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Andy's Taproom was a fairly typical gay bar; rainbow lights adorned the ceiling while pride flags and posters of scantily-clad men plastered the walls, the place smelled of fried food and beer, pop music played softly on the speakers in the background, and there were plenty of people milling around and enjoying the Tuesday $2 Tap Specials night. Leon, from the comfort of one of the coveted corner booths, kept an eye out for his group who would be coming to meet him for the evening. It had been a couple weeks since their last get-together, and he had been looking forward to catching up with his friends alone--there was only so much time Leon could spend at home with his son, and he could tell that Caleb was glad to finally have a little respite and solo time away from his old man.

"Go, get out! Live a little, have fun! Then come back and have your way with me," Caleb had merrily instructed as he pushed Leon out of the front door.

The large black Labrador chuckled to himself, imagining what kind of mischief his 20-year-old son was getting up to for the night on his own. Caleb wasn't exactly predictable, but Leon had a good idea of what the boy would be doing. In the meantime, he sipped his hazy IPA and surveyed the crowded bar, watching for someone familiar to appear.

He didn't have to wait long, though; within a few minutes, Leon saw Shane and Keiji approach the bar and get their drinks (a shandy for Keiji and a whiskey smash for Shane). When they turned to search the room, Leon waved at them, getting their attention, and they made their way over to the booth.

"Hey, there he is!" Shane chuckled as he slid into the booth seat on Leon's right--the fit and bulky 41-year-old rat leaned in for a hug. "How've you been doing, man?" he asked as he embraced Leon.

"Pretty good, nothing major to complain about," the Labrador replied, patting Shane on the back. He turned to his left to hug Keiji, his stomach pressing up against the tanuki's.

"It's so good to see you!" Keiji exclaimed. When he released Leon, however, he glanced down at the canine's midsection. "Although should you be drinking?"

"Huh?"

"Well, aren't you pregnant?" the tanuki quipped with a smirk.

Leon looked down at himself--to be fair, there wasn't much room in the booth, but his belly under his tight shirt was still protruding enough to rest against the table. Not that it was anything new, though; at 51 years old, the black Labrador was like a linebacker who had let himself go, and he was fully embracing his dad bod, keg-like gut and all.

"Now, who did that to you?" Keiji jokingly admonished.

"I think we can all guess who the father is," Shane said knowingly, clapping Leon on the shoulder.

Leon rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and I'm guessing he gave you twins?" he teased, prodding Keiji's own ample stomach.

Keiji laughed--at 48, he still had that impish teenage streak in him. "Hey, careful, they're sleeping!"

Leon grinned and playfully punched Keiji's shoulder as all three of the men chuckled.

"The others haven't gotten here yet, have they?" Shane asked.

"No, I haven't seen--oh, hey!" Leon cut himself off as he saw the three remaining members of their group approach the table, drinks in hand.

Nadal, a 52-year-old caracal, was slender in comparison to the rest of the group, and held a glass of wine; Amos, a black and brown bison of 37, was the youngest of their gang, and carried a pint of sour ale; and Dylan, a 47-year-old, dark green Komodo dragon whose thick pecs and nipple piercings were prominent under his thin shirt, held a gin and tonic in his scaly hand.

"The boys are back in town!" Nadal cheered, raising his glass and leading everyone to do the same in a toast before the newcomers crowded into the booth.

The gang had stitched themselves together through hookups, meeting at small networking events, and via mutual acquaintances. Keiji and Leon had been roommates in the past, while Dylan had first met Nadal on one of the apps. Shane had been the connection point between Keiji and Nadal, and somehow they had all ended up at the same amateur bowling league event, where they'd encountered Amos; after a late night of karaoke, groping, frank conversations, and the start of several inside jokes, the six became fast friends. Three years later and they were still getting together as often as they could for birthdays, weekend excursions, barbecues, and bar nights.

As Leon, Nadal, Keiji, Dylan, Shane, and Amos sipped their drinks and broke off into separate conversations before converging on common topics again, the group's chat meandered from politics (terrible, as usual) to work (Shane had just been promoted to a managerial position while Keiji was actively looking for a different job to get out of a toxic work environment), and from weekend plans (Nadal was planning to run a 10K while Leon was going to mow his lawn) to overall personal lives.

"Are you still working on that car in your garage?" Shane asked Dylan.

The Komodo dragon nodded after another gulp of his gin and tonic. "Yeah, it's taking longer than I thought, but that's part of the fun, right?"

"What kind is it again?" Nadal asked.

"'68 Chevelle," Dylan replied.

"Wow, that's a really great model!" Keiji said, almost too enthusiastically.

Dylan burst out laughing. "When was the last time you worked on a car, man?"

"Oh come on, I know all about the '68 Menelle!" Keiji sarcastically professed. Dylan raised an eyebrow, but Keiji pressed on with, "Or whatever it's called--it's got a bunch of extra carburetor, and you can fit so many bad boys into it. And the hum on that catalytic converter--"

The whole table erupted in laughter at Keiji's car illiteracy before moving on to other topics, and the next two rounds of drinks came along to replenish empty glasses.

"Oh, hang on, guys, let's raise a glass to our good friend, Amos," Leon eventually prompted. Everyone looked at the bison, who sighed and rolled his head back, as if in a mixture of exhausted relief and glum regret.

"Oh no, what happened?" Shane asked.

"Ah...it's Wade," Amos admitted.

The others collectively rolled their eyes.

"What did he do this time?" Dylan asked.

