomach to nearly fall out of my ass.

* * *

My shift passesby without lagging or drama other than the fact that Marshall avoided me the entire two hours he was at the restaurant. It’s per his normal routine to come in for a few hours at a time a couple days a week and check in to make sure we aren’t in desperate need for anything. At this point, between me, Alice, and Benny, we run Butcher and Block almost entirely without him. When he is here, he will normally sit around, chat, and shoot the shit with customers as if he is one himself. Today, though, he spends his entire visit holed up in his office with the door closed and slips out over the lunch rush before I can corner him and ask him more about his morning appointment. I ask Alice if she thinks he is acting weird when she comes in to take over but she hasn’t noticed.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid.

While he is my sponsor and my boss, Marshall is so much more than that. He is my mentor, a solid ear to talk to, and more than anything, like a grandfather to me. When we met at my first N.A. meeting he took me under his wing no questions asked and got me back on my feet. He brought me to the bar and helped me get clean. When I wanted to fall down the rabbit hole, he would pull me out of it and bring me back to highgrounds. Just the thought of him being sick or something being wrong with him nearly brings me to my knees. Next time I see him I’ll make sure to check in on him.

I pull my truck into the driveway of my best friend’s house just like I always do on Wednesdays. I look into my rearview mirror when the sound of a motorcycle closing in on me catches my attention. Pulling my lips back into a smile, I step out of my truck and watch as Hank and his new bride jump off his bike and strip out of their gear. They live virtually around the corner from Kolbi but still ride his bike here every week. I watch as Hank helps Bailey out of her helmet, then jacket, and finish their routine by tucking everything away in its rightful place before walking up to me.

“Hey, Malcolm, lookin’ good dude.” Hank offers me a hand which I take before we both instinctually lean in for a hug that resembles that of Reese and Marshall’s that I observed earlier this morning.

“Thanks, same to you. Still working out at the ass crack of dawn?”

“You know it. I just try to keep up with my wife here. She kicks my ass more than the military ever did.” Hank nods his head towards Bailey and I give her a cocky smirk.

“I’d let her kick my ass any day,” I hum.

“You can only wish to be so lucky,” she snips with a sharp head nod before taking Hank’s hand and pulling him inside behind her.

“When are you going to learn that hitting on my wife is only going to make me wanna hit you?” he says over his shoulder and I can’t help but laugh. At one point, my advances may have been sincere, but now they’re just empty words. The only person I want to hit on just so happens to be Bailey’s best friend. Who also lives just around the corner from Kolbi…

When the three of us step inside the historic home, the smell of fresh cookies fills the air. We kick off our shoes and walk down the front hallway. Once in the kitchen, we find Kolbi, Magnolia, and Conrad standing at the bar, each one of them with a cookie in their hand.

“Oohh, what are those?” Bailey’s eyes go wide as she moves towards Magnolia. She pulls the petite brunette into a hug and turns towards the plate with ready fingers.

“A new cookie recipe I’m trying,” Magnolia explains with a soft smile. Her eyes look up towards Kolbi who’s watching her with contentment and she shrugs. “It makes me feel better. It’s something my therapist suggested.”

“You started going? I’m so proud of you, Mags.” Bailey must have known this was something the newest member of our weird little family was considering and pulls her in for another hug.

“Thanks, I only just started. Kolbi is a great listener but I need someone with an outside perspective to talk to about what’s going on with my family. Things are going well so far.” Magnolia leans into the hand Kolbi placed on the small of her back and loops an arm around him.

“I’m so proud of you, flower,” he praises before planting a kiss on the top of her head. When she looks up at him you can see the love in her eyes. Without meaning to, my brain wonders if there will ever be a chance of Ophelia looking at me in the same way.

“Since we’re all here, can we get started?” Conrad asks gently, for once not trying to be an ass.

“Yes, Tolith, we can get started,” Kolbi sighs, calling Conrad by his character name. As the leader of our weekly Dungeons and Dragons sessions, it’s up to him to tell the story the three of us will play through. He’s held the job of Dungeon Master since we picked our campaign back up last summer once Hank came home, and honestly, he is the best one for the job. Conrad, Hank, and I play as different types of characters in the made up world we have built. I, of course, modeled my character after myself and I’m a silver tongued college of swords bard and halfling. More often than not, I can smooth talk our way out of a situation even if I’m the one who has gotten us into it in the first place. There were more than a few times I’d put my foot in my mouth and gotten us into trouble.

My friends and I make our way to the dining table as Bailey and Magnolia head towards the living room to hang out together like they always do. An hour or so in, the boys and I are standing at the bottom of a tower trying to figure out how to free the princess trapped inside. We need to figure out how to get to her before the local bandits do or else she will be killed and our chances of retrieving the mythic scroll we need from her will be lost. As if on cue, Kolbi conjures up a dragon that is encircling the tower, making our chances of getting her that much more difficult. I grab the die in my hand and toss it across the table.

“With that roll, you advance forward past the guards and make it up the back stairwell to the second landing of the castle tower. Nice job, Denis de Brey,” Kolbi remarks from his seat.

“Shocking. For once you’re not the reason we’re so totally fucked,” Conrad chides and I flip him off from my seat. With my turn over, I look around the table at my friends who are entranced in the game. We have a ‘no phones at the table’ rule but with them distracted by the story, I pull out my phone quickly and send off a text.

Just so you know, if you were a damsel in distress, I would come and save you from the dragon

After a moment, my phone buzzes in my pocket and I reach to read it.

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