Nyah turned his way with a warm and friendly smile. Trent raised a fist, while still holding a chicken wing, for a bump, to which Carson obliged. Booker tipped his chin at Carson in acknowledgment while Christian was so fixated on the trivia board, which was gearing up for the next round, that he gave him a distracted wave.

Nyah leaned across the table and said, “You never join us for happy hour. What brings you by tonight?”

“FOMO,” he said. He spread his arms wide. “I don’t want to be left out of the water cooler gossip on Monday.”

“What gossip?” Trent asked through a mouthful of chicken wing. He paused to swallow and lick the sauce off his thumb. “I mean other than V2 kicking ass at the trivia match.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Carson said. He helped himself to a clean glass and filled it from one of the pitchers. “I hear Boston girls party pretty hard. I didn’t want to miss it if the new creative director started dancing on tables. Sophie told us it’s been known to happen.”

If it had been anyone else, I would have laughed it off as a joke, but somehow, I got the feeling Carson wasn’t teasing me so much as he was trying to get the others to see me in a less than flattering light.

I met his stare and forced my lips to curve up even though I didn’t find him amusing at all. “It’s a wasted trip for you then,” I said. I fought to keep my voice light and casual. “My table-dancing days ended my freshman year in college, you know, ten years ago.”

“Did they?” he asked. His eyebrows shot up in feigned surprise. “That disappoints. I bet you could give it the old college try, you know, if you really wanted to. Heck, you might even score us some free beer if you work it hard enough, flash some cleavage, or hike up your skirt a bit. Don’t be shy, Annabelle.”

His voice was low and calculating. Did he actually think I was going to take the bait, climb up on the table, and shake what my mama gave me to prove something to him? The man was mental. I glanced around the table to see Nyah, Trent, Booker, and Christian, who had finally turned away from the trivia board, watching us as if they sensed they were in the midst of a power play but were uncertain of how they’d gotten here and why it was happening.