“Sure, I don’t think they’ll mind,” I turned back to her, grabbing her hand in reassurance, “It’ll be ok. I think if they were going to kidnap us they would have done it already. Besides, Ana seemed to know them.”
My words seemed to find her comfort as she released her grip on my arm and followed me over to the large table. I took a seat next to baldy and Joni took residence in the chair just next to me, thanking the large man who had vacated it so that she could sit down. I looked at her, gauging her reaction to the men surrounding us. Joni was the kind of girl who could talk the talk, but not walk the walk. Back home she would constantly gush about the guys that she had hooked up with, how much she liked to party, and how rebellious she was; but that was all for show. Sitting here now with a rough and tough group of biker men, she didn’t know what to do or say.
I on the other hand found it very easy to strike up conversations with perfect strangers. I truly thought that most people in the world were good, nice people; and those that weren’t, well they didn’t open themselves up for conversation often. So I felt right at home, even if they made me feel tiny sitting next to their large stature.
“Bailey, bring these two some cheeseburgers and Bulmers,” Baldy yelled over to the older gentleman standing behind the bar who was staring up into a small TV that had a soccer game playing. “I assume you two are old enough to drink?” He looked down at me in question.
“Yeah, we’re old enough. What’s Bulmers?” I asked, trying not to sound too ignorant. I’d heard of Guinness, but that was about it for Irish beer.
“It’s a cider. You’ll like it.” He looked down at me, “Guess I should introduce this bunch of gobshites.” He turned back to the group of men around the table. “I’m McGee, this here is Thumper,” he began to his left and went around the table, “Paddy, Seamus, Sag, Duffy, Mulligan, and the little guy there,” he pointed to a younger man with dark hair and beautiful golden eyes, “Is Butcher, he’s up from our Cork chapter.”
“Hi guys,” I waved around the table, “I’m Starla and this is Joni,” I said as I motioned to Joni, elbowing her when she just sat there like a scared puppy.
“Why do they call you Sag?” Joni asked the large redheaded man, surprising me at her boldness.
“That’s ‘cause I’m old and my balls sag,” he said as he let out a loud laugh and Joni stared up at him with her mouth wide open.
“So who give you your names? Or does it just happen?” I asked, trying to lighten the conversation to save Joni from her embarrassment.
“Eh, sometimes you earn it by doing somethin’ for the club, sometimes it’s as simple as your last name, and sometimes, like Ol’ Sag there, you get it because you got pissed one night and decided to try and teabag some hag.”
“What were you mad about?” Joni once again popped up in the conversation.
“Pissed, drunk. Not pissed off,” McGee chuckled as he took a long pull from his mug, “Better get an Irish dictionary and start learnin’ up.”
“Aye,” I mocked and he smiled. I liked these guys, they weren’t so scary once you met them. Maybe if their names had been Killer, or Life Sentence O’Leary, I might have been scared, but they were just a fun group of guys.
“So what would two beautiful lassies like yourself be doing in Dublin?” the man he’d introduced as Mulligan asked.
“You’ll laugh when I tell you, but I fell in love with the culture when I did a project in high school and my last year of school I busted my ass and, with the help of my parents, I got a ticket to come over here for a few weeks this summer.” They looked at me, waiting, as if I hadn’t covered something. “What?” I asked confused.
“Was waitin’ for the funny part,” Sag chimed as he took a drag from his cigarette.
“Well I figured that being rough and tough bikers, you’d probably make fun of me for having just graduated from high school.” I looked around the table at their blank faces, wondering if I’d said something to offend them.
“Nothin’ wrong with gettin’ an education. Havin’ brains makes you even sexier,” McGee said as he reached up and tapped my head.
“Well that’s good to know.” I blushed as I looked up at them all.
“But hey, if you know how to cook and do laundry that’s always a plus too,” Mulligan said and the guys erupted in laughter, followed by myself and eventually Joni.
By the time our food and drinks got to the table we scarfed them both down, enjoying the conversation with the guys, at least I was; Joni sat there like a bump on a log. As my stomach became full my eyes became heavy, and sometime around four in the morning we decided to call it a night. McGee paid for our food and drinks and walked us to the door, lighting a cigarette as he came out behind us.
“You gonna be around here tomorrow?” I asked, turning around as Joni held the door to the hotel open for me.
“Aye. Here just about every night,” he answered.
“Cool. Maybe we’ll see you then,” I said and then turned to follow Joni upstairs to our room.
Chapter Two