"Well, more like what did I do," the bison corrected him. He paused, then added, "I dumped his ass."

Hoots and hollers of approval rose up around the table as the group toasted Amos. "Yes! So proud of you!"

"What happened?" Nadal asked after another gulp of his cocktail. "Details, details!"

"He was just getting so controlling over the littlest things," Amos said vehemently, as if he was finally getting a heavy weight off of his chest. "And so jealous! So fucking jealous. It's like I couldn't talk to anyone without him flying off the handle thinking I wanted to sleep with them." The bison shrugged. "To be fair, I did want to sleep with a lot of them, but--"

"Yeah, our boy's a sluuuuuuuut!" Keiji called out loudly.

Amos snorted and grinned before he continued, "Okay, get this: I was talking with my brother on the phone--you know, innocuous family stuff--"

"And you don't want to fuck your brother, right?" Shane interrupted.

Amos rolled his eyes. "Noooo, I'm not in the habit of fucking my family members..." he said with a meaningful and playful glare at Leon.

The black Labrador shrugged and simply said, "Don't knock it till you try it," before taking another sip of his beer.

"Anyway," Amos took up again, "Wade was so suspicious that he wanted me to hand over my phone so he could look through my chats and everything."

The table collectively groaned.

"Oh no, fuck that," said Shane emphatically.

"Right? And I'm pretty sure he's snooped through it before, too," Amos added.

"Whoop! Whoop! Red flag!" Dylan imitated a siren.

"You're telling me! So he and I are through," the bison sighed. He shook his head and contemplated his sour ale before he said, "Fuck it, I don't think monogamy is for me."

Keiji rubbed him bracingly on the back. "Hey, it doesn't always work out, we're all wired differently. And it's important you do what's right for you. If non-monogamy is the right thing for you, who the hell is anyone else to tell you otherwise?"

"Amen!" Nadal said heartily.

"And as for Wade, fuck him," Leon added. "You're too good for him anyway!"

Amos smiled gratefully.

"We love you, we're here for you through thick and thin," Shane tacked on. He raised his glass again, and everyone else followed suit. "So here's to Amos, single and slutty again!"

"May you have thousands of men sail in you, and many more after that," Dylan contributed.

"Preach!" called Keiji.

After their toast to Amos and more idle conversations, which then led to another round of drinks, Leon noticed Shane leaning back against the booth seat, as if he was especially fatigued.

"Hey, you okay, Shane?" Leon asked.

The rat sighed, his lips motorboating together. "Yeah, I just realized how long it's been since I've really fucked. Been going through a bit of a dry spell, to be honest."

"What do you mean? Weren't you seeing a hot little piece a couple weeks ago?" the Labrador asked.

"Nah, he kept on flaking," Shane replied. "And work's just been so busy that I haven't had much time for anything else except jerking off. I need something just really crazy to do a hard reset."

"Oh, man, talk about doing something crazy," Dylan began across the table, "I had this one time where--oh, shit."

The Komodo dragon stopped himself and stared wide-eyed at Leon.

The canine cocked an eyebrow, puzzled. "What's up?"

Dylan grinned at him sheepishly. "I...ah...well, the last really wild time I had was actually with Caleb."

Leon started in his seat. "My Caleb?"

Dylan nodded.

Leon guffawed. "Man, that boy gets around, but I didn't realize you two had done anything together."

The Komodo dragon sucked his teeth. "Well, there's getting around...and then there's Caleb..."

The whole table snickered. Leon paused, taking in the meaning of what Dylan had just said and the group's reaction...

And then it clicked into place.

Leon leaned back against the booth--he couldn't stop it from bubbling up, he ended up laughing in hysterical barks. "Oh, damn! I know he got into a lot of shit, but...you haven't...wait..." He chortled as he recovered, then asked the table at large, "So, has everyone here fucked my son?"

Shane, Keiji, Nadal, and Dylan all raised their hands, grinning at each other.

Leon turned to the bison who hadn't raised his hand. "Amos, what about--"

"Oh, no, I haven't fucked him," Amos replied seriously...but he broke down chuckling and added, "But he's fucked me...a lot."

The table erupted in laughter again--Leon had to hold his head in his hands, he was laughing so hard. "Oh...oh my god! Hooo..." When he finally settled again, he motioned to one of the passing waiters. "Can we get a round of tequila shots, please?"

The waiter came back with the six shot glasses full of liquor, and when they were in front of everyone at the table, Leon said to his friends, "Alright, boys, we're starting at one end or the other." He looked from Dylan to Nadal. "Rock, paper, scissors, loser has to drink and go first."

Nadal's brow furrowed in confusion. "First? For what?"

Leon grinned. "I wanna hear about what you've all done with my kid. So this is just to make it a little more interesting!"

Everyone around the table chuckled and groaned as they realized what was happening.

"Alright, alright," Dylan quipped. "Shall we?"

Nadal smirked. "Let's dance."

They raised their hands above the table, and everyone watched intently as they started.

"Rock...paper...scissors...shoot!"

Nadal threw scissors...and Dylan threw rock.

"Ah, damnit!" the caracal moaned while the rest of the group clapped and Dylan settled back into his seat victoriously.

"Drink! Drink! Drink! Aaahh!" the group chanted just before Nadal down his shot and winced.

"Oooh-hoo, fuck, what tequila is this?" Nadal asked, coughing.

"Probably bottom shelf," Leon said dismissively. "Now talk!"

Nadal raised his hands in acquiescence. "Okay, okay..."