"So..how do these parties work?"

"How do you mean?" Roxy asked, giving him her attention.

"I mean..do you.." he glanced over at Bernie and Lil, a little nervous about asking this stuff in front of his girlfriend and little sister. "do you just..go up to people..."

"Go up and ask "Hey, you're cute, wanna fuck?" She asked with a bit of a smirk.

They all went a little red at that, but Roxy's playful tone caused it to be laced with a couple chuckles.

"Sorry, I've been told for years I got no filter," Roxy apologized before explaining. "That usually only happens if you've been coming awhile and know how things go. We try and foster a comfortable environment here, get to know each other. I mean if you just want a wham, bam, thank you ma'am, there's other places for that kind of thing. We like to think of it as more a place where you can hang out, make friends, and have fun. "Fun" typically involving great sex."

"I admit..I could use a bit of friendly fun," Lil confessed. "My ex-boyfriend cheated on me, so..I'm not looking to date again right now, but I could really go for some fun."

"Then girl, you've come to the right place," Roxy assured.

As they spoke that's when Mark came down the steps.

"Gar! Sweet! I'm glad you guys could make it!" Mark said, coming over to them with a big smile on his face.

"Glad to be here, Mark," Gary said, shaking his friend's hand.

"I..uh, wow, Bern'.you look great," he said a little bashfully.

Bernie smiled, enjoying the reaction she got out of him. "Thank you, Mark. You look pretty handsome yourself." She said the latter with her arm around Gary's waist, a subtle cue that everything was in the open.

"So how many people are you guys expecting?" Lil asked.

"Well if nobody cancels on us, probably around 3..maybe 4 people?" Mark asked, looking over at Roxy for confirmation.

"Sounds about right. How about we take y'all into the kitchen and get you some drinks?" Roxy offered.

They all agreed, letting Roxy and Mark lead the way. They got out a bunch of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Mark and Gary started talking, causing Mark to chuckle.

"What are you giggling about, Mark?" Roxy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Gary was asking about how you got into the paper."

That caused Roxy to start laughing. "Oh shit, that."

"If you don't want to talk about it-" Gary began.

"Oh fuck no, baby. I don't mind a bit. See what happened was-"