The Hookup
The Outsider
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The Hookup
© 2023 by The Outsider
Edited by TeNderLoin
Distributed by Lucky 13 Media
All rights reserved
Cover photo by Max Andrey. This image is in the public domain in the and available on Pexels.com
The added text is the work of the author and no additional copyright is claimed.
Cal Otis had finished his to-do list, but wasn’t ready for bed. TV wasn’t cutting it, either.
He decided to wander down the street to the club near his apartment he’d never been to.
It would be the best thing he ever did…
Tags: Workplace, Romance, Violence
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The Hookup
Club Crunch – Friday Night
‘“Club Crunch.” What a stupid-ass name…’ Cal Otis thought as he surveyed the crowd inside the club. ‘“The Hurt Locker” would be the only name stupider than what they picked…’
Cal, like many veterans he knew, didn’t have a high opinion of the award-winning movie.
The twenty-eight-year-old fought through the mob to the bar to buy what was sure to be an overpriced drink. He wondered how he’d been bored enough to wander in here and pay nine bucks for the privilege. He’d probably leave soon and wouldn’t be back. But he was already here, so he might as well have a drink.
The club’s name pulsed rhythmically on the video screen behind the bar, matching the beat of the blaring music. As he stood at the bar trying to order, others began making room for a new arrival a few steps away.
A young woman stepped into the cleared space. Her blonde hair shone in the swirling, pulsing lights of the club, and her head bounced in time with the thumping of the music. She wore a short-sleeved white blouse that showed the definition in her arms. Her very short black skirt made Cal wonder if she was wearing underwear, while her dark red heels did wonderful things for her legs and tight little ass.
‘Maybe I’ll stay for a while…’
Space opened between them as other patrons left the bar; Cal stepped forward before anyone else could. He tried not to stare at the young woman, but she was far and away the best-looking woman here. The woman ordered, and then turned to survey the room as she waited. Cal sucked in a breath when he saw her face.
‘Holy shit!’
“CAL!” Lori Demeter cried out in shock before hugging him.
Lori was a nurse at the emergency room where Cal worked as a tech – in years past he would have been called an orderly. Lori was also Cal’s secret crush. He thought she was the hottest nurse working at the hospital, and the sweetest. He cursed his body’s natural reaction when Lori pressed herself to him during the hug.
“What are you doing here?” she shouted over the noise. Cal’s nose detected more than a little alcohol on her breath.
“I live down the block,” he explained. “I was bored and restless, so wandered in. Not my kind of place, normally.” Cal paused to look around. “Are you here with someone?”
“Patty, Laura, and Gail brought me here for a girls’ night out to ‘celebrate’ my breakup.”
“Oh …” Cal blinked. “You’re not dating what’s-his-name anymore?”
“That little turd was nothing more than a big leech,” Lori snorted. “It took me two years, but I finally wised up and got rid of him this week.”
A bartender called out to Lori as she put Lori’s drinks down on the bar. Lori thanked the woman after handing over some cash and told her to keep the change. Another bartender put Cal’s beer down in front of him. He paid – too much – for his drink, picked up part of Lori’s order, and motioned for her to lead the way back to her friends. Cal had no problem following his coworker through the club; he got to check her out from behind as he did, so how could he complain?
“SPUNKY!” Laura Sturtevant called out when she saw Cal trailing behind Lori.
Laura branded him ‘Otis Spunkmeyer’ when he started working at the hospital nine months ago. Cal still shook his head every time she called him that. With a last name of ‘Otis,’ someone started calling him ‘Spunky’ during Navy boot camp. He avoided that nickname at the hospital until a week into his job at the ER. Laura had been an Army nurse, and the Army was quick to give people unfortunate nicknames, too.
Cal didn’t mind the nickname as much tonight while the three other women hugged him. The three nurses and Lori were about his best friends at work. Cal hadn’t connected as well with the others there, not even the guys. Cal suspected that was because the other guys also had their eyes on the ladies.
Laura, Patty Naughton, and Gail Castro were all married with kids – happily married, he noted. Cal had met their husbands, sons, and daughters at an unofficial ER get-together over the summer. He couldn’t understand how someone would want to try and disrupt those relationships. The thrill of the hunt, he supposed.
The four ladies perched on the high stools for the table they claimed; they’d been here a while. Cal stood close enough to the table to not be constantly tempted by the sight of eight long legs underneath. Keeping his eyes off Lori’s thighs was hard enough.
The presence of a mere man at a ladies’ night out didn’t temper the four ladies’ enthusiasm. One by one, they took turns venturing to the bar for more drinks, insisting Cal stay with Lori to “help hold our table.” The more she drank, the more Lori gave Cal little touches or clung to his arm as she laughed at a joke. The more she did, the more uncomfortable his pants grew.