As it turned out Nick really did hit it off with Peggy’s friend Tommy. It had been almost an hour since Tommy and Becca had arrived at the house and they’d had the opportunity to just sit and chat in the living room while waiting for the girls. Nick couldn’t stop himself from checking his watch every ten minutes while the other man just laughed at his impatience.

It was allegedly quite a common occurrence for these girls to rush everyone only to then slow the process down while they finished getting ready. From what he’d been able to get out of them they were doing their makeup. Nick wasn’t entirely sure how much makeup they were putting on but he didn’t think it would require more than an hour, especially when Becca had arrived with her face done up to start with.

The two men had found they had quite a bit in common. In appearance they were polar opposites - Tommy was short, on the stocky side with short brown hair and brown eyes. He didn’t have much of a sense for fashion and was dressed in an oversized t-shirt and a pair of loose fitting jeans that did nothing to give him a shape other than square. He reminded Nick of the kind of guy that still lived in his mother’s basement and didn’t have many aspirations in life, combined with his own fashion sense when he was in his early twenties.

Regardless of first impressions, he seemed like a nice guy. They both liked football (albeit, Tommy was originally from Boston and a lifelong New England Patriots fan), video games, golfing and fishing so there was no shortage of things to talk about. Eventually though, the conversation turned to the women upstairs as they both started to get antsy.

“I should go up there and see what they’re doing,” Nick commented, eyeing the staircase.

Tommy considered the option then cautiously shook his head. “I know we just met but I’m already wondering if you have a death wish. Going up there would be crazy. You don’t know what you’ll find up there.”

Nick couldn’t help but crack a smile at the other man’s dry sense of humour but the temptation to break up the hen party above their heads was still strong. He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had made him wait quite so long. They had told everyone else to meet them at the club at eleven and it was already half past ten.

“This is just silly,” he pointed out. “It’s been an hour.”

Leaving Tommy on the couch, Nick walked up to the staircase and cocked an ear in the direction of the bedroom, trying to hear any noise. He called out to his girlfriend, repeating her name two more times with no answer. He reluctantly made his way up the stairs, eyes rolling as he took the steps two at a time.

“Peggy!” he repeated as he swung open the door. His eyes went wide at the sight in front of him. There was twice the amount of clothes now strewn across the bed and his girlfriend was again holding up dresses in front of her half naked body, this time for her friend’s opinion.

“Don’t you knock?” Peggy asked irritably, sending him a dirty look.

“This is my bedroom!” Nick exclaimed, still staring at her wide-eyed. There was an almost empty wine bottle sitting on the bedside table and both women had clearly had a fair amount to drink. “What the hell are you doing? I thought you were dressed already and doing your makeup.”

“I didn’t like what I was wearing,” she shrugged, tossing the dress she was holding back onto the bed before starting the hunt for another one.

Nick let out a frustrated grunt, “What was wrong with it? It looked fine.”

“It wasn’t right,” Becca piped up and Peggy agreed.

“Why are you just standing around naked in front of your friend?” Nick questioned, as if only then realizing that Peggy wasn’t totally dressed.

“I’m trying on clothes!”

“Bra?” he asked sarcastically, resisting the urge to cover her chest and give her some semblance of modesty.

“Some of these dresses are backless,” she reasoned. “What would be the point in trying the dress on with one if I can’t wear one with it? Besides, it’s nothing she hasn’t seen before. This may come as a shock but she has breasts too.”

“How much have you had to drink?” he asked, moving to pick up the bottle and see exactly how much was in there. “This isn’t the same one you were drinking at dinner, did you finish that one?”

“What is this, prohibition?” Peggy laughed. “We’re pre-drinking.”

“You don’t need to pre-drink. I paid for bottle service, which is waiting for us at the club right now,” he rolled his eyes. “Would you just hurry up so we can go and clean this shit up? We’re going to have to sleep on this bed tonight.”

“Yes, Dad,” Peggy giggled.

“Hey now, go easy on him,” Becca said sarcastically. “He might be old but he’s still a few years shy of being able to be your father!”

The two of them continued giggling and Nick just shook his head at their immaturity.

“Both of you,” he pointed to each of them individually, “are evil bitches. Hurry up or I’m leaving without you and I’m going to pick someone up and bring her home to have sex on top of your clothes.”

“Mean,” Peggy glared at him playfully. She then ushered him back out of the room so she could finish getting dressed.

Nick let out a heavy breath as he made his way back downstairs where Tommy was curiously looking over the photographs that were hung on the wall by the stairs.

“They ready?” the other man asked but Nick just shook his head.

“Nah, I have a feeling they’re going to be a while longer. Foosball?”

