City of Sin - Epilogue
Mason
My best friend was finally getting hitched.
I still wasn't sure why James hadn't asked me to be his best man though.
The best man was supposed to be a best friend .
Not a little brother. I took another sip of my scotch as we waited for Rob to arrive.
Another reason why Rob shouldn't be the best man.
..he didn't value the functionality of a watch.
"We should already be on the way to James' office," Matt said, checking his Rolex.
See. Matt understood the concept of time. "This is why I should have been the best man."
Matt laughed. "You gotta let that go. James isn't going to change his mind."
I ignored him and took another sip of scotch.
"Look at it this way," Matt said. "When you marry Bee, who are you going to ask to be your best man?" He pointed to his chest.
"But that's different."
He laughed. "How is that different? Rob's my best friend, but I'm still going to ask you to be my best man. You're going to ask me, just like I'm going to ask you. Just like James asked Rob and Rob will ask James. You're just butthurt that you don't get to host the bachelor party at your new club."
"I'm not butthurt." What the hell was he talking about?
My ass was fine. "But yeah, I pushed up the opening date so that we could celebrate there.
And now not only did Rob finalize the bachelor party plans without me, but he also didn't give me enough notice to cancel the opening night of Club Onyx.
I'm going to miss it." I was the king of bachelor parties.
Ask any male on the Upper East Side. I'd had this party planned to a T, despite James and Bee's concerns.
If I wasn't allowed to be the best man, I could at least throw the best damned bachelor party ever.
And I thought Rob and I were on the same page.
..until he finalized the itinerary at the last moment.
"There will be plenty of parties there. No worries."
He didn't get it. Bee Inspired Media Group was doing amazing.
But Club Onyx was a fun side project Bee and I were doing together.
A top-secret, exclusive club. Not even Matt knew all the particulars.
He also didn't know that Bee was involved with the planning.
After I called it quits on my underground dealings, we thought it would be fun to start something on the up and up. Together. Just...hushed.
"Will Bee be attending the grand opening without you this weekend?"
I almost spit out my scotch. "What? No. She doesn't..."
"I know that she knows. Obviously she knows. The two of you are glued to the hip."
I opened my mouth and then closed it again. There was no point in lying to him if he already knew. "No, she won't be going without me."
"Are you sure about that? Maybe she's planning Penny's bachelorette party there. I can't even imagine all the crazy stuff they could get into."
I laughed. "No. She definitely wouldn't tell Penny about Club Onyx."
Matt shrugged. "Yeah, probably not. Penny's too innocent for something like that." He looked down at his glass.
Recently Matt had been saying weird shit like that. Smart remarks about Penny and James. He was giving me a lot of shit when it seemed like he was upset about something too. Maybe he was pissed he wasn't James' best man either. Before I could ask him about it, he started talking again.
"So who's holding down the fort for opening weekend if you two aren't attending?"
"Our business partner, Tanner Rhodes."
"Tanner Rhodes?" Rob asked and clapped me on the back.
I glanced at my watch to verify that Rob was over twenty minutes late. Turd. Okay, fine. Maybe I was a little jealous that he was the best man.
"I don't trust that guy," Rob said. "He seems...off."
"Tanner?" I shook my head. "You just have to get to know him. He's cool. And I'm pretty sure he has infinite funds, which means he's a great business partner."
"Maybe so. But I swear I saw him wearing elf shaped Crocs the other day outside that new sex club you're starting with Bee."
Rob knows too? How the hell does everyone know Bee's involved in this? "Bee isn't part of..."
Rob pretended to crack a whip and made the accompanying whooshing noise. "Of course she is. You do everything together."
"Whatever, you're both just jealous that I'm in love." After the words fell out of my mouth I instantly regretted them. Not just because they were cheesy as hell, but because Rob chuckled and Matt started laughing hysterically.
"Right," Matt said. "Because being in love is better than..." he scanned the bar for a victim. "Fucking that brunette's brains out."
I didn't even bother turning to see who he was talking about. I had my girl. And these two idiots just weren't getting it. "You'll both see. One day you'll want to settle down and you'll understand."
Instead of laughing, Rob just shrugged. And then he abruptly changed the topic. "Sorry I was late, by the way. I got stuck in traffic. I really need to move back to the city."
That was a weird segue.
"And I'm sorry about the last minute change of plans," Rob said. "I just really needed to get out of the country for a bit. Do you ever find that you kinda get stuck in a rut with your routine? I feel like I need a change. I'm getting restless in Newark."
Matt and I exchanged looks. What was up with Rob tonight?
He'd usually be the first to make some crude remark about the brunette in the corner.
And he rarely ever tried to start philosophical discussions.
Yes, I joked around with Rob about him being immature and annoying.
But only because I viewed him like another little brother.
We weren't just friends. We were family.
Which meant his odd behavior had me a little worried. "You okay?" I asked.
"What?" Rob smiled like he always did. It was rare not to see a smile on his face.
Like it was rare not to see his older brother scowling.
"Yeah, I'm good. Of course. And I brought everything we need for the kidnapping.
" He tapped his satchel. "We should probably get going before James leaves for work.
I want to make sure we take him by surprise.
And our flight leaves in...well, it'll wait I guess. " He smiled again.
Luckily we weren't flying commercial, or Rob definitely would have made us miss our flight.
But I wasn't really worried about his lack of time management anymore. Something was seriously up with him. He’d seemed fine when he got here.
So... Holy shit . I stared at him. It was my love comment that made him act weird.
Not joking around about the brunette. Feeling like he was restless?
I was pretty sure Rob was ready to settle down.
But instead of saying anything, I kept my mouth shut.
The last thing he needed was for me to joke around about it.
Especially if he didn't even realize what he was missing yet.
I closed our tab and followed him and Matt out to the town car. It was only a few minutes before we arrived at James' office building. We all stepped out of the car and grabbed the necessities out of Rob's satchel.
"Let's go scare the shit out of our best friend. The bachelor party starts...now!" I pulled on the black mask in the middle of the busy New York City sidewalk.
Rob laughed and pulled on his mask too. Matt followed suit.
Maybe this weekend officially marked the end of James' being a bachelor.
But I had a feeling Rob would be following his lead soon.
You never know. Maybe he'd find someone at the Blue Parrot Resort this weekend.
After all, all the best love stories always begin with a good old-fashioned kidnapping. Or something like that…
I lifted my very-real-looking fake gun. Rob was notoriously good at getting arrested for stupid shit just like this. Please don't let me end up in prison. Bee would seriously kill me if she had to bail me out of jail.
"This is a hold up!" Rob yelled as we burst through the doors of the first floor.
A few women who were leaving for the day screamed and ran outside.
Yeah...we were definitely going to get arrested this weekend.