Six

I looked around the large room. It was a lounge, with a large bar behind me, tables set in a homely manner, and men sitting around nursing their drinks. Bottles were strewn across the floor, and soft music played in the background.

The only thing missing was scantily clad women strutting from one end of the lounge to the other. The men talked loudly about some dumb thing I couldn’t keep up with.

I really did try at first, but the obnoxious tales they told usually ended with loud laughter and the rest of the group joining in. They were stories they had told countless times before. They were...