Page 45 of Mending Me
Holding her hand in mine, I pushed open the front door and shouted down the long entry hallway toward the kitchen where I knew the guys would be.
“Alright, assholes, who’s here already?”
“We’re in here you dicklicker, hurry up so we can start!” Conrad shouted back. I turned to look at my girl who was laughing as she followed me.
“You wanna a beer Hanky? Hey, how’s that hot piece of a—” Malcolm had his head in the fridge as he was speaking but stopped abruptly when he turned around to see who was with me.
“Hot piece of what now?” Bailey mocked as he made eye contact with her. Her head was cocked to one side and a grin was growing on her face.That’s my girl, give it right back to him.My heart swelled with pride watching her hold her own with my friends.
Conrad took a step closer to us, looking towards the voice that didn’t belong, and furrowed his eyebrows together as he looked at Bailey. “What is she doing here?”
“Conrad, that’s no way to speak to our guest.” Kolbi looked to Conrad from the table before standing and making his way towards her. He took her hand and pulled her in, placing a cordial peck on her cheek. “Hello Bailey, it’s nice to see you again. You’re looking as beautiful as ever.”
She gave him a friendly smile before placing her hand back into mine and wrapping her free hand around my arm. The move signaled to everyone who she belonged to and watching my friends stunned expressions was almost too much to handle.
“Thank y’all for having me. I was very happy when Hank told me I could join you guys tonight.” She looked at all of my friends before beaming back at me. I leaned in and kissed her forehead before looking back at the guys who had been my lifelong friends.
“Disgusting,” Malcolm joked before pushing a beer into my chest and taking a seat at the table.
“I’m happy for you, brother.” Kolbi gave us both a warm glance and headed towards the table too. The only one who didn’t say anything was Conrad who gave Bailey a disapproving look from where he’d been standing at the table. I knew why he was looking at her like he was, but I wasn’t going to bring it up right now. I glanced towards the table and counted only four chairs before looking back towards my girl.
“Do you want a drink or anything? Looks like there’s only room for four at the table but you’re more than welcome tohangout in the living room. It’s just around that wall.” I pointed around the dividing wall between the kitchenette and where the living room was. You could see the table the guys and I would be playing at from the couch.
“I would take a water if you don’t mind. And I’m fine, I promise. I told you I would bring my book, I can read while you play. I really just wanted to hangout with everyone and be with you.” She squeezed my hand and the corners of her mouth reached for her eyes.
After getting her a water and showing her where the bathroom was in case she needed it while we played, I finally took my seat at the table.
“Can we start now please?” Conrad grumbled from where he sat. His tone didn’t hide how annoyed he clearly was. Kolbi gave him a shaded glance before looking back at me. Malcolm shrugged at me from his seat as he took a pull from his beer.
“Something wrong, Tolith?” I spoke to him in character because I knew part of his irritation was the fact that I brought her with me to a campaign night.
“I just didn’t expect to have an uninvited companion joining us tonight for our journey. I didn’t realize NPC’s were welcome here,” he gruffed, reaching across the board and avoiding my gaze. I don’t know why he was so upset that she was here, she wasn’t even playing with us. Leave it to Conrad to insult my girl in the nerdiest way possible by calling her a ‘non-playable character’. You normally only heard that insult when you were playing online with random twelve year olds who were talking shit over Voice Chat.
“What are you, fourteen? This isn’t a ‘No Girls Allowed’ club. Besides, I asked Kolbi before coming over if he was fine that I brought her with me and he said it was.”
“You asked him but not us?” Conrad jutted his hand out and waved it between him and Malcolm. I looked towards Malcolm who was playing with the cap from his beer bottle.
“Are you annoyed she’s here too?” I directed the question towards Malcolm and couldn’t hide the irritation that was growing in my voice. I couldn’t believe Conrad was acting this way.
“Please, Auffroy, Denis de Brey isneverupset when a beautiful maiden is around,” he boasted, giving me a slick grin and bringing his hand to his chest, puffing it up as he did.
“And don’t we know it, brother,” Kolbi slapped his hand down on Malcolm’s shoulder and all of us laughed, including Conrad. Kolbi looked around the table now that the tension had been dispersed, “We good to start now everyone?”
I nodded my head and looked at Conrad who just shrugged. I could tell he was still annoyed with me and I didn’t love that I had upset him. These guys were family and I never liked being the reason they were unhappy. While I didn’t get why it was such a big deal to him that Bailey came with me tonight, I still didn’t like knowing he was mad at me.
Over the next few hours, my friends and I played through the storyline that was weaved for us. Every so often, I would stand and look into the other room only to find her curled up on the couch reading. A few times I looked in at her, she was already looking back at me with a smile. She looked so at home there on the couch, like she was meant to be there. Having her close to me, even if she was in the other room, gave me a sense of peace and warmth I haven’t felt in a long time. She had an energy to her that I could feel even from another room.
“Auffroy, what’s your roll?”
I was looking towards the living room again, wondering about what she was reading that could be causing her to look at the pages like she was. She had a smirk on her face shewas trying to cover with the back of her hand. ‘Something hot and steamy’ she had once told me. Maybe she was reading something hot and steamy now. Suddenly my dick twitched under my jeans.
“Auffory, what’s your roll? Auffroy!” Kolbi shoved me in the shoulder, breaking my glance from Bailey and bringing me back to the table. My friends all looked at me, each of them with a varying degree of annoyance on their faces.
“Sorry,” I snatched the die off the table and threw it across the board, “sixteen on the dice, twenty on the roll,” I announced.
“Very nice. With that roll, you get lucky and find the sacred scroll you’ve been searching for inside the ancient library. With this discovery, you and your party find a map that will lead you to the city you’ve been searching for.”
“Good shit.” Malcolm slapped his hand down on the table.
