Ronnie pulls the car into a parking spot in front of the club. He turns towards me and says. "Are you ready to have some with a few guys from school?"

A smile spreads across my face. "Of course I am. This is a reunion before the reunion with the rest of our classmates from high school."

"Who are you looking forward to seeing the most?" Ronnie asks with a knowing look.

Nina turns towards me as well and waits for my answer.

If I say her sister then I'll sound desperate, but I don't care what she thinks of me.

"Eliza, she's the girl I want to know what happened to after we finished school."

"She hasn't been up to anything." Nina opens the car door and walks away. She walks past the security team who let her on right away.

How would she know that her sister isn't up to anything? I don't think she's been home in a while to know that.

After graduating from high school I saw Eliza's siblings move to the city and leave our small town for good.

The usual saying for our small town is that most of us never leave, but everyone from my graduating class did that except Eliza.

Who had a reason to stay behind and the classes below us didn't have many people leave the town for school because they were asked by their parents to help run stores.

Being a close friend to one of the founding families I found out that they want to redevelop and make way for a shopping mall with an indoor swimming pool and an ice rink.

That will bring more sports into the community besides football, soccer, basketball and tennis.

Tennis was part of PE education and I was good at that sport. When I was younger my mother put me into lessons and I loved it. As I grew up my interests shifted and football was the game I wanted to be part of.

In college, I got injured and that's when I made a shift in my courses and decided to become a lawyer. I wanted one of the top-earning jobs.

I was smart enough to pull it off and I've been told that I will be partner shortly. Being a partner is something I've wanted for years and now that dream is coming true.

If I keep my record clean there won't be an option for them to deny my partnership with them.

Ronnie stops next to me and says. "Are you ready to go in?"

"Yes, I am." Checking my pocket for my wallet and phone I start walking towards the door.

As I get closer to the door I see my girlfriend there with some of her friends, trying to get in.

Walking over the security guy I say. "Let those six girls in. They're with us."

"Okay," he opens the barrier and the girl's walkthrough.

Casey walks over to me and kisses me. "Thanks for letting us in, baby. I was hoping you'd see us in line."

"What are you doing here?"

"Lena wanted to go to a different club and I remembered about this one opening recently and knew that you wouldn't mind us coming here. Enjoy your boys night." She walks through the door with her friends.

Ronnie and I are the next ones through the door and soon as we enter there's a hallway with flashing lights that lead to a huge dance area.

A girl is dancing with a guy and he has his hands down her dress while they are dancing.

They should get off the dance floor before they end up fucking each other on the dance floor.

At the end of the huge room is a staircase that's been roped off and there's a sign that says VIP.

When we get closer to the sign the security woman smiles at him. "Hello, Mr Abercrombie. How are you?"

"I'm good, Lysa. This is my best friend Austin Wilde. Please, be kind to him tonight. I know how you get when there are new people in our fold."

She crosses her arms and looks closely at me. "I'm not that bad. He's just pissed that I didn't trust that bitch, Casey."

My Casey?

Lysa looks across the room and she shakes her head as she watches a girl dry hump a guy on the dance floor. 

As I take a closer look I see it's my girlfriend. "Excuse me," I walk through the crowd of people and pull Casey away from him. Yelling over the music I say. "What the fuck are you doing Casey?"

"I'm enjoying my girls night out. You should be in the VIP area with your friends pretending to be single. Isn't that why you wanted to come to the club alone? So, your friends would see you're not attached."

"They know I have a girlfriend. For once I just wanted to be away from you. You made that difficult tonight because you showed up at the spot I'm supposed to be at." I look around the room. "You're coming upstairs with me. I don't want you around another guy for the night."

She waves at her friends. "I'll see you all later." She holds my hand as I drag her over to the VIP section.

Lysa looks disgusted. "Why are the hottest guys in this city into the trash like her?"

Casey is about to do something to her, but I drag her up the stairs and when we make it to the top I see Nina sitting at a table with the woman and she's laughing.

Turning towards Casey I say. "Join them. I'm sure you'll make some friends." She walks over to the group and Nina makes room for her.

Moving over to the table I sit with the guys. "Hey," I say and grab a full beer of glass from the tray sitting on the table.

Cal takes a drink of his beer and says. "Who's everyone looking forward to seeing the most when we go to the school reunion?"

Once everyone has answered they wait for me to answer and I say. "I can't wait to see Eliza Donoghue. She was the best part of going to school."

"You're ex-girlfriend?"

"Yes,"

Ronnie leans forward and says. "Let's have a wager for and against Austin and Eliza. I bet two thousand that you can't get with her."

"Two thousand that he can," James says.

I decide to go with the bet and say. "Four thousand dollars I can make her fall in love with me and we'll go all the way."

"You're on," Ronnie says. He stands up and heads over to Nina. He whispers something into her ear and pulls out a piece of paper and pen for him. He walks back over to the table and writes down the bets on it. "I'll pick up the money from each of you after the reunion."

"Okay,"

After that, we start drinking until the girls walk over to us and ask to dance with us. I take Casey's hand and pull her down the stairs towards the dance floor. Holding her hand I pull her closer to me and we sway to the music.