Just One Night

“Mr. Miller is here to see you, sir.”

William raised his head from his paperwork after hearing the voice of his secretary through the speakers. He sighed and put the paper on the desk.

“Should I tell you to not let him in or pretend that I didn't hear you so the negative is not so straightforward?"

He heard her chuckle.

“He's entering now, sir. I'm sorry.”

“No problem.” He said at the same time the door of his office opened.

“Are you avoiding me or something?”

William looked at the man walking toward him. Very tall, muscular, with green eyes and blonde hair. A 'Don Juan' as his mother liked to call him and a heartbreaker to all the ladies that had gotten or not his attention. That was Max.

“Yes, something like that.”

“Well, that's not going to work today. It's your birthday.” He said with a thousand kilobytes smile.

“I was hoping I could spend my free time at home doing nothing.” He resumed his reading of the papers.

“Please, it's your 30th birthday. What kind of best friend would I be if I let that happen?”

“I thought I was able to choose how to spend my time.”

“Of course. Any other day. You have 364 days to be at home and do nothing. Not valid for today.”

William sighed and look at Max again.

“I'm really tired. And isn't the 30s a bad thing?”

“Why would it be?”

“I don't know. I have heard women saying something like that.”

“Pff…” Max waved his hand. “That does not apply to us. This is the age we get more women!”

“It has never mattered your age, Max. You have always gotten more women.”

Max stopped smiling.

“Are you jealous?”

William rolled his eyes and grabbed his papers again.

“Don't be ridiculous.”

He looked up again when he noticed Max was right next to him all of a sudden, leaning over him, getting close to his face and looking at him with a worried face.

“Maybe you just want to be with me.”

“Get off of my face before I punch you.”

Max laughed retreating with his hands rose in surrender.

“But c'mon, Will. I managed to get all the guys free for tonight. We are going to a club, have a good time, hopefully, get some girls and release stress.”

“I pass.”

“You are exasperating me. Don't tell me now that you are dating Samantha for real.”

“Of course not.”

“Does she know that?”

“I don't know. But what I don't know is if I have not expressed myself properly or if she is just playing dumb.”

Max shrugged.

“Maybe she is really dumb.”

William doubted that. He had liked her initially but after a few encounters she came out to be more superficial than he expected. A pampered baby girl who needed attention or a black card. In her case it seemed like she needed both, meaning an easy and secure marriage. But with the company, William had no time to give her and he was not the type to waste money, especially not to keep a woman by his side, so he had tried to explain to her that they could not see each other anymore, but after that, she just started to appear everywhere he was.

“Either way, you better say yes, or I'll knock you out and you'll wake up in the club, probably with a naked woman next to you.”

William grimaced, he was sure something in that sentence was illegal but he let it pass.

“I'll go but not women for me. I need to get rid of Samantha first.”

“Hmm… you have not gone out with her for at least 6 months and I'm sure you have not even had a proper conversation with her, so why is it that you are trying to be 'loyal' here?”

“We have nothing, I don't owe her any loyalty. I'm just trying to avoid having women clashing for me. I'm sure she would make a scene.”

“Well…” Max clapped starting to walk to the door. “You have not rejected me, so I'll come to get you as soon as I finish my load of work.”

“Can I not even go to my house and change my clothes?”

“Of course not. If you get home you won't come out anymore. Bye!”

William kept looking at the door where his friend disappeared and then shook his head, paying attention to his work again.

The next time he raised his head was when the door opened and Max, Leo, and Theo got into his office. William looked at the clock surprised to find out it was already time to log out for his employees. That meant Max and the rest had finished their jobs for the day.

"Happy birthday to you, hey! Hey! Happy birthday to you. Hey! Hey!”

They started to sing for him, making him laugh when they also started to dance, Leo even twerking for him.

“Happy birthday to youuuuu!!!” they got on one knee and started to do twinkle fingers.

William smiled at them, clapped, and bowed a little.

“Thank you, thank you. It’s always a wonder to see Leo shaking his ass for me.”

“It’s a special night. As you said you don’t want women, I can be your bitch tonight.” He winked.

“Oh.” William laughed getting up. “So, that was how you showed me your skill to approve of you? Honey, I do.”

They all laughed and proceed to leave William’s company. Max decided to be the one to take them all home as he was the organizer, so they got into his car and left for the club. The club in question was a prestigious one close to William’s house and he sometimes would go there. It was, in fact, where he had met Samantha and, talking about her, she had called him to his personal number various times already although he had not noticed it until he was in the car with his friends. He decided to send her a message so she could stop calling. He said thanks for her congratulations and that he was going out with the guys but didn’t tell her where they were going even though she might figure it out eventually.

They arrived at the club and got in right away without needing to do the line, which made some customers in line angry, but Max had already reserved a place so they didn’t pay attention to the complaints. The owner of the place came to congratulate William and say hi to the group when he found out they were there.

The music was playing extremely loud but not to the point where it was annoying, he could just feel his whole body vibrate with every beat. He smiled relaxing a little more. He liked the place, even though it was more refined, it reminded him of the discotheques they used to sneak in when they were younger before William developed his company and they all became rich and well known around.

They got to their table and started to drink. Some women got closer when they saw them alone and stayed when the guys invited them. Leo told them that William was engaged but his fiancé was traveling for business and that was why he was alone and refused to get closer to the girls. Thankfully they respected that and did not try to approach him intimately. They were impressed that he wasn’t going a little wild and taking advantage of her absence.

Initially, William frowned upon Leo’s story but when he saw where he was going with his imagination he smiled at him. That was why he loved these guys he had spent almost all his life with, they knew him well enough to know what to do and what not. They knew where his limits were. They respected each other.

They were having a good time. The girls were very nice and funny. They seemed like they just wanted to have a good time, not trying to find a fish to fish. He sighed when he thought that; Samantha might have traumatized him because even when she had not been the first one to approach him with those intentions she had definitely made him more conscious of whom to give his attention. She had turned out to be a stalker.

He was dancing on the floor with one of the girls when he thought he saw Samantha among the crowd, so he apologized to the girl and decided to go to the bar, maybe there he could see better and confirm. And if it was actually her, he would have to talk with her for once and for all or end up getting a restriction order against her or something.

The bar was very crowded so he decided to buy a bottle of water to not be kicked out of the zone and waited for his turn there while looking around. He didn’t manage to see anyone that looked like her so he left it for a moment to ask for his water but he accidentally pushed a girl that was sitting on one of the chairs of the bar and made her spill some of her drink on her dress.