Alex and Annie: A Bad Jokes Spinoff

Chapter 8 (Alex): Annie Was Mine

We made it through dinner, somehow, but I wasn't sure who I wanted to get away from more -- Creighton, who had his eyes all over Annie, or Shelby, who had her eyes all over me. Every time Xane looked at me, he was laughing, and my sister and cousins were getting as much information from Annie as they could.

Do you have a big family, Annie?

Do you live near Alex?

What do you like to do in your spare time? Do you like sports? Reading?

"I love to read," Annie said enthusiastically.

Shelby jumped in at that point, feeling as if she'd been left out of the conversation long enough.

"Let me guess. You read romances," Shelby said in the same way I imagined she'd say you like rolling around in horse shit.

The worst possible thing she could have said. So far, my family had been pretty mild, but the Bad Jokes all bristled at the insult to Gracie, who was a prolific and successful romance writer.

"You don't read romances, I take it, Shelby?" Justice smiled benignly at the woman.

"No. I prefer my reading material to be a little more intellectually challenging."

"And romances aren't?"

"No."

"Too bad," Rory said. "I was going to rec a book I just finished that I loved. It's about double-tongued aliens."

"Sounds ridiculous," Shelby said. "Nothing I'd ever read."

"Yep, probably too many big words for you," Justice murmured.

And from there, it was decidedly frosty until we left for the club. When we walked up to the door, before I could give my name, Creighton stepped up beside me.

"Just tell Mike that Creighton's here," Creighton said with all the confidence in the world.

"Who's Mike?" the bouncer asked.

"Mick?" Creighton asked.

"Got nothin'."

"Mark? Miles?"

"Who are you trying to get me to call? Let's start there," the bouncer said, rolling his eyes.

"His brother," Annie supplied helpfully, not yet having realized what was going on. "His brother owns this club."

"I don't think so," the bouncer said. "Unless his brother's a woman named Melina."

"Melina! That's the name!" Creighton said.

We were all looking at him now and he shifted uneasily. 

"So, brother was the closest relationship I could think of because it's really my brother's boyfriend's cousin's best friend's aunt's step-daughter's club. Got mixed up and thought it was a step-brother."

"You can't get us in?" Shelby snapped. "I thought you had connections!"

While she went at Creighton, I stepped up to the bouncer and said quietly, "Alex Matthewson party."

The bouncer straightened up at that. "Yes, sir, Mr. Matthewson. Melina told me to look out for you."

I smiled, slipped him some money after he texted someone inside, and in seconds, we had a host walking us to our table in the VIP section.

"This is exactly what I thought it'd be," Shelby exclaimed, happy for the first time tonight. "I hope you got bottle service."

We had, of course, but we never discussed it.