I’d told the guys about my coworkers. Cross knew that Brock was more or less the leader of the entire team. I’d yet to meet Bonbon, thankfully. According to Bonnie, her daughter had decided to move to Florida. No one knew why, but there’d been a lot of cursing that morning, and a few cheers from others. But back to what the guys knew about my co-workers. They knew everything.

Zellman and Jordan joined us, shoes on, and walked to put their balls on the ball holder.

Zellman came back, dropping into the scorekeeper seat. “This is kinda a cool place to work. Their offices are on the other side, I’m assuming?” He glanced over his shoulder, stilling. “And, dude, why’s your boss staring at us?”

Jordan was just sitting on the seats opposite us when he heard Zellman’s question. He went rigid looking, too. “What the fuck?”

Cross stood up, the first to bowl. “Has he asked you about your dad?”

I shook my head. “Not after the first day.”

“What the fuck?” From Jordan again.

“That’s messed up.” Zellman stood up.

All the guys were standing, all staring at Brock with varying expressions. Jordan looked ready to rip his head off. Zellman was frowning. Cross was staring back steadily, calm-like. Noting the other guys’ reactions, Cross was the first to break. He went to bowl, leaving one pin standing.

Zellman groaned, sitting back down. “Are you kidding me? Of course, Cross is an ace bowler.”

He put in the score, waiting as Cross cleared the last pin. Another growl from Zellman.

Jordan eased back his attitude, shooting Zellman a grin and going up. He was next in line. He got seven, and only hit one of the three pins on his next roll. It was my turn after that. I had a weird wrist action, so I got six and picked up three of my last four.

Zellman got a gutter ball in the first try.

Both Cross and Jordan snorted, heads hanging down.

Zellman shook his head. “Not a fucking word, assholes.” He grabbed his ball as soon as it cleared the holder and got five pins on the second attempt. More grumbling as he went back to his seat.

As bowling went, I was guessing we were fairly lame.

We bowled. We sat. We joked.