Bending Steele

Chapter Four

"Aren't you just the busy little beaver tonight," Scotty commented in his snarky tone while he grabbed empties off of Abby's tray.

"I think the birthday table is in competition over who can throw up the prettiest colors tonight," she replied tiredly. Crossing her arms on the bar, she rested her head for a moment. The throbbing in her feet started to resonate in her head and the constant giggle fest wasn't helping.

"Awe to be 21 again," Scotty said wistfully as he started whipping up another batch of different daiquiris and other umbrellaed concoctions.

Abby rolled her eyes and snorted. "You're only 25 Scotty."

"Don't remind me," he sighed dramatically.

"We better have Trevor start lining up taxis outside," she mumbled into the crook of her arm, far too tired to pet his self-esteem tonight.

"You rang?" A thick muscled arm reached across the bar in front of her and Abby made eye contact with the scantily clad pinup girl straddling a bomb which was tattooed on Trevor's forearm.

"We didn't ring the damn dinner bell you barbarian!" Scotty shrieked as he slapped at him. "Get your hairy palms out of my garnish trays!"

Pulling his arm back with a handful of maraschino cherries, Trevor draped his cherry free arm over her shoulders, bent down and winked at her while he popped the fruit into his mouth. "Don't get your pantyhose in a wad," he replied in his deep tenor at Scotty's continued squawking.

"Goes to show what you know," the bartender sniffed indignantly. "No self-respecting woman wears pantyhose."

"You're not a woman."

"Oh honey, bless your heart. I'm more of a woman than your momma ever was." And with that, Scotty placed the rest of Abby's fancy drinks on her tray and huffed off to the other end of the bar.

"Can you believe that guy," Trevor chuckled as he chewed on another cherry.

Abby rose up and smiled at the huge bouncer. The man was gigantic with a body a professional wrestler would envy. Mix that up with his dark buzz cut hair and sparkling hazel eyes and you had a combination that women drooled over. Hell, to be honest, half the men who worked here were jonesing after him too. Well, him or his brother Jack. They were twins after all. Double the looks and double the trouble, but she loved them both dearly. They were like the big brothers she never had. Really...big...brothers. "I'm not standing up for you, it's your own fault. You make it a mission to push his buttons because you enjoy ruffling his feathers."

"Yeah, I do. Although, I think you mean ruffling his feathered boa." He laughed popping another cherry into his mouth. Abby jabbed him in the ribs with her fist and only ended up with sore knuckles for her effort. Seriously, it was like punching a suit of armor. Trevor only beamed wider and popped more cherries into his mouth. "What were you needing kitten?" he asked as he worked the stems out and tossed them on the bar.

"I think you need to start calling some taxis for my birthday girls."

"Yeah, I figured." He looked over at the table and rolled his eyes as another burst of cackling commenced. "Jack's already working on it." Another stem was added to the growing pile. "We cutting them off anytime soon?"

"I told them this was their last round," she said indicating the rainbow array of alcoholic beverages.

Nodding his head, he cocked it to one side and set his hazel peepers on her. A full no nonsense attitude focused straight at her. "Everything else alright?"

"Jim dandy."

He narrowed his gaze at her. "You sure? Looked like those suits might have been giving you a hard time earlier."