“Foosball,” Tommy agreed and the pair made their way to Nick’s rec room to pass the time.

~*~

One game of table soccer turned into two and eventually Nick found himself back up in the bedroom trying to get control of the two women who were currently holding up their entire evening. After some persuading and the promise that he would get the DJ to play their favourite songs they got both women loaded into the car and headed out for the night.

Many of the people Peggy had invited had already arrived by the time they got there. Nick and Tommy watched in awe at how quickly the girls all gravitated towards each other, all squealing and giggling as they hugged as though they hadn’t seen each other in years.

The two men opted to mix themselves drinks then grab a set of comfortable-looking leather chairs that looked off the glass balcony onto the rest of the club. They could see everyone drinking and dancing below and took the opportunity to just sit and chat while they nursed their drinks and their women got even more intoxicated.

Nick was just polishing off the last of his drink when suddenly Peggy dropped down into his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. As if on autopilot his hand instinctively slid up the skirt of her dress, resting comfortably on her hip.

“Hi baby,” he smiled. “Are you having fun?”

“Yes,” she grinned in return, “my friends all love you because there is so much free alcohol. We’re gonna go down there and dance,” she pointed to the busy dance floor below. “You should come.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Nah, maybe later. I’ll watch you from up here though.”

Peggy pouted dramatically and Nick couldn’t help but chuckle at her drunkenness. “I want to dance with you,” she whined.

“Later,” he repeated firmly. “I’m just gonna chill here with Tommy for a bit.”

Reluctantly, she nodded though it was clear she wasn’t impressed with his decision to not going her and her friends on the dance floor. She was lingering on his lap and Nick got the impression there was something on the tip of her tongue that she wanted to say. She had a tendency to get a restless look on her face when there was something bugging her that she needed to just get out in the open.

“Out with it,” he encouraged her while lightly slapping her on the side of the thigh. “You have something to say, I can see it bouncing around in that head of yours.”

“I feel bad asking you...”

“To dance?” his brow wrinkled in confusion.

“No,” Peggy bit her lip, “It’s just... a couple of my friends wanted to know if it would be cool to get a picture with you. I said I would ask.”

Nick blinked slowly, taking a moment to digest the request. “Are you for real right now? I’m not working.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I just said I would ask!” she replied defensively, taking his face in her hands. “Can I at least tell them maybe another time?”

He nodded slightly then closed the gap between them, his lips pressing against hers lightly. Reluctantly he pulled away, sighing contentedly at the feeling of her hands thumbs stroking the short beard along his jaw. “Tell them... if they’re still around when we leave tonight I’ll take some pictures.”

“Thank you,” Peggy said sincerely, kissing him once more before she hopped off his lap to rejoin her friends who were making their way down the steps from the balcony to the dance floor below.

After watching them depart Tommy looked back at Nick with an amused expression. “I didn’t realize that celebrities had set working hours.”

“I don’t,” Nick clarified, “but people seem to think that I’m going to be cool to take photos and sign autographs and chat with them all the time. You get days off from work, shouldn’t I? Don’t get me wrong, I love it, I love my fans. Sometimes though I just want to chill out. I get sick of people asking me to hold signs like, ‘Oh this is just an inside joke, you won’t get it but all my friends on Twitter will!’ meanwhile I have no idea if what it says is making me look like a douchebag. Then if I look like shit, or I’m not smiling, or I’m a little bit drunk they judge me for ruining their photo and heaven forbid I be in a bad mood! Sometimes I’d just like to do my thing without someone gawking at me. Maybe that makes me an asshole, I don’t know.”

“I don’t think it makes you an asshole. You’re only human,” the other man sympathized. “I never really thought about those kinds of things before. I always figured that’s kind of what you signed up for.”

“I signed up for singing,” Nick chuckled. “I just want to make music whether people buy it or not. Fame is just a side effect. I’m not complaining though because really... I’m fucking loaded, man. Those girls have filled my bank account, that’s for sure!”

“Nevermind, you are an asshole!” Tommy threw his head back, the pair of them laughing loudly.

“I am,” Nick laughed in agreement. He reached over and grabbed the bottle of vodka from the table between them, holding it up with a questioning glance. With approval from the other man he poured them both a drink, mixing it cranberry juice from a decanter. He had never been much of a beer drinker, always having preferred hard liquor even though most of his drinks could be considered girly. He had never asked Tommy what kind of a drinker he was but he honestly didn’t care. Alcohol was alcohol.

As he reached out to pass the other man his drink the site of someone familiar walking up the stairs to the VIP area caught Nick’s eye. He did a double take, at first unsure of whether he was truly seeing who he thought. With a chuckle he rested his drink down on the table and excused himself, unable to keep himself from going over to say hello.