The night following the events in Central Park was a rough one for Grunyon. He knew he had come within a hair's breadth of the big ending last night, but he managed to walk away from it, and felt so alive! Now, nearly 24 hours later, sitting in his dull little room smoking one of his cigars, the sheer lack of action was going to drive him absolutely crazy! He knew he needed to burn the excess energy off, but how?
Settling on a course of action, Grunyon placed a call to his high school friend Vril. Vril was the kind of guy that always knew someone willing to buy stuff on the down low, making it easy to turn swiped items into Nuyen, but that was not why Grunyon called him on this night.
"Vril! It's Grunyon. I'm feeling the need to try to win back some of my poker losses. Can you set up a game with the guys on Friday? Yeah, yeah, the booze is on me."
"Oh, and before I forget, can I bring a chum of mine from work? You'll like him - no filter on his mouth, and wears his feelings on his sleeve. Be gentle," then adds, "but not too gentle that you don't take his money. I gotta see if he's free, but I'll bet you that he is. Cool. Got it. 8 o'clock."
With that, Grunyon contacts Ace by text, with "Do you like poker? I've got a regular game with some of my chums, and the next one is this Friday night. If you want in, just let me know. It's all penny stuff, no big bets."
Block smiled to himself when he saw Ace's "sure" reply. It was going to be fun watching Vril, Leopold and Kuyper take someone else apart, for a change.
On that Friday, Grunyon makes sure to guide Ace over to Vril's pad. Grunyon introduces Ace to the others with, "Vril, here, is a friend from way back. Leopold is the guy that got me interested in Medicine. Leo introduced me to Kuyper back when I was learning how to fly."
"You mean learning how to crash?"
"Yeah, yeah. You're still sore about that squirrel that chased us down the alley."
"You weren't paying attention!"
"Hey, I got those fetishes back for you!"
"Yeah, ~eventually~." Kuyper then says to Ace, "Nice to meet you." Leo and Vril chime in with their greetings, as well.
Vril guides them all to the card table, and it's pretty apparent to everyone that Block and Ace both bet like maniacs. Half way through the night, Block is the first one to run out of chips.
Vril says, "Okay - you know the rules, Grunyon, go get more beer!"
Ace adds, "and wings!"
Block seems grumpier now that he's being beaten by Ace, but the rules are the rules, so he goes on a beer and snack run for the guys.
As soon as Block is out of earshot, Ace lets loose that mischievous grin on the others, and asks, "So, who's got the most embarrassing story of Block to share? I've got one but want to hear yours first."
Leo turns to look at the Vril and Kuyper, almost as if to say, "don't do it," but his pleading look is not enough to stop the other two from simultaneously saying the same word: "Lucy".
"Oh, god. He's going to be so mad at all of us," Leo says. "But, yeah. It has to be Lucy."
Kuyper starts, "You've noticed how Grun is a lightweight when it comes to liquor, right? A few years back at Leo's bachelor party, Grunny was being his usual stick-in-the-mud, but was entertaining himself by getting plastered on soy-thehol so we were mostly ignoring him. Vril, here, had bought this blow up doll for poor Leo. So we tortured Leo for a bit like normal, and then forgot about the doll laying on the floor."
"The next thing we know, Grunyon is shouting 'call nin un un' and mumbling something about 'ze's had heart tack'. He's apparently noticed the doll lying there on the floor, but is too d4 drunk to tell the difference."
"So we're laughing our butts off, when he decides we're all between him and a patient in distress. He barrels right on through us, knocking us all around like bowling pins."
Vril continues, "Of course when he's that drunk, he has no control over himself. Dude knocked himself out trying to overcast some spell to restart that doll's heart."
Leo snorted, "That's the night we nicknamed him 'Blockhead'. While he was sleeping it off we got him a 'My Hero!' card, and had to pick a name to sign. She got named 'Lucy'".
A littel while later, Grunyon returns with the beer and wings. He can instantly could tell just by the look in Ace's eyes that the guys had spilled the beans and told the story. Then he saw that they had pulled up a chair next to Block's, and of course they had pulled Lucy out of her box. "I hate you all. Just for that, the wings are MINE ... and hers!"
"Because", then Block pauses to strike a dramatic pose, which happens to let Vril, Leo and Kuyper join him to say in unison, "... I am HER HERO, after all!"
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