I put my car into park, sitting comfortably in the wide parking spaces of a parking lot I had never visited before. Staring up at the bar in front of me, the neon Rooster advertised to the world that this was the best chicken ever made. I highly doubted that, but what this place did have was a Trivia night, which I had signed up for online to meet some new friends. I had been a bit lonely recently; I drifted away from my old friend group a few months ago, as some of them had left the state, and the rest partnered up leaving me as the odd one out. I didn't have too much money to dump on spare hobbies, so a free trivia night and beer sounded right up my alley, and worst case scenario I would just have an awkward night and try something else later.
I strolled into the bar and saw a few tables spaced out for the event, the one I was looking for had two men, which I spotted in the far corner. Strolling up I saw the pair a bit better having only had a blurry photo on the app to distinguish them. The larger man was Jack, who was impressively large, having a paunch to him with plenty of muscle to back it up, and a small amount of trimmed facial hair. Sitting next to him casually sipping a beer was Thomas. He was slender and looked roughly my age, which gave me hope that this would be a fun pair to hang out with. Extending my hand, I introduced myself.
"Hello, I'm William, you must be Jack and Thomas?"
The larger man grinned and took my hand in his, the size difference was enormous, with plenty of grip behind it.
"You would be correct, I can tell you're going to be a valuable member of the team," he said still grinning and put his hand down, after what felt like a bone breaking shake.
"And I am indeed Thomas," the younger man said, with a much less firm hand shake.
"I hope you don't mind but we already have a name picked out here, we've been going by the moniker ever since we started as a silly inside joke, it's Beary Creamy." Jack said with a bit of a sly grin.
"We'll I'm not one to rock the boat, I'm just hoping for a good night of trivia," I beamed, trying to put on a good impression.
The night went fairly well from there, I ordered the chicken, which did not live up to the hype, and a few beers. I learned through some conversation that Jack and Thomas were dating, and they had recently lost their third trivia partner, who was a powerhouse of sci-fi, movies, and comic book trivia. The men were both very friendly and easy to get along with, and if they didn't disclose their relationship status I would never have guessed. We dominated the night, ending up second place, and losing by only 10 points to the cockily named team, First Place Team. They had apparently been dominating this particular bar at trivia for months.
"We're going to beat their asses one day," Jack cursed playfully, "but we did significantly better with our new addition, he said smiling in my direction.
"True, we would have been lost in the video round, and I still have zero clue what a Dalek is, but that won us so many points." Thomas said cheerfully.
Before I could respond the announcer came by to take our picture, squeezing together at the table we grouped up before hearing a loud "CHEESE!" following by a flash and a gift certificate laid out with a congratulations.
Turning back towards Jack and Thomas I saw the certificate pushed towards me from Jack, "Consider this our welcoming present, we'd like to have you come back if you're interested."
"Of course, that was a blast, plus I need a reason to use the certificate. Can I get your guys' numbers'?" I asked, just glad to make a new pair of friends, even if I was the third wheel.
I collected both of their numbers, and was added to the group chat, also named Beary Creamy. We chatted throughout the week exchanging memes, and just general silliness. Jack was incredibly skilled at photography I found out, creating most of the memes he sent from original content. I gathered that he was a small business owner and content creator for some app, and Thomas had an unrelated office job in marketing. Thomas was very reserved, and never really joined in the conversations that much, giving maybe a thumbs up, or a laugh when he really enjoyed something. For the most part though the weekly texting was just Jack and I.
The following weeks played out much the same, we met up every Thursday and proceeded to come in second or third, passing around the certificate amongst the group when we won. I felt like I had really found some friends, even coming over for a movie night or two during the week.
This Wednesday played out much differently though...
Opening my phone I opened the Beary Creamy group chat, to find an odd notification, Thomas has left the group, the words sat there staring me in the face.
"Hey are we still on for Trivia? What happened to Thomas" I wrote, cringing internally hoping I wasn't right about the situation.
The response was quick, the three dots popping up at once.
"Hey I think I'm out this week, Thomas and I just split up, and I'm trying to figure some stuff out."
Jack's response confirmed exactly what I thought, brining my own turmoil of how to even handle this. I had never been great at this sort of thing.
"I'm sorry to hear that, let me know if there is anything I can do."
I left that there, not expecting any response back, and contemplating the idea that this was the last I would hear from either of them. It wouldn't be the first time someone retreated from the world after a breakup. Instead, I felt the familiar chiming and buzz of the phone in my hand; he was calling me.
"William, I don't really know how to say this, but if you are serious about the favor, I need an absolutely massive one."
Jack sounded, remarkably well considering the situation, his tone hinting at a bit more worry than anything.
"Sure, what's up Jack? Are you doing ok with Thomas leaving?"
"Yea, so that's what I need to talk to you about," Jack intentionally leaving a pregnant pause at the end.
"Thomas was less of a boyfriend and more of a business partner," he led, and after a deep breath resumed.
"So I run an OnlyFans account and Thomas was my friend and business partner... and he decided he wanted something different. I don't know where he went or what he's doing, but he blocked me everywhere so I'm in a bind right now."