The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide #1)(43)

At nine thirty, Joey figured he had been stood up, so he headed back to the hotel with his tail between his legs.

“Yeah, Daddy!” His phone rang three times.

Joey’s heart fluttered. Maybe the night wasn’t a total waste? He almost dropped his phone as he hurried to read the new ManNip messages.

Hey sexy!

Sorry, I just got off work.

Still in the mood to meet up?

XO Brian

Joey didn’t want to seem desperate so he played it cool, waiting a good twenty seconds before responding.

Absolutely!!!

Just name the time and place.

There was no reply for a couple of minutes. Joey worried he might have scared Brian off by using too many exclamation points. To his relief, his phone chimed with a game plan.

Let’s meet for a drink first.

There’s a bar called Sinners and Saints.

It’s on the corner of Robinson and Park Ave.

Meet me there at 10

The name couldn’t have been more ironic and Joey took it as a sign their date was meant to be. He looked up directions and saw that the bar was only a few blocks away from where he stood. Joey strolled through town with a spring in his step and arrived twenty minutes early.

Sinners and Saints was in the basement of a tall bank building that doubled as a tornado shelter when needed. It had red carpet, big red booths, and red stools at the bar. It was decorated in framed portraits of Catholic saints and framed mug shots of notorious criminals. There were only two other customers, but the bar was completely empty, so Joey had a seat at one of the stools.

“Can I get you a drink?” a gruff bartender asked.

“Just water, thanks,” Joey said.

The bartender refilled his water four times as Joey waited for his ManNip date to show up. Joey was so nervous his hands were shaky and he almost spilled his glass after every sip. His heart was beating out of control and every minute seemed much longer than the one before—it felt more like running on a treadmill than meeting a guy for a drink.

Finally, at five past ten, a tall, handsome, and muscular man walked into the bar and tapped Joey on the shoulder.

“Jay?” the man asked.

At first Joey forgot his own alias and didn’t know who the man was talking to. He looked over his shoulder and instantly recognized him from his profile.

“Hi! You must be Brian.”

Joey awkwardly shook Brian’s hand. How else were you supposed to greet a stranger you were about to have sex with? Once he had confirmation, Brian took a seat next to him.

“Thanks for getting a drink with me,” Brian said. “Whenever I meet someone from an app, I always like to see them in public first. You can never be too careful. There are a lot of phonies out there, am I right?”

“Totally,” Joey said with a nervous laugh. “Do you use the app often?”

He regretted the question as soon as it came out of his mouth. He might as well have asked So, how big of a whore are you? Luckily, Brian seemed to like his straightforwardness.

“I try to meet people the old-fashioned way, but that’s hard to do when you’re stuck in a place like Oklahoma City for a couple weeks,” Brian said. “You’re a breath of fresh air, believe me. You actually look even younger than you do on your profile—that’s rare.”

Brian actually looked slightly older than the pictures on his profile, but Joey wasn’t about to tell him that.

“What can I say?” he said with shrug. “I’ve got good genes.”

“I can see that.”

Brian flirtatiously looked him up and down. Joey’s face filled with a warm rush of blood sent straight from his heart. This was going to be a good night.

“So, how was work? You’re an architect, right?”

“Indeed, but it’s not as glamorous as it sounds,” Brian said. “My company’s putting in an office building on Third Street. I was just arguing with the owner about the best location to put a freight elevator. What about you? What brings you to Oklahoma City?”

“I’m on a road trip with some friends,” Joey said. “It’s our last chance to hang out before we split up for college.”

“College? Didn’t you say you were in college?”

Joey was forgetting the lines to his own script. “Oh—I meant before they go off to graduate school,” he lied. “They’re all a little older than me. We met in the Anthropology program at Northwestern.”

“How’s Anthropology treating you?”

“Great,” Joey said. “I sit around staring at artifacts all day—and those are just my professors.”

Brian laughed, flashing his bright smile. Joey had nothing to compare their date to, but so far they seemed to be enjoying each other’s company.

“Can I get you fellas a drink?” the bartender asked.

“I’ll take a Manhattan on the rocks,” Brian said.

Joey had no idea what the hell a Manhattan was, but it sounded refreshing. “I’ll take the same,” he said.

“Can I see your ID?” the bartender asked.

Sheer panic hit Joey’s face like a deer in front of a semitruck. It only lasted a moment though as Joey remembered he still had the fake ID Cash had given him in his pocket. He took it out and handed it to the bartender.

“I’ll be right back with your Manhattans,” he said, and went to the other side of the bar to make them.